My email to Simon Cornes at the BBC:


>>>>>Dear Simon,

My name is Lizzie Cornish and a few years back I started a 'live' messageboard thread for Folkwaves, on the BBC Radio 2 Folk & Acoustic Board.

Each Monday evening many of us would 'tune in' to the F&A board to listen live, around the world...folks from Canada and Florida joined in with me, as well as folks from all over the UK.

I'd recently become an English Folk Music convert, nay, GROUPIE, (lol), after finding this amazing music via a great band called Show of Hands, who of course now so often headline at every major folk festival in the UK, during the summer months.

Through them I dared to dip my toe into the waters of English Folk, because they removed the 'trainspotter' image of it, making it funky and fun...

Through them I also started to discover the heritage of The West Country..

I started to dip my toe in further, and the deeper I dipped the more amazed I became at some of the most beautiful music I'd ever heard. It was music that told of our traditions, as a Nation and a People..a living, moving, breathing History which brought the Past right out into the Present..

Well, I found John Tams, who of course, has won countless Radio 2 Folk Awards, as have Show of Hands..and through John I also discovered Barry Coope and....from there, the fabulous Coope Boyes & Simpson, with of course, Lester Simpson, who hosts Folkwaves, along with Mick Peat...

So, I gave their show a listen..and BOY!! did I LEARN oooodles of interesting information, alongside hearing some spectacular music, learning more about the traditions of my country, the history, the people..

I realised that I was listening to a radio programme that was incredibly special...and so I started the 'live' link-up on the Radio 2 Folk & Acoustic Board....

Within weeks the Folkwaves Thread had become the biggest thread on that board...and we even got a 'Listen Again' button added to Folkwaves, which Mel, the Smooth Ops host of that board, told us about, with great delight, knowing how pleased everyone would be.

It was something that had never happened before...this 'live' universal listening around the globe to Mick and Lester's show...and 'Ay Up Me Duck' became a national treasure phrase...as we'd all sit there listening to the many folk meetings, dances, festivals etc, which were taking place around the Derbyshire area...

It was such great fun, an absolute joy!

And then..Smooth Ops closed down the Folkwaves thread, saying their computer could no longer take the vast amount of messages on it..which of course was not true. But Folkwaves was turning into a Phenomenon, outstripping Smooth Ops own Mike Harding Show by miles..

Lester and Mike became our heroes..informing and igniting folks around the world to come together in their love of beautiful music and a grand sense of humour..

Now, I hear that Radio Derby has, for some extraordinary reason, decided to end Folkwaves, forever..

Why?

The word on the street, from the BBC is that you have to move with the times, focus on a new audience, make things more popular....and yet you already HAVE one of, if not THE MOST POPULAR folk radio programme in the country!

Why would you choose to destroy that?

Folk music is so much on the up at the moment. It's been growing for years and years, but now it's breaking through the wall that has been placed around it for decades. Many of our best musicians, singers and artists are within this talented world...It is a whole Movement! Our folk festivals sell out around the country, year upon year..bringing in tens of thousands of people to towns all over the nation.

It's a vibrant, colourful, rainbow world of talent..and one which I love with all my heart!

Heck, I wrote 15,000 words alone on the very first Sidmouth Folk Week a few years back, after Sidmouth International Festival had closed down..doing a 'live' write in on the F&A board as well.

To throw away one of the best and most popular folk programmes in the country makes no sense to me, or to the many thousands of people who've come together to try to save Folkwaves.

It's far more than a Programme, Simon...Folkwaves is a Community!

I've watched, over the past two decade or more, my country become lost...separated from its traditions, its history, its roots..and it has made me so desperately sad and worried...

Yet, these past few years I've also watched many people within the Folk World working their butts off to preserve those very traditions, the songs, the dances, the stories of the English People.

Ireland, Scotland and Wales are so PROUD of who they are, of their roots, but we are seemingly not allowed to be...and instead of protecting what we have left, we seem to be hellbent on wiping it out completely.

Folkwaves is a show run by intelligent and inspirational men, talented singers and musicians who are passionate, absolutely passionate about their passion...and Coope Boyes and Simpson, along with John Tams, Show of Hands and all the very many, many others work *their* backsides off to spread the word, the songs, the heritage of us all, to as many folks as they can reach.

Derbyshiire had 'a place on the map' in the International Marketplace of Radio, purely *because* of Folkwaves...

There have been petitions, letters, phone calls, threads on many music boards and even a Facebook page with hundreds of people rushing to sign up, all in a huge effort to save this wonderful programme.

Therefore, I urge you, from the bottom of your hearts, up at Radio Derby to reconsider your decision and save this programme for future generations who at present know so little of their past.

Yes, I'm passionate about Folkwaves, you bet I am! And one of the reasons is that I've learned such a lot from it..and I'm absolutely bloody passionate about Educating UP rather than this terrible Dumbing DOWN that has been such a huge part of our nation for so very long...

PLEASE, those within Radio Derby, PLEASE, PLEASE look again at this terrible decision...BE strong and proud, oh so PROUD of having THE BEST folk programme on the Planet...

Protect it!
Treasure it!
and most of all...
LOVE IT...

Love it as much as the rest of us do, out here!

With love and gentle smiles to you all, and with all my fingers and toes crossed that just for once, the *right* decision will be made by men and women who really do have the inner strength to recognise something very, very special within their programming.

Lizzie :0) <<<<


And if Mick and Lester ever get to read this, then THANK YOU for such a wonderful programme. We all love you dearly and will miss you like mad, but I'm sure that everyone here would wish you both much love and happiness for the future..and I sure as hell hope that maybe Simon reads his emails and Thinks Again!

Lizzie xxx