So I guess I don't really recognise the picture that's being painted of authoritarian traddies shoving singer songwriters on the flames and dancing round their burning corpses.

It's not a picture I've come across in my occasional perambulations around the country, to be honest - and never on the part of organisers of clubs, sessions, etc., who, on the whole, have been very tolerant of my nonsense. I have to say, however, that I've met one or two dogmatic and self-important characters from time to time who've insisted that "A" can only be played in the style of "X" and no variations are allowed. Tosh, of course, but you do meet them now and then...