WLD: "What I find really distressing is the folk establishment. The way it looks down on musicians who do other gigs than folk clubs.... when you suggest some people as guests to certain organisers and radio djs, you get a very snotty ....oh yes I've heard of them - they do pubs...as though they've sold their souls to the devil."

Working musicians get gigs wherever they can find them, and I can think of a few successful acts playing major festivals who have served their apprenticeships on the pub circuit (especially 'Irish' pubs) in Britain and Europe. On the other hand pub gigs don't tend to encourage more challenging material, sensitive interpretations, or fine musicianship, so if an act is working *mostly* on the pub circuit then they might not be best suited to, say, Sidmouth festival. But the idea that an organiser or DJ would go checking whether an act had played pubs before deciding whether to promote them is pretty fanciful.