Pip Radish:
But I don't know what stops amateurish performers turning up at your club. I mean, something must be stopping them - there are plenty of amateurish performers out there.

The Esteemed Snail has every right to disagree with me about this but, as I've said before (in a similar thread to this) I think the Lewes clubs have built up a strong local reputation for excellence. It's quite possible that local performers are aware of this reputation and take the trouble to be "presentable", for want of a better word, before doing a floor spot. Other local musicians I know have also expressed this view. As John Boden announced at a Bellowhead concert in Lewes last year, there are "more folk clubs per head of population in Lewes than in any other part of the country". Whether that's true or not I have no idea, but there is no question that the clubs and sessions in and around Lewes have good reputations, for good reasons.