Jim Carroll

what's a poor girl expected to do in those circumstances?

Well, she could stop believing that the wise words of Sweeny are in any way a representation of what is really happening in UK folk clubs. After all, the image he presents of the club he no longer goes to is contested by another regular. She could stop taking that as proof that that all UK folk clubs are in terminal decline.

I know from personal experience that the number and quality of the clubs have declined radically over the last twenty-odd years

No, JIm, you don't. You know from personal experience that folk clubs declined in the eighties. On your own admission, you have little direct experience of what is happening now.

I do believe there are remedies to improve things, if not to put them back to where they were - it's happened here in Ireland.

Please! Tell us more. In the UK we are up against a government that seems to be determined to stamp out all forms of small scale community music.

I said earlier that I believe clubs that call themselves 'folk' take on a responsibility for the music they claim to present.

As I have said before, language is what people speak not what a committee, however erudite, decides. I rather suspect that the "Anyone who sings with an acoustic guitar" definition of "folk" originated in America.

Just before we left London we 'pigged out' on folk clubs, visiting as many of them as we could because we realised we wouldn't get the opportunity here.
We were in a West London club one night were the performances were diabolical and the songs were - indifferent

So what were the others like? Why do you always concentrate on the bad experiences but ignore the good?