"My twin daughters (in their 20s - Not old fogies at all) are demon knitters and lovers of traditional music. They love to combine the two. They often take their knitting to the pub too. They were bullied at school for being different. How is your ridiculing their actions any different from the type of bullying that you make such a stance against. Besides - How does knitting stop anyone from listening to music or watching the artist. Surely, as a woman, you understand multi-tasking? :-)

In addition, my wife has a condition which leaves her in great pain if the volume of any sound system (particularly the bass levels) is too high. She always needs ear plugs at the cinema and often needs them at concerts - depending of how high the sound man has cranked up the bass or where the speakers are positioned."



I also dislike folks who talk over artists.....

No, don't tell me, Dave, let me guess, you have someone in your family who suffers from a medical condition of Talkingitis, right? But they also love folk music and you dutifully take them along to every gig and plonk them in the front row, whilst putting your knitting daughters behind you and inserting ear plugs in for your wife, all at the same time as answering the incessant talking of your friend, whilst the music plays?

And...I dislike folks who read magazines or papers in front of artists (I was joshing about the Johnny Depp Appreciation booklet, obviously)

So do you have other members in your family who are compulsive magazine readers, needing to carry voluminous bunches of them at all times, regardless of where they may be, for they get Magazine Withdrawal Symptoms, causing them to shake and cry out for 'celebrities' from 'Eastenders' at all times?

Shite, HOW do you get to actually watch an act? I mean, inbetween untangling the knitting, threading the needles, answering the questions, inserting the ear plugs and dishing out newspapers and magazines galore..I mean truly, HOW do you get the time to even notice who's on stage? let alone keep track of what they're singing...of what they may have taken weeks/months to write, let alone appreciating all the stress they're going through of actually sitting or standing up on stage to sing their songs to their audience, who are now so hyperactive that every row is filled with people doing the strangest things, simply because they have to...

I have this wonderful picture in my head............


Oh, and by the way, I'd just like to tell you about Martyn Joseph...you know, that 'Singer Snogwriter' (their phrase) bloke they used to 'put down' at every opportunity, even deeming to mention his dolphin song on the fRoots main page, where they kick singer songwriters where it hurts most, in their talent...telling folks that fRoots do NOT accept Singer Snogwriters, or ARSSs as they used to call Show of Hands (who they now HAVE accepted, strangely)

Well, Martyn was doing a gig once, in Exeter. Half way through a song down wanders a Down's Syndrome lad....followed closely by his somewhat distraught and embarrassed father. The lad climbs on the stage and gives Martyn the biggest hug EVER! Martyn stops the song, hugs him back so hard...then the two of them sit on the front of the stage together, heads pressed towards each other, leaning into one another, whilst they both finished the song together...The most lovely display of love and affection I've seen in a long while. And I seem to recall the young lad stayed for the next song too. It made his evening, his week, possibly one of the best nights he's had...He was beaming when he left the stage to loud applause, absolutly beaming, bless him.

And of course, Martyn's song 'Dolphins Make Me Cry', so derided by fRoots and their followers, was zoomed all over Facebook during the Gulf Coast Disaster, when that tragic scene of dying dolphins covered in oil, desperately trying to stay together whilst they died, in the middle of the ocean, was finally released out into the internet..

He writes songs which move millions, yet he is derided for that by many within your world, Dave. I could mention many other such talented folks who have come in for the same treatment, but I won't.

And now, I'll leave you to invent yet more stories of my bullying, nasty, vindictive nature...as that's how you want folks to perceive me. Those who know me, know I am anything BUT that. Those who choose to believe you, can go to............as far as I'm concerned.

Thank you.