But the artist doesn't have your local knowledge and contacts. The responsibility for promoting suely lies with promoters and artists. If the promoter is going to say "not my job, mate" they can't moan ehen nobody turns up.

Let me share my experience of a folk club promoter:

For our festival, we wanted to work with a local folk club. We offered to subsidise a gig for them, so they could aim a bit higher than normal and take on an artist they couldn't normally afford.

Well, after lots of umming and aahing, the organisers decided who they wanted, an artist that would cost around £500. Because of the complexity of ticketing, we decided to pay for the whole gig for them. We were also putting the artist up. There was never any offer from the club to pass on any money they might make from the raffle or the few tickets they might sell on the night (a tiny amount, I'm sure, but it is the principle of the thing) to the festival.

Now, this was supposed to be a partnership. So I asked if we could send out our leaflets in their next newsletter. Yes, came the answer - if we payed for the postage. So we ended up stickering their envelopes and franking their whole mailout.

Next came the phone call loftily demanding six free full weekend tickets for the festival. What for? What on earth had they done to deserve them? Still wanting the partnership to develop, we offered them 2 free tickets, and suggested their other friends/club helpers might want to steward. They grudgingly accepted the free tickets, but their friends were not the stewarding type, apparently.

After the festival, we got an earful about how we hadn't tried hard enough to promote their gig as it wasn't absolutely heaving. Well, it was in our festival programme, as was a map and directions to their club. It was on the website and in all of the flyers. Surely they bore some responsibility for promotion, too?

The arrogance, meanness and lack of professionalism we experienced made us reluctant to repeat the experience. I don't know how common our experience was, but I confess I did think at the time, "If this is what the promoters are like, no wonder the club network is in trouble."