Once again, another batch of realy useful advice. I thought when I posted this thread it was probably a bit silly, but I'm glad I did. This stuff is gold dust. Many thanks.

1. Cashflow. Yep I know it's a bugger. But I really want to do this. I'll make it work somehow. I'd rather be poor and happy than work in a bank. (Easier to say at 26 than at 36, I suspect...) Fortunately, I have a friendly agent who is pretty good with the band, and I dare say would take on "Jon Loomes - Solo English Idiot" or whatever. But I don't suppose I can quit my job just yet...

2. Clone-ism. I'm very aware of this one. I like MC's guitar style a lot, and it's certainly been a huge influence. Also Nic Jones - fantastic stuff.

The thing is: I do English Trad, and with these people as primary influences it's very hard not to be a "sound-alike"

A little on my guitar style: I wanted to get a very sustained sound, like a hammered dulcimer. Basically, I wanted a cheap guitar to ring like a Martin 000, so I worked out that by playing melody notes on adjacent strings tuned a tone apart, you could get long sustained runs, and play the whole scale on the middle two strings. This also stems from the melodeon, the push pull thing gave me the idea for tuning 1 tone apart etc.

Coupled with some D+A drones (also an idea from the melodeon: Capo 5 gives you G+D perfect for morris tunes) I came up with DADEAD, which turns out to be an early "carthy tuning" (it's great, by the way? anyone else found this one? I prefer it to DADGAD)

O.K. MC now plays in CGCDAB, but it's close enough to sound almost the same.

Derek Brimstone and Ralph McTell are also big influences, although I tend to play less tinkly stuff now, prefering that sort of Bluesy thumping noise (carthy, jones again) Also Renbourn, but I don't think I'll ever be anywhere near as good as him.

I've recently bit the bullet and bought a real guitar. I'll still be paying for it in 2004, but it's been a revelation. It's perfectly in tune all the way up, and suddenly, without realising it I'm using much more of the fingerboard. Weird.

Anyway, hence I'm fiscally a bit buggered right now, so Home recording it is. However, my day job is a recording engineer, so it shouldn't come out too bad. I'd rather get another engineer to do it for all sorts of reasons, but thats just the way it is. Demo in Progress. Will send out copies to interested parties when it's done. Probably just 3-4 tracks in the first instance, but I'm trying to get together "the album". I think Mark is right, and guests should be kept to a minimum for demos. I'm not a great one for overdubs anyway. They never sound natural to me.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Many thanks again,

Jon