Sad to hear of the threat to yet another folk club. I hadn't got around to it yet, but was hoping to pay you a visit. I don't seem to be doing anything that weekend, so may be able to get there.
Regarding the comments about the smoking ban: while it may have driven a few kamikazee smokers out, I don't believe that this alone would have put pubs out of business. I wholeheartedly endorse Tootler's 'rant'. For many years, the smoky atmosphere put a lot of people off going to pubs. It drove me out of music sessions. It also made my life as a singer very unpleasant. Pubs existed for centuries before that silly bugger Raleigh brought the dreadful weed back from his holidays in America. Maybe it needs a bit of time for people to drift back, but, as has been said, there are other contributary factors. I was going to mention the drink/driving laws, but Tootler got in before me. Drivers who would have had maybe two or three pints will now stick to one. Quite right, you may say, but it's no doubt a factor. And the price of drinks, like the price of everything else, is also a deterrant - backed up by the cheaper alternative of supermarket booze. And home entertainment. And I suspectr that the omnipresent big-screen sport may be driving some people out. Contrary to what some people think, not everyone wants this; I have been in pubs where there has been football on a huge screen, with NOBODY paying the slightest attention. Or, more often, walked into an empty room in a pub with a football match on the big screen - not an empty pub, just the empty room... Add to this the price of fuel; the pubs which have been taken over by money-greedy chains and tarted up to attract the 'Yoof' trade; and the anti-acoustic music PEL, and what have you got? Well, certainly not the pub we all know and love. Pubs have been closing for years, before the smoking ban. We can argue about this for ever - and no doubt will. Nick's comments a couple of posts back are right. Our society is changing. Mostly not for the better. Maybe folk clubs need to do some re-thinkig. Perhaps some other kind of venue will become the norm - village halls for instance, where, perhaps those who want to drink can bring their own supermarket booze, and perhaps tea/coffee could be provided. I daresay we could get used to it. We're supposed to be there for the music, aren't we?
John Kelly.