Are you really saying that folk clubs were full of young people inspired by Donovan? Donovan???? I reckon most people had better taste.

Al, you have just ranted against 200 year old songs and dance music only good enough for PTA's. Are you really saying "They call me mellow yellow " is better?

As I remember it at the time, went to folk clubs because it was possible to have a good time listening and singing along. You could always chat to the artist in the bar - and they were delighted to pass on their expertise. People at the folk clubs I went to were delighted to have people like Jeannie Robertson and later her daughter to listen to. Maggie Barry who drank pint bottles of Guinness, Willie Scott who had the most wicked sense of humour. I count myself priveliged to have listened to these great artists.

Oh! and meeting members of the opposite sex in convivial circumstances was a big influence.

In Manchester we went back to Terry Whelan's and got two big pans of curry and rice and sat around chatting and putting the world to rights from a left-wing point of view.

In Hull people often came back to our house and drank. Those that were there will remember why! And they developed their relationships with the opposite sex. We went to Bill Cowley's farm at Potto and had a ceilidh in a barn with the High Level Ranters.

We partied, ceilidhied, walked, some went climbing and so on. We never discussed Donovan and the meaning of mellow yellow.

And a vast number of the people I knew from those days still love the music.

I am happy to start listening to the young. But it depends on which young.