It must make Dave Swarbrick's gigging a little better than it used to be. Some while back in the smoking days when I last saw him play with Martin Carthy in York everyone had to be asked NOT to smoke as otherwise he would be unable to perform (or breathe for that matter).

I feel really sorry for people who are stuck with smoking - it's an addiction which I know I found very difficult to stop (first thing in the morning it used to be the untipped Gitanes hanging out of the window to get the nicotine levels up as my wife preferred me not to smoke in the bedroom). I personally don't care whether people smoke or not but I much prefer a non smoking environment now I have got used to it and wouldn't wish to go back. Perhaps a measure of the hold that smoking has on people and why they are so keen to do anything to be able to satisfy their addiction is illustrated by the following - when my father was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1965 he went and had his lung removed at Brompton Hospital. The people there were all there with cigarette related lung problems suffering from cancer or advanced emphysema etc My father related to me a story about how one of the people who had had his leg amputated because of the circulatory problems he had would still manage to drag himself (fairly literally) off to the toilets so that he could sneak a quick smoke of a cigarette.