Blimey! Well, after just putting out my eighth album of original songs of course I'm going to disagree about the ten good songs - I don't generally plan to put out rubbish songs when I record. I'm fairly sure I could list quite a few other songwriters who have written more than ten (Jez Lowe, Pete Morton, Jim Woodland, Leon Rosselson, Robb Johnson, Mike O'Connor, James Keelaghan ...that's just off the top of my head).

Let's not go overboard with the generalisations!

I'm not having a go at Les (and I'm looking forward to playing Faldingworth Live! later this year), or Barbara, or Dick. However, as the acoustic open mic clubs appear to be thriving (and, as I said above, there are several in Cardiff where folk club activity is thin on the ground) it can't be a universal problem of the young singer-songwriter failing to pull the crowds in.

Anne