"Not really .....we just can't understand how you can be so blind as to think SOS is the folkmusic of England."

As someone who spends an awful lot of time listening to the folk music of England, Al, I feel pretty qualified to make my own judgements, thank you. My eyes are wide open.

"there isn't another voice like Una's of NFA on the folkscene."

There isn't another voice on the folk scene like Jackie's, either. From a purely personal point of view, I would rather listen to Jackie. And you know what, Al? That's all any of this is - collective personal tastes, not one person or band necessarily being "better" than another. Those kinds of qualitative absolutes are meaningless when it comes to artistic expression.

I remember your rant on the YFA thread, where you were quite abusive about some of the entrants and the winners. You seemed to genuinely begrudge these kids the opportunities they were getting - and like it or not, the subtext was "Me and my mates have never had these opportunities, why should these kids get them? We're MUCH better than they are." But that is the cumulative effect of a lot of sour grapes, I'm afraid. And the thing is, life ain't fair. Some people get opportunities, others don't. That's just the way it is.

I'd like to offer a bit of advice. There are an awful lot of people who read this forum; not all of them contribute. If you think that the sort of campaign you've waged on behalf of some of the bands you champion is a good way of getting them gigs, I may have to disagree. No one likes being told that their taste is shit, or that they MUST book someone, or being generally abused and harangued, or seeing some performers being repeatedly obnoxious about other performers and insisting that only the bands that they like are any good. This approach may well do yourself and the bands you champion more harm than good, because the business isn't just about what you put on stage, it's about people that are easy and affable to work with. Given the huge weight of very talented people who ask me for gigs, for example, am I likely to book someone who I think is going to be a difficult, miserable git? Well - would you?

Just something to think about.