That is - callers who talk too much .... in explaining how a dance goes.

I'm sitting on New Year's Day+1 - a Brit. so-called bank holiday - at the prestigious Southbank Royal Festival Hall. They have a free ceilidh going on in the Core Ballroom. Its moderately crowded.

I thought of joining in with the dancing - BUT .... for every dance the 'caller' is spending over 10 minutes explaining each dance - including shouting into the mic. so that he can't actually be understood anyway.

Most ceilidh 'callers' are self-taught in the UK. Some explain dances at great length then ignore the dancers concentrating on playing an instrument. But what really gets me is the lengthy instructions they impose upon the hapless dancers. Just now one dance took 20 minutes to explain - I kid you not - I had time to decide not to join in, queued for a coffee, sat down, started up my laptop, and logged into email - and the caller was STILL explaining how to do the dance. How these callers and bands get bookings is beyond me. Most appear to be on ego trips.

And the same issues arise at Folk Festivals where the callers and bands are supposed to know what they are doing.

CJB.