fact is, its a tricky old business....

basically in the English folkscene we've all been treated like shit at one time or another.

theres a lot of intolerance around. not nearly so much as there used to be.

In the 1960's people would turn up to a folk concert and think it was all going to be simon and garfunkel and bob dylan and get fred Jordan and be pissed off.

In the 1970's people would jeer at you if you did a ramblin Jack Eliot song - I was jeered at at at preston folk club. Some bastard shouted - roll off buddy roll off!

this is all stuff I have witnessed. Its like all these people who pontificate about northern Ireland, if you haven't been there and been treated like shit - you don't understand. and that's why this thread is so many metres long.

theres so much bitterness in the English situation. So much name calling, dismissiveness of huge talents, standing on ground that isn't worth taking. and lets face it so much of our class system.

So many middle class types setting the agenda. its not a question of education. Its a question of pygmies in the wrong jobs at the BBC, the media, and on festival committees. bloody jokes - if only it were funny. An entire artform derailed by boring little assholes trying to work gigs up for themselves when they couldn't fill a bloody phonebox with people who want to see them and their dubious work.