Al, you're still blaming trad. folkies for problems that you've identified. I can think of no other group of music fans who are so consistently vilified for following their own tastes.

When you were attending Roy Harper's gig in Cambridge, I was living in Peterborough nearby and attending Peterborough Folk Club. Through that club I discovered trad. folk song and the music of Ewan MacColl. To me, at that time, I thought that MacColl was the greatest and most electrifying singer that I had ever heard - and I was particularly struck by his interpretation of traditional songs. If, at that time, you had offered me the choice of attending Harper's gig in Cambridge for free or spending a week's wages to go down to London to hear MacColl sing I would have chosen the latter without any hesitation. When I moved to Manchester, in the early 1970s, I joined a traditionally based club, many of whose members were also MacColl fans - and they made me very welcome. Now, nearly 40 years later, I still love traditional folk song and it's still part of my life.

It may disappoint you to hear that, at no point in all of that time, have I ever woken in a cold sweat, sat bolt upright in bed, and thought to myself: "Oh my God! By following my tastes I'm putting guitar-based singer-song writers out of business!I'd better ditch all that pernicious old traddy nonsense and bring my tastes up to date!"