In Praise of Traddies!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:37 AM

"To be lumped together as "snigger/snogwriters", or the AGB (Anything Goes Brigade), is insulting in the extreme, and it is hard to see, failing acceptance by traditionalists of having a place in the folk genre, where we actually belong."

I don't see the need for terms like snigger/snogwriter either, though I don't have a personal problem with 'anything goes' in and of itself (I might not seek it out from HMV but during an amateur music session it's all good to me).

The 'revival' as a particular cultural phenomenon distinct from the old oral tradition, inspired a bunch of people to compose songs echoing elements of the old. The 'folk genre' as most people (bar strict traditionalists such as RB & JC there) think of it now, was born during the revival and has sprung off into all kinds of directions since. The term became reassigned by dint of popular musical trends and general language usuage to include modern musics - including music that barely makes a nod at the old songs, if indeed any at all.

But that's the way music and language evolves, and indeed mostly for the better. Without new arts and new ideas frogleaping off the back of prior ones - we'd all be stuck in some pretty ugly twisted shapes creatively and intellectually.

Having said that a Jacobean Tragedy is a Jacobean Tragedy, and however many contemporary writers are inspired by the Revenger's Tragedy and however many modern gory screenplays are composed, no more Jacobean Tragedies will ever be writ. That's my take anyway..

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 07:55 PM

For me, traditionalists (I hate that contraction "Traddy", which is almost always pejorative),are the guardians of a body of material which is essential to the survival of our heritage and culture.

That said, I could wish that the same respect might be shown for those who, like myself, try to add something to the genre.

To be lumped together as "snigger/snogwriters", or the AGB (Anything Goes Brigade), is insulting in the extreme, and it is hard to see, failing acceptance by traditionalists of having a place in the folk genre, where we actually belong.

Perhaps somebody might apply some degree of concern to answering that.

Meanwhile, I offer my undying gratitude to those who have made it possible for me to know, and to sing, the traditional songs which I also love.

Don T.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 07:04 PM

the imaginal worlds these old stories can evoke, can be jolly magnetising in a very 'otherness' way. I don't know how I'd describe it, but perhaps the same psychological/emotional effect as reading Brothers Grimm as a child.

Some of the songs that have the deepest effect on me aren't the mythological ones - they're the ones that set a moral/political example. What I found researching the old songs of Edinburgh was that a lot of the dead were more inspiring company than the living - there were people way-back-when with principles and guts beyond what I often come across now. Duncan Campbell beating the shit out of a cop and having to skip town because the cop was an anti-Irish bigot. The martyrs of the 1820 weavers' rising. People who stood up for religious freedom against the Edinburgh Annuity Tax even though it meant getting their possessions seized.

Or from eastern Anatolia 200 years ago

Ferman padishahin, daglar bizimdir
(The order is the Sultan's, the mountains are ours)

The attitude I have to people like Dadaloglu is a sort of religious one, but it isn't about quaint myths, it's because they set an example for me to live by.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 06:33 PM

Spleen, you are right to ask.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 03:43 PM

"'the pleasures of the text' are different for a historical song, novel or wa'ever than a contemporary one."

I don't think I've ever thought about that. As a kid I don't think I ever differentiated between E. Nebit or my stash of Marvel comics. And nothing much has changed since. Of course my old stash of Marvel comics would have been collectors items now (if they had survived).. Does that make them old? I dunno!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 03:10 PM

Yes but 'the pleasures of the text' are different for a historical song, novel or wa'ever than a contemporary one. I have no problem with people getting off on an old tune, it's those who think they're part of a living, on-going form that scare me rather. In the same way people who ride round in machine gun toting BMW sidecar combinations in wehrmacht uniform are un-nerving.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 03:00 PM

CS - sorry to interrupt but I think you're locked in conversation with Glueman's parrot
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:58 PM

"By continuing to sing them we are keeping them out of the museum and because each successive generation has interpreted them in their own way they are anything but fossilised."

Sure, if I read Tolstoy, I'm just reading Tolstoy same as anyone who has ever read Tolstoy. I'm not partaking in a re-enactment of other people long ago who once read Tolstoy. When I'm reading a classic Russian novel, I'm simply reading a novel same as when I sing a traditional folk song, I'm just singing a song.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Tootler
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:52 PM

"...for our clinging to fossilised material

Why is it some folks refer to traditional song as "fossilised" or "fit only for a museum"?

No one seems to make similar remarks about the music of Bach or Handel - or going further back, the songs of Dowland and his contemporaries. The label "Early Music" might be applied to music from the period of Dowland and earlier, but they don't seem to refer to it as fossilised. Rather it is considered music worth exploring and playing.

The same is true of traditional song. They are songs worth exploring and singing. I sing traditional songs because I enjoy them and because they speak to me. By continuing to sing them we are keeping them out of the museum and because each successive generation has interpreted them in their own way they are anything but fossilised.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:46 PM

Parrots are smart critters - I don't know why they imitate sounds though. Is it a social thing?

But further to the so-called tradition. I don't see myself as a part of any tradition as such. There was an oral tradition once, there isn't one now. But there is a large body of material from it, that is of poential interest to anyone who has an interest in culture, art, music or social history.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:38 PM

"She'd be a parrot, doing what parrots were born to do."

Eat crisps? (It's a long story about a violent African grey who had a penchant for Walkers' Salt and Vingar but only if they weren't broken. Crunched crisps would send her into a rage and she's trash the house. My friend would break them into their constituent molecules on the way back from the pub to see her become Death Bird, The Avenger. Happy days.)

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:22 PM

"If I trained my parrot Maud to sing the Oak and the Ash would she be continuing the tradition or denying her true voice?"

She'd be a parrot, doing what parrots were born to do.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 02:19 PM

If I trained my parrot Maud to sing the Oak and the Ash would she be continuing the tradition or denying her true voice?

By numinous I meant the hearth to which we must all return, whether wormy loam or the brown utility mantelpiece of my forfathers.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 12:17 PM

"it would be no bother me at all;"

It wouldn't bother him. There's no argument to be made out of that really. It doesn't bother me that it wouldn't bother him either.

For me there's a big difference between people choosing not to investigate something *although* it's easy to discover and access and being unable to make that choice, because it's not easy to discover and access. Knowledge is all. Disseminating knowledge that gives others the freedom to make the same choices that you were free to make - to either engage with something or not - is as much as is needed. There will always be those interested in reading John Donne, singing and hearing traditional songs, acting and watching Shakespear - if such things are not effectively impossible to discover.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 12:06 PM

"If people never sang another note of these songs it would be no bother me at all; they have been sung by the masters"
Quite right - Shakespeare has been done by the masters, Tree, Irving, Olivier, Geilgud, Pryce, Branagh - why bother doing it any more?
What utter crap; you really do go from idiocy to idiocy SO'P.
Heep it coming; it really does help shorten the long winter evenings.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:30 AM

Are we talking the mysterium tremendum or mysterium fascinans here? Just so's I'm clear...

When we think about the numinous in terms of transcendence, it is quite possible to separate it from the supernatural.

Enough bollocks from me.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:22 AM

Watters o' Tyne

In my experience this is always sung as Waters of Tyne even in the strongest of Northumbrian dialects.

I reckon we deserve some credit for valuing the old stuff, wanting to keep it alive, and encouraging youngsters who take an interest.

I reckon we should just do what we do without this perverse sense of that in so doing we are somehow doing something worthy. We're not keeping anything alive here - any more than the bloke around the corner is keeping the age of steam alive with his model railway layout. If youngsters want to do it, fine - if they find something better to do, it's no great loss.

The important thing is that, once upon a time, there was a genre of music that created the body of songs we think of today as English Traditional Folk Song & Ballad. It is to the makers, shapers & singers of these songs we should turn our efforts and energies, rather than obfuscating their significance with the so-called revival, which might only preach to the converted anyway. I would like to see a Society for Traditional Song which is dedicated purely to the preservation & promotion of the treasures in the various Traditional Archives, to make this as integral an aspect of the collective cultural heritage & history of the English Speaking World as any other in all their raw, primal, unexpurgated glory. If people never sang another note of these songs it would be no bother me at all; they have been sung by the masters - Phil Tanner, Davie Stewart, Harry Cox, Walter Pardon, Sam Larner, Willie Scott, Mrs Pearl Brewer of Arkansas et al - let that be enough to let them resound down the ages.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:18 AM

"The word "numinous" does imply the presence of a deity"

I think modern usage has rendered the term more flexible now RB.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:09 AM

The word "numinous" does imply the presence of a deity. Hence my objection to it.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 09:02 AM

"The intended subject of this thread was whether those of us who (for want of any better term) can be labelled "traddies" are miserable buggers, fit only to be either despised or pitied for our clinging to fossilised material, or whether we have our virtues.
I'd better finish by declaring where I stand.
I belong to the "traddie" camp.
I reckon we deserve some credit for valuing the old stuff, wanting to keep it alive, and encouraging youngsters who take an interest."

Well I wouldn't have learned anything much about this peculiar body of dusty old material without the grumpy old traddies here. So yep, that's basically what I was getting at when initially posting my lighthearted but genuine 'praise'.

For my own part I've never had an interest in general folkie style music, as it's always seemed far too pleasant but dull* to attract my interest (and still is in the main) but traditional songs on the other hand I find to be strange and fascinating creatures.

I also think it's useful - for someone like me if no-one else - to have terms which define it as a particular body of material distinct from other sub-genre's of folk music. There are after all lots of other sub-genre's which are themselves defined by a variety of terms.




* purely a personal response - hope I'm allowed that before anyone gets uptight.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 08:36 AM

It's a pity, though not surprising, that some of this thread has returned to the old (mouldy) chestnuts of "what is folk?" or "what is traditional?" or "why the hell does it matter anyway?". Despite the arguments as to whether definitions are useful at all, and despite the difficulty of agreeing about them even amongst those of us who see a need for them, clearly there are different camps among us.

Some of us prefer to sing and listen to mostly the songs that have knocked around in the tradition for a long while, plus some of the more recent ones that have been written in comparable styles. (I say "styles" plural because I don't see a lot in common between, for example, Cruel Mother, Cupid's Garden and Watters o' Tyne.) Some of us prefer to sing and listen to mostly recently written songs about the human condition or current issues. Some of us are very enthusiastic about particular performers. Some of us have catholic tastes. All those preferences are legitimate, and no-one should object to anyone else's. However we do have a right to complain if the description on a particular tin misleads us about the contents.

The intended subject of this thread was whether those of us who (for want of any better term) can be labelled "traddies" are miserable buggers, fit only to be either despised or pitied for our clinging to fossilised material, or whether we have our virtues.

I'd better finish by declaring where I stand.

I belong to the "traddie" camp.

I reckon we deserve some credit for valuing the old stuff, wanting to keep it alive, and encouraging youngsters who take an interest.

Richard

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 04:18 AM

Seconded!

I sing (say) The Innocent Hare for direct communion with the numinous embodied in a certain potency one might only find in such songs. Whatever their actual provenance, they do facilitate the old singaround / seance something wonderful!

Beer is not essential; I find an injection of liquid Ecstasy in the soft flesh just above the front tooth does the job just as well.

E by Gum.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:58 PM

I venture to suggest that folk music and song do not indicate the presence of a deity but rather assist in the envisagement of a preceding reality (or perceptions present in such a reality). This is why one experiences a feeling of connection when something like "Pleasant and Delightful" lifts off in a full-throated assembly.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:33 AM

Speaking as someone who can get quite weepie over any old bollocks it's hard to discriminate what's pushing my numerous musical buttons.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:31 AM

"It's not a hotline to 'them as is gone before'"

No, I don't commune with the ancestors! You'll need to ask SO'P about that one. But the imaginal worlds these old stories can evoke, can be jolly magnetising in a very 'otherness' way. I don't know how I'd describe it, but perhaps the same psychological/emotional effect as reading Brothers Grimm as a child.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:24 AM

"That's precisely what it does for me"

Well okay, but only if accompanied by a few pints of Bladder's Olde Thrush and a very special rendition of a song. It's not a hotline to 'them as is gone before' any more than Telstar or the Charleston.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:18 AM

"It won't connect you to the numinous,"

That's precisely what it does for me (sometimes), YMMV

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: glueman
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:14 AM

The only honest response to the traditional from a contemporary sensibility is to appreciate it as another style of music. It won't connect you to the numinous, or your real or imagined ancestry, or Eden or whatever personal transport you project onto it but it comprises a vital part of our musical backdrop.

A melodian and a tuba and a fiddle make as compelling a noise as any yet invented and it's unfortunate some people ascribe dubious links to the resulting sound. Enthusiasts take it all far, far too seriously.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:08 AM

"a number of people there were visibly shocked by the word shit & refused to sing along"
Are you sure they weren't objecting to listening to shit?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 08:04 AM

Oh no Crow Sister - just as I've got him convinced that folk music can have one foot out of the grave he'll come and see the ghastly truth!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 05:37 AM

"a number of people there were visibly shocked by the word shit & refused to sing along."

Sounds like you're going to the wrong sessions SO'P - the regulars at RB's session would take it up with hearty enthusiasm!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 05:25 AM

Reckon I should ask Joe to retitle the thread 'In Praise of Old Hippies'. Works for me..

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 21 Feb 10 - 05:03 AM

I'm sure I made that a clicky; anyway here it is, Bog Roll Blues, the mighty Groundhogs at their finest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myt6xtMYeLA

Lyric add perhaps? I'll be singing this with the fiddle next time I visit the Beech!

Hanging on a convenience wall,
A roll of two-ply crepe and one-ply clear,
The silent sentinels of health,
supplied by the corporation hygiene surveyor,
Perforated, sectionalised, medicated, sterilised each layer,
Property of Birmingham City Council now please wash your hands.
But, if you think this is all that these tissues appear to be,
Then listen to the kind of thing these tissues have to be and have to see.

They're witness to a junkie's needs, soaking up the blood spilled on the floor,
A message scribbled on a sheet, state date, time and size pushed under the door,
Rolled up to a pellet size, shoved into the hole drilled through the wall,
Streaming projectiles hurled through the air out of the trains after
games of football.
But I don't suppose anybody really cares, there's too many nowadays just want to wipe their ass of the whole affair.

Or maybe not - Rachel & I sang The Slurf Song at a session recently and having had all manner of songs dealing with incest, murder, maritime venereal disease & the causes theref, a number of people there were visibly shocked by the word shit & refused to sing along. For those who've never heard it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZA7OT3Ib5I

and The Great Man himself, just last year, with new verses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZmJnY6N56M

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 05:59 AM

Sorry Mr Cringe - Just saw your post as well, Aye - I was given 'Iao chant from the cosmic inferno' a couple of years ago and loved it. Now, back to another topic - The Iao chant is one hell of a length - About an hour I think. Beats all previously mentioned lengths anyway:-) To my chargrin I have not aquired any more of their stuff but I really must one of these days.

DeG

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 04:53 AM

Very funny, Richard, and oddly perseptive. Having hosted events with young(er!) people I have heard arguments about prog-rock, alt-rock, metal, heavy-metal, death-metal, classic and ballad rock rage with almost as much intensity as those about folk! I am sure you were already aware of that but just in case anyone else wasn't!

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 05:37 PM

I'll see your TCFTB and raise you Hogwash, which whilst fielding Clive Brooks (ex-Egg)instead of the venerable Ken Pustelnik, does feature my two all time favourite TS compositions in Earth Shanty & 3744 James Road. In fact, tucked away someplace I have a BBC In Concert session consisting of extended workouts on both these songs with TS doing a choice mellotron interlude. Anyone fancy this I can post it on YouSendIt.

I love TCFTB too of course; Bog Roll Blues is another all time favourite.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 05:08 PM

If we are going Groundhogs, I think I'd opt for "Thank Christ for the Bomb".

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 02:39 PM

""Then, at the height of simmer when you HAD to have the window open,""

One of those marvellous typos which actually says it even better than what one intended to type.

Love it!
Don T.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 02:24 PM

And RB if you're including Tangerine Dream in 'rock' then Comus counts? Song to Comus If I remember rightly, my parents saw Comus along with King Crimson at the Wheeley rock festival.. (see here )
All before I was born of course, though I think my 'spirit' has been badly touched with a good 2nd hand dose of hash and LSD. The first song I recall hearing: 21st Century Schizoid Man.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 02:10 PM

The Pink Fairies

Respect!

Do It!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 01:54 PM

Wot, no Deep Purple? somehow brilliant

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 01:44 PM

Oh, no, you want proper traditional rock music, doncher? Not this modern stuff.

Jefferson Airplane, Budgie, Frank Zappa, Atomic Rooster, Electric Prunes, Vanilla Fudge, late Pretty Things, the Pink Fairies, Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind. That's what I call proper traditional rock music. It has to pass the 1974 test (of being recorded before then).

Grin!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 12:04 PM

Talking of Acid Mothers and Gong - ever hear Acid Mothers collaboration with Gong? They did an album called Acid Motherhood (2004) which has quite possibly the vilest cover ever dreamed of; nightmare stuff, not for the faint hearted & enough to give the staunchest Daevid Allen fan the heebie-jeebies (see HERE but you have been warned!). That said, the music is absolutely amazing - but when is it not?

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:34 AM

"Acid Mothers Temple".

Bleedin' Nora, Mr Gnome! And there I was thinking I was the only visitor to Mudcat who liked that crazee bunch o' Japanese hippies!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:23 AM

Oops, I'm pretty sure I said some hideously divisive things there, and shall be lambasted presently..

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:06 AM

Further to some of Jack's points below..

I think for someone who hasn't been exposed to traditional material either as a consequence of being around during the folk revival boom period where every other band was wearing cheesecloth and doing covers by Trad. Anon. or by being in close association to someone who was, it's very easy for traditional stuff to get utterly occluded by the 'beautiful young man with guitar' stylee folk that flourished alongside it, and eventually came to completely overshadow it.

This is the main reason that I think of trad. songs/tunes as a body of material rather than a musical genre. I've never been a fan of folk as a musical genre, still not really - oddly enough! So the two things are quite distinct in my mind - apples and oranges. Traditional Song is to current musical trends as Shakespear is to this season's blockbuster. I have the Collected Works of Shakespear on my shelf, but I still go and watch this season's blockbuster movie, whatever it may be.

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: melodeonboy
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 11:03 AM

I tried to walk up Milton Regis 'igh street the uvver day, so I did. And could I get aht on the street? Could I buggery. There they all were, playing away on their djembes and pipes and God knows what. I says "What are you lot doin' 'ere". "Well", they says, "This is the new Britain, innit? All the sreets are full now of people playing rootsy music." "Blimey", I says, "I only wanted to get up to the Co-op to get a flagon of Diamond White, and the 'ole street's full of musicians".

So, after pushing my way froo all them bloody musicians (and catching me 'ead on the rim of someone's tuba, while I'm abaht it, I might add), I finally gets to the Co-op, expecting a nice bit of piped music to accompany my purchase, and what do I see but the manager sitting cross-legged on the floor, playing away on the fiddle like a maniac, wiv a mandolin player on one side of 'im and a washboard player on the uvver.

"I ain't 'aving this", I says, "it ain't right for people to be exposed to all this non-mainstream music. Where will it all end? Next fing you know they'll be taking X-Factor off the telly. I'm 'aving a word wiv the Old Bill to get all this stopped".

"You'll be lucky, Cocker", says 'e, "the Chief Constable's just taken up the melodeon!"

What a f****in' liberty!

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: MikeL2
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:32 AM

hi leveller

The bagpipes are great......at a distance of about 3 miles...lol

I lived in Inverness some years ago and in the summer evenings a lone piper would play sometimes. He was about 3 miles away and it was beautiful.

Mind you sometimes in the town we had the massed pipes and drums of the Scottish regiments....louder than any disco I have ever been to.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:20 AM

Must be something in the water - I am currently listening to Acid Mothers Temple after a day of New Model Army, Old Fleetwood Mac and Kasabian (I blame the Brits) yesterday!

:D

Subject: RE: In Praise of Traddies!
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 09:33 AM

"Did you ever come across the worlds worst busker there?"

No but when I had an office in St. Anne's Square there used to be a very good one-man band. Then, at the height of simmer when you HAD to have the window open, there was bagpipe player stood right under our window. Aaaaaargh!