Thanks girl friday- I'm MCing Paulette Sheard & Mike Ball at the Beacon Club in Tunbridge Wells on Monday, but hope RTB's gig goes well. Most of the locals stayed at Twitton! but of course we were very informal & didn't need a performers' area set out- I can understand it if the locals are in the L of the bar. Between the Wealden Ramblers, Fiddlefit and the local farrier we had a good time!

Caribou- you're entitled to like what you like, of course, and no-one can force you to sing if you don't feel like it. However, I think it's important for any performer to engage the audience, and chorus singing does that for many people. Some of the best nights I've been to have left me feeling the kind of uplift that I guess a religious person might feel from singing in church- the harmonies of experienced singers, the sense of an evening being more than the output of one performer. Seeing as I tend to give out Singalongabob sheets to assist when I do a solo gig, I've laid out my store! I do agree that it can become obtrusive if a singer is obviously trying to get the audience to sing his/her slogans (not RTB),I think that there is some kind of responsibility to treat an audience as thinking adults and to entertain rather than preach. So if you're entertained by listening, all well and good- hope to see you sometime

Bob K