Tom Bliss

Bryan I give up. If you can't understand what I'm saying from all the words I've written above then you never will.

Tom, I have been involved in the folk scene for getting on for 40 years and I have been involved in running a folk club for 10+. I have been to many folk clubs and festivals. I know many of the great and good, both amateur and professional. I am reasonably bright and I am not being deliberately obtuse.

Despite that, I do not recognise the sort of folk scene you describe nor do I understand the point you are trying to make about the position of professionals.

For instance "In fact I'd hazard that 70-80% of the material I hear in clubs of both trad and mod hue across the land is directly attributable to a 'festival main stage' performer."

Not in my experience.

Sam Lee said he learnt the Mary Ann Haynes song from the CD with - Traveller's Joy: Songs of English and Scottish Travellers and Gypsies 1965-2005 recently published by EFDSS.

Yes, both it and the VOTP are commercial products because they need to be to be produced at all. I am pretty sure that the main motivation was to get the material into the public domain. I doubt if they made anybody rich.

I AM TALKING ABOUT THE NATIONAL PICTURE - not the Lewes Arms.

I am talking about the folk scene that I know which extends beyond the Lewes Arms which I don't think is that exceptional amongst traditionally biased clubs.

The folk scene that I am involved in is a social activity not the "folk indstry" or a commercial enterprise. I don't need a business plan to get together with my friends to share the music we enjoy.

Glad you came back, Tom. We really need to understand each other.