I suppose I was lucky - from being about eight years old - I went to quaker prayer meetings and I got used to being tolerant of all kinds of people giving their testimony. it was only when I got to be a snotty teenager, I stopped listening and tolerating,

To Jim Carroll - the saying that sustained me through many a dull sunday morning in Spalding quaker meeting house was from the sermon on the mount = matthew 6 judge not less ye be judged.

in the final analysis - what bloody difference can it possibly make if a person sings well or badly. people need to sing. sometimes a really technically lousy singer can teach you how a song should be sung.

when you get down to it. that's why hardly any people listen to folk music. they hear Carthy or one of his disciples and they are intolerant of something that doesn't sound like the x factor army. when we make so many demands on the public to adjust their ears to our music - we must lead by example, and try to tolerate those that come by chance into our tent.