"For me, the sound archive is "the real stuff", and I would like more people to have access to and awareness of it. I would like the government to acknowledge traditional music and dance ... with status and funding. Admittedly, if more people got their hands on the music and songs they would be open to all sorts of interpretations, ... I would rather that than traditional music, dance and song be ... generally swept under the carpet."

Amen RuthA. Unfortunately, Sweeney's objections regarding the middle-class niche nature of interest in our collective folk heritage, reminds me somewhat of the BM's classic stance regarding the Elgin Marbles which runs a bit like: "Those wogs didn't give a damn about their heritage then, so why should we bestow such precious ancient artifacts upon smelly peasants who are clearly incapable of appreciating them?"

I know full well So'P doesn't think anything like this. But it's a fine line between saying the common man abandoned his traditional culture when the industrial revolution and the X Factor came along, to saying BECAUSE he now doesn't know anything about it, it's not worth offering it back to him to re-discover.