It depends on how much time you want to put into it. Learning HTML is great, and probably a good idea, but may be overkill if you just want to put together a functional website that gets the information out about your band, folk club or whatever. A fellow Mudcatter told me about Mr. Site . I got stuck with the job of putting a website together and it had to be done quickly, and this worked well - there was very little in the way of learning curve and I had the website up in a day or so. One thing I like about it is that the website building tools are all on-line, so I can update the website quickly from any computer. The cost is reasonable, too. I'm in the USA and this company is located in the UK, but that hasn't been a problem.

If you have the time and the inclination to learn HTML go for it - it's a great skill to have, but if you want something quick and easy you might try something like Mr. Site, or use some of the on-line templates and web building tools offered by some site hosters, such as GoDaddy or Yahoo. (Yahoo used to have a much better on-line web builder, but they seem to be steadily going downhill). You'll be limited as to your format - it depends on how creative you want to get. Here's the site I did using Mr. Site: http://www.richmondfolkmusic.com , and here's one I did using Yahoo's on-line tools: http://www.frugaldecorconnection.com .

Good luck and let us see the site when you have it done.