Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:37 AM

Well, you have the advantage over me, Lizzie. Clearly because of the job that I do I cannot come and play in your sandpit, because I have my professional reputation and that of my festival to think about. I cannot be seen to engage in unseemly arguments with you, but that makes me (and people like Ian Anderson and Jim Moray, and the BBC, and the various other of your targets over the years) rather vulnerable to your attacks. People stumbling into one of your hysterical postings might assume they contain some truth, unless someone refutes them. So I would just like to say that I completely and utterly refute the version of events posted above, most of which is pure fantasy.

As you were.

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: theleveller
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:41 AM

"There must be young people out there who are sick and tired of the X Factor music scene as it is at the moment"

There are and several have been mentioned already e.g Kat Gilmore and Jamie Roberts, and The Old Dance School, to name just two.

There are plenty of youngsters around who are interested in performing but before they can start climbing the ladder (if that's what they want to do) they often have to overcome withering prejudice at the most basic level. Even as an old fart who has no interest in doing anything above a grass-roots level, I'm sick to death of having to endure snide remarks in singarounds about singer/songwiters from Captain Birdseye impersonators who bawl out shanties in loud raucous voices and think that they're cutting edge folk professionals because they once had a booking for a 10-minute slot at The Cod Stranglers and Fish Gutters Club in Grimsby. I've seen quite a few very talented youngsters walk out of singarounds and folk clubs because of this sort of negative attitude and I suspect that many of them either give up with the 'folk scene' at this stage or by-pass the grass roots by going straight for stage performances.

It's not the enlightened people who book innovative artistes for concerts, festivals etc. who are the problem; it's the arrogance of the miserable old bastards who act as self-appointed gatekeepers at the front gates of folk music.

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Zen
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:48 AM

I think theleveller's post above (below) is quite the most sensible posting I've seen on Mudcat in a very long time. Hear, hear!

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:56 AM

"....I cannot be seen to engage in unseemly arguments with you, but that makes me (and people like Ian Anderson and Jim Moray, and the BBC, and the various other of your targets over the years) rather vulnerable to your attacks...."

For that please read 'I, and others, have now been stopped from constantly attacking you by Mudcat'


"...People stumbling into one of your hysterical postings might assume they contain some truth, unless someone refutes them. So I would just like to say that I completely and utterly refute the version of events posted above, most of which is pure fantasy...."

If you want me to trawl through all your postings to dig out some of the nastier things you've said about me, particularly where my marriage was concerned, please....just ask.....as no way do I put down things which cannot be verified.   It'll take me a while, but trust me, I'll find your words for you.

It's just a great shame that the old BBC board, the one before the now defunct one, disappeared, as that contained Ian Anderson's words about Show of Hands and Seth Lakeman having somehow managed to have 'got in under the radar'...which of course told everyone exactly what was happening in the folk world for years...

Radar Love, eh?   

If you're on the right side of the 'fence' the radar protects and supports you. If you're trying to break in, it alerts and 'the guards' come out with the AK47s filled with words that can do more damage than even Walmart's Ammunition...

Do me a favour...please.

And by the way, you never bothered about your reputation, or that of *your* festival when you slagged off some brilliant musicians on the BBC.

Good that you're now great buddies...and I hope you had the guts to at least apologise to them.

Ah, Folk Mafia Hypocrisy, don't you just love it, huh?


Yes, yes, I know, Joe..."Back off, Lizzie! Naughty Chair IMMEDIATELY!"

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:59 AM

Some of those self-appointed gate-keepers are also higher up the chain, levels.

Good post though...

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: GUEST,SteveT
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 08:59 AM

Ever thought of it this way?

Isn't it great that people get passionate about the music that they like? (In my opinion, particularly when that music is live.)


Who cares what music I like myself? I'm one of the many ones who are so little (see above) that I don't expect people to book me or go out of their way to listen to me, I just enjoy the music. I get to "English sessions" where they don't play Irish tunes because they don't like them:- I get to an "Irish session" where they don't play English tunes because …:- I'm off to a singaround this weekend where musical instruments are banned and regularly go to an almost instrument-free singaround where you probably won't get asked to sing a second time if you're not "in the tradition":- I go to pubs where we regularly have Elvis (sorry Mr Whittle, I mean Presley; I don't mean to let my folk mafia credentials show), Oasis and even Donovan (shock horror!) songs but you'd probably put the locals off, and be asked to leave by the landlord, if you tried anything unaccompanied - and I join in with all of it and thoroughly enjoy myself. I miss out the open mike evenings and the Klezmer sessions because I don't feel I can join in at the latter (don't know enough of the tunes) and I don't think the audience would particularly like my repertoire at the former.

OK, I listened to Mumford and Sons on You-tube and can say they're not my cup of tea (as consumed at many parents' evenings) but it was a Brits award they won not the freedom of Cecil Sharpe House so who cares and good luck to them if they can get people interested in playing rather than just listening.

So, perhaps I'm just lucky but there's no lack of diversity for me here. Keep on arguing that your choice of music is best but, more importantly, get out there and play and sing it whenever you can without expecting to be rewarded by more than a minimum of politeness and the pleasure of your own performance, that's what I say. To me it's always been more important than making money out of it. (OK I wouldn't have been good enough but just pretend.)

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 09:00 AM

Stop being cutesy with the "NaughtY Chair" bullshit.

This is the work of a dedicated and skilled troll with a willing bunch of seemingly helpless tenders who go after the same bait EVERY FUCKING TIME.

Subject: RE: Mumford & Sons at the Brits Awards
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 09:00 AM

No, Lizzie, I am not banned from anything. But these posts are full of lies, they are provocative and they are attacks. I have the festival's reputation to think about as well as my own, and I will not be seen to be sinking to your level. You are clearly unwell and need some sort of help.

Because of this, I will have to ask for these posts (and any subsequent unprovoked attacks on me or the festival I work for) to be removed.