The nomination of Folk Clubs themselves as a disservice to folk is interesting. I was very active from the late sixties on in getting folk music out and about into the community, I put all my energy into pub sessions, pub gigs, carnivals, non-specific music festivals, theatre events, picnics, weddings, whatever. I didnt feel a particular hostility to the folk clubs: my feelings just led me elsewhere basically. Particularly as a result of some long discussions with Harry Boardman about what we ought to do with traditional NW English culture, I concentrated hard on anything that wasnt part of the developing "folk scene" of ghettoised clubs and festivals. The clubs had done a fantastic job in the previous decade of reviving, nurturing and developing things, but a lot of us felt then that it was time the music was hardened off and replanted in the wild.
   What the clubs can do cuts both ways. They can be seen as providing a safe environment to preserve and develop music that is not raucous enough to fit every into mainstream society(which good). Or precisely the same thing can be viewed as artificially peserving an uninteresting and prissy take on the music, which can never reach the man in the street(which is bad).
    Which view is right? Service or disservice? Or, as is often the case, a bit of both?