I don't quite understand why RB or anybody else thinks that Jim says a test needs to be passed. I read the whole of the folk club manners thread and didn't see him say that once.

There was a feeling among several people, not just Jim, that murdering songs in public is a bad thing, either because it is disrespectful to the audience, the song itself, or because it puts off potential newcomers and helps fuel a bad image problem amongst large swathes of the UK public. And I agree with that too.

I got the feeling that the suggestion was if somebody has been given an opportunity to perform a few times and has murdered songs on those occasions, then responsibility for future song murders is shared by the performer themselves and the people who are enabling that performance, be it organiser or audience. And that there are steps that could be taken, such as offering feedback, teaching, or practice suggestions, to limit said future murders. And while one would hope that most performers are self regulating, and are aware of how their performance comes across, and do work to improve, there are some that don't seem to either notice or care.

But to me all of that is very different from saying that anybody who wants to perform should pass some kind of test or audition first...