'It was pure, intense pleasure - as intense as anything I'd experienced down the club & much more sustained.'

ah yes! but it was it pure aesthetic like Matthew Arnold experienced when watching young girls perform gymnastics?

I'm sure you are quite sincere {hil, but take it from a couple of wily old birds like Musky and myself - all is not quite what it seems.

There are some quite wonderful interpreters of trad song, try brian Peters, and John Kelly, Dave Fetcher, Tim Laycock. people who look for fresh ways to tell the old stories.

But one's affinity with a particular brand of music doesn't excuse anyone from the obligations of being an artist. this isn't a football match where you go and support your team how ever crap they perform. there's a lot of snobbery and acceptance of not terribly entertaining work.....

anyway stick around a few years longer and you'll experience it yourself