Once again it seems to be a matter of the folk world not having enough words to go round.

Just as the word 'tradition' is used in various often very different ways - causing confusion and stress (as we've seen over the awards issue), so the word 'club' does too.

It's applied to everything frm places like the Red Lion in Brum - which only has top main and support acts, to the singaroundy sessiony thingy that I went to in Leeds last night.

And yet, and yet.. there is so much that is the same, and yet more that is completely different! And of course 'clubs' exist in every shade and hue between the two.

Some Clubs really ARE clubs (whether technically or not doesn't matter). At such places I'm happy to be welcomed in, and as long as we've agreed a figure I can live with (large or small, percentage or fee) I'll be content. Others are run almost like a theatre (though I think the number of promoters who make any money from folk music is miniscule) and there I'd expect to share any 'profit' with the promoter - who is effectively my partner in a business venture.

In the former case I would not expect the club to do any real promotion (though it helps if they remember to put up a poster and mention me in the previous perish notices)! In the latter I'd be pretty miffed if the gig had not been in the paper and on the local radio etc. etc.

Our problem is that we don't usually know with which type of event we are dealing. The extremes we can spot, but the middle ground is just suck it and see.

So forgive us if we ask for a percentage when that's not appropriate - or make any other faux pas!

The one thing I can say is that if you do want to book someone who is doing it for a living (and many don't and that's fine) it helps if people do understand how many hours go into getting us to that point where we walk on and say hi - and what the real costs are. Not necessarily to pay more money - that's up to us to accept or not - but just so that our job can find parity with other people's.

I think most folk acts are worth two drinks frm anybody's mug.