You may recall the character in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe who argued that black was white and got run over on a zebra crossing. If we accept that music is music is music we risk the same traffic-related accident.

I want a definition of traditional music which however robust it may be is tight enough that if I set up a traditional music club no-one turns up and plays the whole of Pettersson's 2nd Violin Concerto, and then has to say, 'Sorry. Wasn't that the sort of thing you wanted? It's all music, you know.'

By the same token, if I went to a concert to hear Alan Bush's B Minor Sonata I would not be happy (unless it had been clearly advertised as such) to hear it played on a kazoo.

If I go to hear Vaughan William's Wasps I don't get out my spoons and start playing them with a merry shout of 'But VW is folk, you know!'

If I went to hear Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance I would sit through No 1 in silence UNLESS I were at the last night of the proms.

My point is that we respect classical music as a generally identifiable form with its own conventions, and accept that its adherents have the right to enjoy these conventions without undue interference.

So why do we 1954ers get spoken of as if we are musical fascists when we claim that traditional music has its own integrity as a separate form?