Will,
"and put it to her, quietly and privately, that she doesn't cut the mustard."
Just a quick note - we're still bringing our stuff back into the house from the fallout shelter - put there in case McCaine had won the election (so nobody takes that last comment seriously - feeble as it was - it was a joke).
I have to say that throughout all the workshops we helped to run we NEVER had to give up on anybody - though we did have to work harder on some than on others and we can never claim to have produced virtuoso singers.
One bloke came to us totally unable to hold a tune; really desperate.
He had a wonderful sense of humour; he announced that the first song he ever sang for us was entitled Chevy Chase (one of the longest in the repertoire) and then watched the relief in our faces as he sang Bobby Shaftoe.
At one stage his brother told us "You're wasting your time - you'll never get our Gordon to sing in tune".
We worked with him for months and eventually had a break-through and got him singing in perfect tune.
His brother presented us with a book in gratitude "Don't have to listen to the bugger torturing and murdering songs any more".
He never became a 'great' singer, but it would be nice to think he was still singing.
Will respond in full later later - work calls.
Jim Carroll