Thank you for that, Sandra - I hadn't come across the review before. Please give my best to John when you see him.

Also thanks to everyone for the comments.

Valmai: my previous Lewes ballad forum did indeed host the public debut of 'Sir Aldingar', although it wouldn't be quite accurate to say I learned the ballad speicfically in order to use it in that workshop. More because it's a fantastic, gothic story, and because no-one else was doing it (this was before I knew that Chris Foster was working on it independently, using a different tune and quite a lot of different words).

Nigel: full marks for spotting the 'Camembert Electrique' shirt hidden behind the guitar (it glows in the dark as well!). There's a surprising number of Gong freaks lurking on the folk scene, y'know.