So there it is – it must be true. This morning the BBC ran a short piece on television and radio stating that folk music is on the rise, more popular than ever before and has become “as popular as rock music”. They also inferred that its leading performers are approaching the status of rock stars. Oh yes? Perhaps some of those leading performers they refer to would like to know that their status equates to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Metallica and Kiss. Any use for a Fairport Convention jumbo jet or perhaps some Seth Lakeman character figures anyone?

Well perhaps not, but it’s good to see a positive news spin on folk music rather than the well worn references to old men with beards and bloody Rambling Syd Rumpo a nauseating folk-singer character originally played by Kenneth Williams in the radio comedy series Round the Horne. Good grief, Round the Horne broadcast in the middle sixties, yet that supposedly humorous folk image just will not die.

I suspect this flurry of positive news is a sycophantic nod towards the BBC’s own programme ‘The Radio 2 Folk Awards’ but whatever the reason it’s at the very least a positive folk story. The aforesaid awards broadcast live this evening - Wednesday 8 February - on BBC Radio 2 plus the BBC’s online and red-button channels.

Presented by the BBC's archetypal folkie Mike Harding and Sottish singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis, the show that surrounds this year’s awards is at The Lowry Theatre, Salford starting at 7.30pm - the first time it has sallied beyond the walls of London. Well good for them but one plea please Auntie Beeb – please report on folk music a little more and stop dragging bloody Rambling Syd Rumpo out of the coffin where he so rightly belongs.