I'll declare my interest - I have left a ceilidh band which threatened to take a drum machine to a dance after our drummer retired. I don't think I'm a luddite as I used to play bass by sticking my guitar through an Octaver pedal - ideally I'd have liked a 6 string/bass double necker, but that was waiting till I was rich and famous.

I don't think that a drum machine is up to the challenge unless you've got someone operating it - dance music only appears to be constant tempo - you have to respond to the dancers, and there's no point forcing the tempo if the dancers can't keep up, or lagging behind if you're playing a crowd of drunken tear-arses.

I have seen them work on stage for non-dance performances, the Handsome Family, and I think there was somebody else, probably Sammy Mitchell. I look forward to the day when the technology reaches an acceptable standard.