Sessions in a pub are just that, so you can and should, expect people to be noisy. Many go to their pub so they can have a conversation, a contest of the dart or suchlike. Don't forget that many people these days have only known the 'Sound of Musak' and live acoustic music, voice or instrument or both, is not something they meet every day, so invariably they will tend to do what we all do and try to talk over the 'Musak'. In a club on the other hand, why do people still want to talk over people porforming? I suggest to anyone who thinks that's OK to try doing it in the auditorium at a West End play, or during an Opera! If people have paid money, then they should expect to be able to hear whoever is performing. Would any of you do it if Martin Carthy were performing? Don't knock Folk Clubs and brand them all as (and I quote from an earlier post) "a nice cosy back room with a door you can shut against the masses and some 50 something lapsed socialists to stare and tut tut when someone is showing insufficient respect to the "Artists".