Well I know where one (12-year old) is - she's up in her bedroom and having ditched the cello and violin for guitar and keyboard is inventing her own tunes, chord sequences and shapes, creating amazing sounds and singing at the top of her voice. Despite being brought up in a folk environment, however, that's not her preferred style. She's just finished appearing in a wonderful local production of Les Miserables but isn't interested in performing solo yet.

Let's face it, folk does not, generally, attract - or even welcome - youngsters. Who, at that age, would want to get embroiled in the 'what is folk', accompanied v unaccompanied, trad. v singer/songwriter debacles that tear our potentially wonderful musical scene apart? I'm totally pissed off with it myself and with many of the old farts (I can say that because I'm 63) who thnk they have ownership of it, to the the extent that I rarely go to clubs these days and to only 1 or 2 local festivals. So how can I expect my daughter to want to take part? She's got her own agenda and is loving it.