If you get visits from folkies who think they're God's gift to the genre (ie. they're 'slumming it' at your club for a bit of sport); then they can use tolerance of talking at your club as a weapon against singers they don't like, reserving silence just for their chums.

At a bar singaround it has to be part of the territory of course, it's their right to talk and there's not much you can do - officially at least. But in a function room supporters can stamp on selective intimidating behavior by being prepared to politely Shush as a first step of laying down the ground rules of respect for all performers. Luckily 'God's Gift" types will know this and probably not bother you in these circumstances - their only weapon if they were to attend would be selectively going to the bar/bog.

Crucially - this does not have to make for a stilted atmosphere at the club. We have good fun at our Brighton Cellarfolk nights despite me having to Shush occasionally. And Shushing was a feature of the very first club I went to in the 1970s - it was also a good fun club despite the Hosts' shushing when necessary.

Remember there's a learning curve for newcomers to Folk also. It does no harm to let people know the basic rules of respect in a function room based club; ie. you don't hold conversations while a singer is performing; you wait for a gap between songs before entering/leaving the room unless the performer can indicate it's ok to come in (we have a glass door at North Brighton Singarounds).

The sad thing is that there are various types of people who might attend a Folk Club who are self centred and selfish for a number of reasons - could be simply that they'd had too many drinks before the Folk Cub began is a recent example I can think of. And we've heard stories of singers touting for bookings who have not the slightest interest in listening to anyone else in the room so are happy to whisper with organizers/residents over any performer they suspect isn't that important.

But one essential thing is that if you do have to shush - do it with a smile. Most people are well intending and will realise there's no malice.

Ian Fyvie