I'm with you, CS.

If you go back to my original post, I deliberately didn't personalise it and tried to concentrate on a particular style which I am not very fond of rather than specific performers. In subsequent posts I perhaps went a bit over the top with irony and 'dramatic exaggeration' - but that's just my sense of humour.

And, it bears repeating, there's a big difference between personal attacks and genuine criticism.

'Borchester Echo' expresses some of my frustrations very neatly: "[ML2's opinion that, "most of the moaners do not actually play or perform themselves"] has precious little to do with "unaccompanied trad groups" which the OP somewhat improbably believes to be thin on the ground when actually you can't step without falling over them."

It's probably the all-pervasiveness of the bellowing, dirgey harmony groups, and their influence, that irritates me the most - I could probably cope with the odd one or two.