The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #138803   Message #3182256
Posted By: Steve Hunt
06-Jul-11 - 04:36 AM
Thread Name: 'Folk Club Forum' at Sidmouth Festival
Subject: RE: 'Folk Club Forum' at Sidmouth Festival
I was the secretary of Bodmin for several years, and am still, at forty-nine years of age, almost always the youngest person in the room by some distance. I have performed at Swindon, and was the second-youngest (my then musical partner is younger than me). The people who have been running folk clubs for 40 years were, obviously, 40 years younger when they started them - about the age that Sam is now. Is the success of Sam's club indicative of a wider revival of interest in the folk club idea, or merely an anachronistic one-off? Those of us involved in both the long-established and new clubs (in my case, Bodmin and Barley Folk) would, I'm sure, value his contribution at a forum hosted by the estimable Vic Smith. Anyway... my answer to the question, "(do I) think is it more important to have a young club organiser at the meeting than people who have been performing for 40 years or running folk clubs for 40 years?" is, " yes. " Not because I don't understand or appreciate the phenomenal contributions of all those people who inspired me, but because wI believe that we need someone to inspire the next bunch. I want the folk club movement to have more to look forward to in the next ten years than an agenda of: "last one left alive, sing "Wild Mountain Thyme" and switch the lights out...