"If anyone feels that Folk clubs will thrive again by going back to what was happening in the 60s then they are more than welcome to open a club in that style."

In one sense, I think that's exactly what we're doing at our club - and I'm not sure what you don't like about that, David. Leadfingers' thought on it was the same as mine - it was the sheer diversity of styles which created the richness of the experience.

As I've said before, once a month ours operates in singaround style, and once a month as, effectively, a concert with pre-booked local performers and a main guest. The only differences from the '60s on that night is that the local performers are pre-booked, and the guest does 2 x 45 mins. instead of 2 x 30 mins. We have a wide range of music within what might be called the 'folk canon' - we haven't quite got to the Jug Band yet (only because we haven't found one), nor are there many guest acts doing Music Hall these days, but we wouldn't rule them out.

We don't call it a folk club (not wanting to mislead the likes of Jim C!), but Shammick Acoustic (thus not calling it a club either). Although the singaround nights have been going for some years, the concerts have only been going for 18 months, and it seems finally that numbers might be rising as word is going around our (quite large) village that these concerts are pretty good entertainment. Interestingly though, they appear to be calling it 'folk' even though we don't!

Hopefully, people are hearing a fair amount of traditional music and song in amongst other things, and won't think of it as anything rare or strange as many of Joe Public seem to do. What I hope we provide is good quality acoustic music and song without too much labelling.

Barbara