Dubliners and Don McLean get lifetime awards Mike Harding, who will co-host the BBC folk music awards on 8 February, said: "When The Dubliners virtually invented the Dublin pub music scene 50 years ago, they changed the face of Irish music forever. They were exciting and different, with a real whiff of danger about them. The Dubliners have been through a few incarnations, of course. The great Luke Kelly died in 1984 and when I saw them in a Dublin dance hall in 1989 they had the irrepressible Ronnie Drew on vocals. Drew and fellow stalwart Ciarán Bourke are also now dead. The Dubliners, playing to a crowd normally warmed by several pints of porter, have always served up a heady mixture of great instrumentals, engaging traditional songs and ostentatious fun. In the concert I saw 23 years ago, their support act was a group of local children putting on some Irish dancing and the whole evening was impressively strange. When the band started playing Seán Cannon's funny (anti-male) song called Don't Get Married, a burly man at the table next to mind glared at his wife and hissed: "NOT A FEKKIN' WORD!." The Dubliners gained some mainstream popularity around that time after their collaboration with the Pogues on tracks such as Whiskey In The Jar, The Wild Rover and The Rocky Road To Dublin. It's good that they are still going strong and on the 2012 tour, which includes a concert at The Albert Hall, the band will include Cannon, John Sheahan, Eamonn Campbell, Patsy Watchorn and septuagenarian Barney McKenna, the only man with the band when they started in 1962. McLean, now 66, has also had a lengthy career and last year was among the performers at Glastonbury Festival. He said: "The UK audience has been among the most loyal for over 40 years." It promises to be an enjoyable folk awards at the Lowry Theatre in Salford Quays. Both honorary award-winners will perform on the night - along with Christy Moore, The Unthanks, Martin Simpson and Seth Lakeman.