Malcolm,
I played whitby as a booked guest,with my ex wife, Sue, the year you took over, funny you cant remember, because you said to me you couldnt pay my expenses[ 80 pounds] the first year because you hadnt done well financially, this was after we had worked all week,found our own accomodation[staying with jon and angie barker in whitby], to spare you expense]
i subsquently played for you in the 1990s, possibly 1996, when you put our accomodation way out of town[ something i did not think was very suitable] considering we had travelled from ireland by public transport and had two small children with us, so we had to push our shopping great distance up hills to our self catering out of town house, another reason it was not suitable, was that you expected me to perform in concerts after walking fair distances in the pissing rain, a classic example of an organiser expecting professionalism from a performer, but not being professional in their own organisation., to be fair to you I think this was one of the few occasions when you were not professional, most people are of the opinion that overall you ran the festival in a professional way
this was the year you shouted abuse at me while i was playing cricket against you, calling me a wanker, you clearly have a selective memory.
   i was involved in the late seventies with the starting of the singaround in the[then] cutty sark, it was the idea of a number of people who were not entirely happy with the singaround in the drill hall,these were, chris timson, ann gregson, all the wilson family, myself,possibly colin cater, pete stephenson, john knight.
i played with my ex wife, Sue, before you took over 1978,79, 80 and we were well received by audiences and treated well by the organiser.
overall, I think you did a good job in running the festival successfully for many years.