folk musicians/singers are people who perform the music purely for personal pleasure & are not usually paid for their endeavours.

I get more pleasure if I'm getting a decent wedge. Unless it's a session, when that's something else altogether - and you leave the whole performance thing at home. Or when you're in a singaround - or running a singaround - and no one is better than anyone else, even if they think they are. No room for prima donnas, though there are plenty about...

Otherwise, I'm torn really. As a Storyteller you cruise the audience - and they cruise you - the energy is generated by the Shamanic vibe whereby the performer becomes a medium to another level of narrative healing & empowerment. As a Singer I feel the audience should really get over themselves and make some attempt to win you over. In either case you relate to a collective organism & you ride on the vibe of the whole, & it's always great fun, even if they hate you. It's totally democratic too - if three quarters of them hate you, it's the quarter who are most appreciative who you relate to. There's no sense of - oh, God - how do I win these people over? more a matter of it's their loss or pearls before swine. Fortunately, that seldom happens, but you still that old glass-half-empty thing from paternalistic organisers: Oh, half the audience didn't get it at all - as if that's some sort of a problem? As Ken Hyder once said we love you, you don't have to love us. Sometimes I feel folk just plummets to that lowest common denominator shit which I personally feel is best avoided. Life really is too short, you know? Hear no evil.

My favourite gigs are classical gigs; I go to hear music, like seeing Hesperion XXI with the late Montserrat Figueras in the choir of York Minster a few years back. That's my ideal really. Less Hot-pot; more Marmite. Or rock gigs; a few half muttered intros if you're lucky. The music's the thing. Shut up and play your guitar.

I still admire a decent MC though; I've tried MC-ing once and I hated it.