JohnCharles wrote: `It is a great hobby,making music with friends,and entertaining like minded folk. The error is in trying to maintain that it is somehow central to British culture'

Saw this quoted above by another poster. I'd argue that the assertion that 'amateur music making and sharing is not central to British culture', is false. Pretty much every person I know has some kind of musical instrument. I'd say a good half of the pople I've known in my life - NOT including 'folkies' - have played some kind of (principally self-taught) instrument, the overwhelming majority being acoustic guitar, but others have included; piano, violin, djembe, concertina, viol, cello, saxophone, didgeridoo, electric bass, drums, ukelele, flute, keyboards and harp. DIY music making continues to be a key aspect of British culture, and working-class British culture at that. While acapella singing in the traditional folk sense has arguably all but disappeared from popular British culture, in it's stead there does exist a modern tradition of performing vocally without instrumental accompaniment, in the form of rap. Unlike Rob, many folkies on this board possibly tend to remain in folkie land, which is not where the majority of popular British culture is to be found; that is to be found everywhere outside of folkiebubble land.