"So now I don't want to go out to sing in sessions because I don't have the same functionality as others.   I feel ashamed that I have to either use my song book or bore people to death with the same handful of tired memorised songs. Because of some responses on this thread and others, I feel I have nothing of value to offer."

Tut tut.. don't be so sensitive you daft banana! ;-)

If you scan through this thread I think you'll find that actually it's only an 'ickle smattering of hard-core traddies who object to other people using prompts. And while they're entitled to express their opinions, their opinions (however 'learned') are no more valid than anyone else's!

As I said before, I've heard both fabulous and poor renditions of songs by people using a prompt (actually rather more of the former than the latter). At an amateur level like the average song session, *no-one* aught to feel they need to be able to perform like a pro'.