Hi everyone

I can see both sides of this interesting thread.

As an organiser and resident of several folk clubs over the past thirty years or so......!!!! I have performed many times in my own clubs.

When doing so I always tried to learn new material and I usually managed to learn at least a couple a week in the early days.

My format for my clubs at that time was that we had the night split into two halves separated by a half hour or so break.

On most cases I used to open the night whether we had guests or not so I knew all about going on first !!!! My strategy was to always open the night with a song that I considered to be " concert standard". This settled both me and the audiences down. But then I would use some of my first spot to perform songs I was trying to perfect. As a singer/guitarist I always considered it more important to know the words perfectly rather than the accompaniament.

In the second spots I tried to use music that I knew very well that I could perform to as high a standard as I could. I had enough of this material to vary the songs and I am proud to say that I always managed to ring the changes at the same time as being able to do any requests that members asked for.

During this time we had many floor singers - of all standards. We too had the salt of the earth standbys who would get up to help when not many others singers were available.....some of these did sing/perform the same tunes/songs. But I was always glad to use them and I believe that so did 99% of the audiences.

I have also performed as a guest ( most paid ) at many clubs and then it was different I always had a set of stuff that I considered my best - it changed to suit occasions and audiences. So I used to sing some songs more often than perhaps I would have wanted....but hey....the customer is always right !!

Happy music-making

MikeL