One of the things that surprised me, when I started going to folk clubs, singarounds and sessions again after a break of over 25 years, was seeing the use of song books and music stands. I just cannot recall them ever being used in the period when I first went to such clubs in the mid-60s. You just learned the stuff you wanted to do.

In my previous response to this thread, I said:

I would never use a word sheet in a performance, but I can understand if some people have genuine difficulty without one. What I dislike... is singers who just can't be arsed to learn the stuff, and sing from a folder of songs out of sheer laziness.

I still hold to that opinion, but I'm just curious as to why there's been such a change in custom and practice in these intervening years. When I played in a 1950s-style rock'n roll trio - for around 13 years - we had a repertoire of 150 or so songs, and never used music. We had a total list of numbers and organised the set list on the night from watching the reaction to what we played. You may think that 1950's rock'n roll tunes are trivial stuff compared with folk songs - but the Teds in the audience, young or old, would soon tell us if we got a song wrong!

So, what's changed in 25 years?