"Bella Hardy; Devil's Interval; Lisa Knapp; Kerfuffle; Last Orders; Damien O'Kane and Shona Kipling; Spiers and Boden, Mawkin:Causley,; Hekety/Crucible have all served their time. "

Interesting, why do you say that? Amongst the people you've listed, there are a few who are amongst the hardest working people around, a couple who do a reasonably large amount of gigs, and a few who have most certainly not "served their time" in any accepted sense (one of whom you can count the amount of professional gigs on the fingers of one hand). Its amazing what a little publicity will do for you...

The only people you mentioned who don't have jobs other than gigs are Spiers and Boden, and up until a couple of years ago John Spiers was still managing The Music Room in Oxford at the same time as touring.