The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99176 Message #1972820
Posted By: Dave Wynn
19-Feb-07 - 03:43 PM
Thread Name: UK folk scene - what future for clubs?
Subject: RE: UK folk scene - what future for clubs?
I don't think we should complain about the "older end" of the audience spectrum. They (me included) have been maintaining clubs for over 35 years. Without them the scene would completely collapse. Think about it, remove all clients over the age of 45 and you will have no venues left within weeks. Getting the young in is a different matter. We at Swinton have had some mixed results. Tonight I will try (diplomatically as possible) to ascertain what our average age is.
For reasons too complex for me to understand the music scene in general in the late 60's and 70's created the revival and we are probably still surviving on the back of that even now. How to create the same scene now in the 2K's could not, in my opinion, be done. We didn't create it in the 60's/70's. It was created for us and we are the product of it. As stewards we may have not done as well as we should have perhaps but that is where we are.
My pithy philosophy is one of "some clubs work and some clubs don't", it is a philosophy not a methodology or cure. Our club has worked (some would argue that :-) for 24 years at the same venue. Audiences have rose and fell over that time but we have survived. I won't bore you with details of how we work because there are so many complex reasons.
As an amateur who pays the professionals I did take mild offence at the comment "The trouble with trying to make money out of folk is that we are trying to be professionals employed by amateurs" even though it was meant without harm. If I had overheard that comment they would be one professional who wouldn't work at our club again.
I understand the professionals problems, I think I understand the ethos of providing professional performers as the shop window of the genre. There is a difference between the good amateur and the professional, I hear the difference regularly. I am a good amateur but realise my shortcomings when hearing a good professional.
I have offered no solutions just comment. I doubt that there are any solutions but in the meantime we keep trying.