I write in my personal capacity, not in any way respresenting the Kent Gathering committee.

If anyone's reading this thread, and can't understand why Mr Grumpy and Surreysinger seem to be talking to themselves, it's because I've failed to include my name at the top of my posts. Many of the well-made points I contributed to the debate are lost.

In summary, they were:

- I thanked Mr Grumpy for his constructive comments and particularly liked the idea of a Kent song workshop. However, I felt someone should deal with some of Mr Grumpy's more misleading points.

- The session 'corner band' was Florida, a well known local dance band that has been playing music derived from traditional sources in the county for nearly 20 years, and whose members have individually been playing this music in the county for nearly three decades each.

- Two of the five of us use small 10-20 Watt practice amps, not 135 Watt 'Twin Reverbs'. The recordings reveal that the electric instruments were not very loud - in fact they erred on the quiet side. We took up no more space than five other musicians might - no seat was occupied by gear. We didn't take up a lot of space and we don't use a lot of electric instruments - we may have been noisy but by my arithmetic we were predominantly unamplified and acoustic.

- To be fair to those who had travelled to be at the event, songs from beyond Kent's borders were absolutely welcomed at the session. However, Kentish songs were well represented by George Frampton, Andy Turner, Paul Cowdell, Roger Resch, myself and others.

- There were several adult stepdancers and only one young stepdancer present, and she was excellent. If there are steppers around they should have a board, and it would be disruptive to keep moving it.

- The heating in the Memorial Hall was switched on ten minutes before the stepdancing workshop, however it was not uncomfortably cold for a dance workshop, and by the afternoon it was very adequately heated for the concert.

- Anyone who wishes to see the programme can do so at the Kent Gathering website. They may also find the photos interesting!

- The question of whether or not to invite Morris teams raises interesting issues, not least when one thinks how crowded the pub became! We were very pleased to have the St Nicholas at Wade Hoodeners, however.

- And I agree with Surreysinger that the Volunteer style of session is a good one. In fact, it's my favourite format for these things. Led well, it can be noisy one minute and intimate the next. Effective chairing keeps the pace up, makes the most entertaining use of the variety of performers available and calls for order when it's needed.

And now, believe it or not, I have more work to do!

Gavin, speaking entirely for himself!