glueman - I used to. Then I started to get a bit tired of 'folk' nights that were 20% trad, 20% Richard Thompson/John Martyn/Hank Williams and 60% I-wish-I-could-be-Richard Thompson/John Martyn/Hank Williams. Then I started going to singarounds, which were 90% trad - and I found them much more enjoyable and, oddly enough, much more varied. At that point I began to feel that I'd been missing out.

Ron: I truly believe that our communities and traditions have evolved since 1954, and as the esteemed commmittee recognized, it is a "living tradition".

Do you sing while you work? Do your workmates? Do you sing at home to relax? When your friends or family want some music of an evening, do they suggest having a few songs?

The oral tradition - and the 1954 definition - is about communities and societies where people can, by and large, answer Yes to all four. Those conditions may still obtain in some parts of the world, but they certainly don't in Britain or the US. Folkies pass songs along, but that doesn't make us a community. We're singing, but we're not the folk.