I'm reminded of something, though not really folk-related..

While Christmas shopping in John Lewis in December last year, we rested from the insane scrum in the cafe.

An unprepossessing young singer plugged in an acoustic guitar, and started sing-mumbling a few songs, with rudimentary strumming accompaniment. She sang some wince-inducingly flat notes and fluffed several chords. I vaguely recognised one of the songs as being an awful, just-about-recognisable cover of an 80s hit.

Still, I thought, being generous, the monitor system probably wasn't that marvellous. She probably couldn't hear herself that well, and anyway, she was probably a jobbing student, being paid peanuts to entertain shoppers in a department store on a pre-Christmas Saturday afternoon. A few more open mic slots and she'd probably nail those songs and develop a bit of charisma.

About a week later I realised that it had been Gabrielle Aplin, and she'd been no.1 in the pop charts at the time. I must admit, even for a jaded old cynic like me, I did find that rather depressing.