Guest Andy - I know exactly what you mean. As a club resident I do try to vary what I do, and people's reactions suggest that mostly I succeed.

As we are blessed with a few residents, we only use two per guest, which provides a degree of variety in itself.

Even so, there is the running joke about the 'chara' arriving just before nine - people who deliberately avoid the 'warm-up', and arrive in time for the first guest spot.

However, there is also a different type of club that does not use 'residents'. Two North Manchester clubs, the Full Circle and the Open Door book guests, but the 'support' is floor singers.

I'd spent thirty years visiting folk clubs before I encountered this phenomenon!

Is this common elsewhere?