"Jim appears to be deeply confused."
Yes, I most certainly am. I wonder why in gods name we can get involved in a worthwhile enough thread like this and end up turning it into meaningless mush by playing infantile word games - "you said this - I said that - no I didn't...." until the mind slams shut; we really should be ashamed of our childish behaviour.
Question - Does performance ability matter - Answer IMO - Yes, it most certainly does; we owe at least that much to the Sam Larners', Harry Coxs' and Phil Tanners' and all those who were generous and caring enough to have passed it on to us - and to those who turn up to listen to it. I'm with Shimrod; there should be no difference between a guest night and a resident's night in aiming for quality; anywhere our music is performed publicly it should never fall below an acceptable standard, and that standard should be set and maintained by the organisers.
Anybody running a successful club should be passing on their secret to those of us who would like to see all the clubs improve.
As Rosie suggested, we should be discussing how to improve the clubs, not whether it is necessary to do so. How about approaching these questions from that revolutionary angle in future.
Jim Carroll