You know, Diane loved a good scrap. What she hated was bullshit. What she would absolutely loathe if she were here to see it is the sickening fawning of MLC. So in her own words:

"What you refuse to understand is that Beer & Knightley just want you to SHUT UP. What they don't mind is criticism as long as it is informed and music-based. They understand that many (myself among them) far prefer some of their other projects to SoH which continues to strike me as over-produced and a tad bombastic. For this reason I have never seen a SoH set but wish them well and hope they make a living. I've never even met Steve K and have encountered Mr Beer only vaguely at a workshop. Thus, I neither "love" nor "hate" them but have come to admire them as people for enduring so bravely all the shit that MLC hurls their way. Do grow up, fuck off and LEARN SOMETHING before spouting any more drivel."

" 'Diane and I have been joking'

I am not joking. Nor was Phil Beer. Nor Eliza Carthy. Nor many others who don't (yet) say what they think about the embarrassment they suffer from MLC's destructive drivel so very publicly. Music fora are for exchanging information; they are not crazed fanzines. I come here to seek and to impart information on songs and tunes, not to see distasteful crap about "boysies". "

She said a lot more, and a lot more strongly, both in PMs and on threads over the years, but know this: Diane could not stand Lizzie Cornish. She loathed her. And there is nothing that would make her turn in her grave more than this self-serving, attention-seeking post-mortem fawning. Diane would have told MLC to fuck off in no uncertain terms. And I don't care if it makes mods or anyone else uncomfortable: as she isn't here to do it for herself, I am doing it for her.

Wherever you are, Diane: give 'em hell. I'm sorry we all let you down. xx