Ah, well, the unspoken bit in all this is the fun element. For many of us the impetus for playing is the music itself and the joy associated with making it. Quite often the cash is a secondary consideration and, in my early days, we'd do gigs for peanuts - just for the hell of it and to feed our juvenile egos!

This still goes on in places like Brighton, where I've heard of bands actually paying pubs to play, simply to get the exposure. But that's not really the ceilidh scene.