The trouble is, WLD, I don't know Al Whittle, I only know weelittledrummer through your postings on Mudcat. It seems they must be two entirely different people since weelittledrummer gives the impression that he wouldn't be caught dead in a folk club. Do those who know you chuckle when you describe them as "middle class types with a superiority complex" and heckle them for not being able to tune their guitars or remember their words without reading them from an exercise book?

I don't usually take much notice of you these days but the opportunity to point out that you and Jim were giving diametrically opposite reasons for the (alleged) absence of audiences. According to Jim, people were driven out of folk clubs decades ago by people like you and according to you, people are being driven out of folk clubs by people like Jim. I'd like to be there if you meet.

Jim has done marvellous work in the past for which we owe him an enormous debt but he seems to be somewhat out of touch with what's happening in clubs these days.

If Tootler "could go to a folk club within reasonable driving distance of Middlesbrough, where I live, every night of the week" and you go to a three or four clubs a week, it sounds as if they are thriving. I generally only manage two a week but then I go to a lot of sessions which are attracting an increasing number of young people.

I must say, it's curious to be described as "permanently pissed off" by WLD.