Eric the Orange: "I'm quite keen to see folk but I've been turned off going to clubs because they seems the province of old (I think most seem past my idea of middle aged) people reliving their younger days."

Hi Eric,

Yes, quite a few folk clubs (though by no means all of them) are like that. Try going to a festival instead.

There was a time, long, long time ago, when large numbers of young – yes YOUNG! – people used to hang out in places where folk music was played and sung. Many of them didn't pay very much attention to it, but it provided a moderately agreeable backing track for their social lives, and they identified with it – up to a point.

Eventually, the crowd moved on, as it always does, but some of us who liked the music for its own sake stayed with it. A few are still here – certainly older, probably not much wiser, but possibly a little better informed. And most of us are delighted when we see younger people taking an interest in the music. However, I'm not praying for the return of the (so called)good old days when folk (so called) attracted a much larger youth audience, most of whom weren't actually listening.

Posters to this forum who play music for a living may think well differently. But to them I'd say: fashion is a fickle friend – boom today means crash tomorrow, as surely as sunset follows sunrise. Meanwhile, be thankful that there are audiences at all, even if most of their members are outside the age-group which the music industry prefers to cater for.

Wassail!