GUEST, Wuzzle:
I wonder if the likes of Bob Copper and many of those wonderful people of old would manage to get a floor spot in your club.
What a sad loss for the world   if his wonderful songs and singing and many like him wasn't in it, do you want the modern idea of manufactured music it is all very perfect. But has no soul
Isn't the beauty of folk   just that, real people real life
What happens if everybody doesn't have the same taste in what a performer is, does it make them substandard?

And what happens to people like me who wouldn't dare come to your club in case they weren't good enough, you might end up with to many empty chairs and then another club closes..........

I saw Bob Copper many years ago on several occasions at his club in Peacehaven, and he was always on good form. If you've read about the Copper family life in "A Song For Every Season", you'll have known that the family sang the same songs regularly - at work, at home, in the pub. So they were totally familiar with their music. I'm not making a distinction between amateur or professional or anything in between. Working hard at your music and giving people real pleasure is not making it manufactured - or losing it's soul - while doing it. It's also worth remembering that you don't have to go to a club to sing - you can also go to listen. So, if you don't feel up to performing to the standard set by (consciously or unconsciously) a club for performing, then just go along and enjoy the club anyway.