GUEST Alex-fiddler.
The problem may lie in the fact you are going to a sesion "advertised as English". I play in many sessions where we play English tunes, but these are just informal get-togethers which are not advertised as anything whatsoever really, they just are what they are. Now it strikes me that the session referred to, being "advertised as English" may be "run" by some of those musicians of the Old Swan/Oak "English country music" sort of persuasion, who sometimes have a rather strict notion of what they consider to be authentic English(very slow and polka-ish, really).Could you be a little more specific about the geographical location and social composition of your "advertised as English" session?

PS: Re Sue Allan's previous post. You can't use too many "wonderful"s when describing the Boat Band(he said modestly)
PPS Thank you, Sue