This thread is hilarious....

I am completely bemused as to why some people will sit (have sat?) here criticising people they have never met, because they offended someone else that they have never met in a place where they weren't in the first place.

Just a quick point -

One of the 'cool as folk brigade' did offer a 'sorry we didn't realise, I'll buy you a beer next time' response to the original post (much) earlier in the thread but nobody seemed to notice... I got the impression that everyone was too busy being outraged...

I'm also quite amused by all of these patronising posts about 'our music', 'music of the people' etc etc. My experience of people who say things like this is that they are usually people who have discovered folk music later on in life, understandably fall in love with it and are very precious about it. This is all great, but it feels completely different when you are born in to it... personally I've danced since I could walk and folk is such a completely ingrained part of my life there is simply no question of whether I'm going to 'carry it on' or not. I don't play and dance because I feel I have a responsibility, I do it because I can't imagine not doing it. And for the record, I don't think I have a responsibility - as previously stated, folk is 'music of the people', therefore following that logic it belongs to whoever is playing it in that moment. I haven't played the fiddle for months (for various reasons) but it doesn't mean I'm not a folkie any more... it's not what I do, it's who I am, and so it lives on. Having said that I do think it is important to preserve the old traditions, tunes, dances etc, but the whole beauty of folk music is that it is a changing entity - just because it belongs to everyone it doesn't mean everyone has to play it the same way.

Anyway.. I digress...

I also know the young rascals in question and I think they're lovely :) Don't judge people by what you read about them, by what someone else said, or better still - at all.

I would also like a free T shirt, and one for my baby ;o)

Love Cat xxx

P.S. I found a good quote today. Can't remember who it's by. It said 'Talking about music is like dancing about nuclear physics'.