Edgware
Maybe the the 'D' in the EFDSSS should have given you a clue that you would be due an invasion from 'parasites' if you hung around such places.

Marje
'Some of them do the club circuit, some don't; but I am pretty sure that without the chance to play at big venues that can afford a decent fee, many of them wouldn't survive as professionals.'

A lot of us find the narrow definitions of the traditionalists quite frankly an insult to our intelligence. Folk music that alienates most of the population and folk dances that only diehard enthusiasts perform - a minute portion of the population - is patently a nonsense. A surreal middle class fantatsy - well subsidised - we all know how the middle classes take care of their own.

What we have to do, is go out and become jobbing musicians. We play the music which ordinary people demand - wherever its needed. Supply and demand. And that's when we really learn about 'folk' music.