Not my experience at all, PFR - as it happens. Most of the people who book us for dancing really want their evening to go with a swing and want to involve as many people in the dance as possible - which usually happens in ceilidhs. As I said earlier, the dances we do bring both sexes and all age groups together. Men dancing with women, men with men and women with women - young and old. Sometimes very proficient, sometimes making complete arses of themselves, and yet having fun. And we always get lots of compliments on the music we play - very often from people who's first real experience of "folk music" is hearing us playing it in their faces, and who are quite surprised as to how good it can sound.

Many of the people who book us also have very definite ideas of what they want and specify "lots of Scottish music" or even name particular dances that they want called.

So my cup is half full, not half empty. By the way, I also think that too much money is spent on weddings, but most of it goes on the venue and eating and other matters. The band cost is usually a comparatively small part of their overall bill, but I don't think we're booked to tick boxes - as I said earlier, most of our bookings come from word of mouth...