I list what I call 'Big Name' folk clubs separately in my database. These are the people who have explained that they only book acts who are 100% guaranteed to fill their venue (how many acts would that be, I wonder)? I only trouble these 'clubs' (actually these are more like promoters than clubs, though they still have some elements of clubbery, such as a a committee maybe and perhaps a raffle) once in a while, to check that I'm still not big enough yet :-) There are - as I said earlier - fewer then 30 in this category in my personal database. As to the charge that some clubs stick with guests they know and like - well, it's their club and that's their very reasonable choice - so I don't complain about it. Sometimes it works in my favour if they like me, sometimes not if they haven't tried me yet, but when not there are usually ways in via the back door if you try hard enough. I have heard people suggest that in a small and shrinking 'market,' clubs effectively 'occupy' their territory, because if a rival club starts nearby they might both fail through splitting the available audience. The thinking goes that therefore clubs could be said to have a responsibility to try to represent the tastes of the wider 'folk market' in their patch, rather than just the preferences of the committee or members. But I'm not convinced this is sound thinking in business terms. That said, many clubs do tell me they feel they do have some responsibility in terms of bringing on new acts, offering a spread of styles, trying to interest younger punters etc - and many work INCREDIBLY hard at this aspect - and often loose money as a result. So fair play to them as well.

As for John's suggestion that there are people who resent there being such an animal as a professional folk musician - he is undoubtedly right. There have been dozens of threads on this very forum (no, I'm not going to go looking for them, I'm supposed to be writing a song about a lady from Bristol) where that view has been expressed at length and with some vehemence, and there is a strong undercurrent that is easily discernible in many, many posts - on all manner of topics.

This has caused me more disappointment than anything else I've encountered in the folk world over the past 10 years, and I'm at a loss to explain it. It's all too easy to write it off as inverse snobbery or sour grapes, but it seems to go much deeper than that - into what people believe folk music actually IS. But if so, then that belief is at odds with my own best understanding of where it all came from, and how it got to be where it is today. I feel passionately - though instinctively - that somehow some massive misunderstadings have arrisen about the tradition and its relationship with the rest of society.

If this was cleared up, I think a lot of other things which are currently dysfunctional would start to work much better.

Apologies if I'm rambling. I played in Leigh on Sea AND Derbyshire, yesterday and was up before 6 this morning.

Now...

"In Bristol lived a Lady, long past seventeen
Courted she was by many but no wedding had she seen
For with her famous fortune, no lover would she trust
To covet her just for beauty and all suitors she rebuffed..."

(Yes it's a new variant on the Discharged Drummer - but with an actual STORY)!

So shoot me :-)

Tom