"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."



Well, I thought about it, and it took me back to that somewhat now infamous time on the BBC board, when the author of those very words above stated she'd rather stick pins in her eyes than listen to the music of Show of Hands, without one single thought for the musicians involved, or for the somewhat abusive message that was being put out to others about their music.

>"I may have to disagree. No one likes being told that their taste is shit..."<

Absolutely. And that's why I've been standing up for all the musicians whose music I love, for years and years now, despite being told my taste is 'shit' by some of the very people in here who are criticising Al for it.

Back to Hypocrites R Us, I guess.


I'm also in agreement with Al.

Good luck to all who won their Awards this year, and for all the other years too. This argument is *nothing* to do with their talent, skills or anything else. It is to do with the way the whole system is run.

When I first found Folk Music, BOY! was I excited!! Then, I found they had a Folk Awards! And I got even MORE excited! I sang it's praises to the rooftops, I watched it on BBC4, wrote about it on the BBC board, etc..etc..etc..

Then, I started to notice something over the years..and that was how the same artists kept getting nominated year, after year, after year.....Not only that, but often, the same people kept on winning, year after year. This was all deemed PERFECTLY acceptable until that other now infamous happening, when Show of Hands WON the first ever Public Vote, for 'Best Live Act'.

Oh dear me. :0(

Show of Hands had 'got in under the radar' as Ian Anderson described artists who 'they' deemed unacceptable to the 'folk world'...

Suddenly, the system was changed, within DAYS! The slurs started, written by er...one particular Princess on here, allegations that the Show of Hands fans had 'fixed' the vote. Ha! They'd simply voted, in their thousands, because......there are THOUSANDS of them. But that suddenly wasn't allowed, because, as the BBC host, Mel, said, 'they'd just keep winning the Public Vote year after year'....and she also stated that the only person who'd be happy about that would be me.

She was wrong actually. I'd not have wanted that to happen, neither, I'm sure, would Show of Hands. All they had to do was ensure that no artist/s could win the public vote two years running. Problem solved.


So, let me get this straight. Show of Hands, and anyone else 'outside the radar' are NOT allowed to win Awards year after year, but those INSIDE the 'radar' ARE?

OKKKKKKKKKKKKKay!

I asked who the judges were. Ian Anderson was one. Not a clue who the others were, or are, to this day. I pointed out how deeply unfair it was to have a judge who had 'radar' around his little world of accpeted acts. Needless to say, this wasn't liked much, and I fast went from being Smooth Ops Darling, to their biggest enemy.

I also stated that the Folk Awards were the ONE time when the folk world can help an amazing amount of artists in their careers, get their names out to others. Why then were the same artists not only nominated year after year, but were, and still are, nomimated in MANY categories?

Why not have it so that one artist gets one nomination. The other nominations get shared around other artists in a fair and measured fashion.

They also should get shared around artists who are OUTSIDE the radar.

For way too long the Folk World has been stitched up by a cosy little group of people, who regard themselves as Big Fish in a Small Pond, and no way are they EVER going to let go of their positions, and their self-important, supercilious, sneeringly superior attitude to others.

Al is dead right. He always has been. And many of his posts hit home to these people, and they hit home hard! They don't like it, same as they don't like my posts either.

I've worked out how it all works over these years, and you know something, it stinks.

That is why I have no interest in the Folk Awards any longer. It's also why I have no respect whatsoever for Smooth Ops. And as far as writing to the BBC goes, Dave..people should save their ink, because they truly don't give a shite.

The Folk Awards are pretty much a private party for the Selected Ones, who come inside the radar of the Traddie side of folk. It's all they want it to be. You can see, from the various ways that singer songwriters are spat on by the same few people, that it won't ever change.

Of course, these people also tell us over and again, how intelligent and intellectual they all are, how much they know, how expert they are, yadda yadda yadda...without realising two important and very obvious facts.

1. TRUE Intellectuals *never* beat their own chests, calling themselves by that very name, or delighting in shoving down people's throats that they know FAR MORE than *you* do. Why? Because they're too darn busy helping others to learn, whilst never choosing to belittle them in any way whatsoever.

I have a lot of respect for the True Intellectuals, and Shit All for the Up Their Own Arses types who have a degree on paper which to me is worth nowt, because they have no degree in their heart.

2. The first man whoever hummed his tune, sang his song, wrote his words about what was happening around him about his love, his woes, was the very first Singer Songwriter.

Folk music has all to do with Singer Songwriters, and not those who have put their music and words under microscopes, so they can use their knowledge as weapons against others.

Without our Singer Songwriters, there would be NO folk awards, no traditional world, no Cecil Sharp House, no Folk World at all really.


I suggest the Folk Awards renames itself The Singer Songwriter Awards, because that way, it will be an honest representation of the very people who brought this music to life, and who, to this day, are keeping that Tradition going, just as Al Whittle is doing, just as No Fixed Abode are doing too.

Al's Myspace

No Fixed Abode's myspace

Al writes some great songs, and he knows how to deliver them too.

Listen to Una's voice, and tell me why they're not considered for Folk Awards too? Ashley Hutchings obviously thinks that they're pretty damned good, as he's playing on their CD.

So yes, I can perfectly understand how angry Al feels, because I feel exactly the same, but....I haven't been trying to get into a closed world as he, and countless others have been trying to do for so very long.

Thank Heavens that there are people like Al around to shout from the rafters about the Injustices that have been happening within the English Folk World for so very long.

Lizzie