Jim Carroll
I have never advocated a purist club, I have never supported such a narrow idea,

Never said you did, Jim. I'm just trying to determine the criterion for what is acceptable outside the 1954 definition, exactly what it does say on the label. The Singers Club and Court Sessions seem to have got round the problem by not saying very much on the label at all. The closest we have got so far is music that "corresponded to what I [Jim Carroll] thought folk song sounded like. Do you still maintain that that isn't subjective?

"I have been going to folk clubs for forty years, quite often more than once a week. "
Well done you -- about the same time I was involved - and your point it....?

Not true Jim, you stopped going 14 years ago since when you've been to folk clubs a "dozen or so" times. I am still going. I probably go to folk clubs a dozen or so times in three months. My point is that I may have a better idea of what is going on in UK folk clubs than you.

The example I gave was of one that is being argued here - a folk club that didn't know its folk arse from its elbow.

ONE club, twenty or more years ago, didn't appreciate the value of Walter Pardon. WOW! What more proof could we possibly need of the moribund state of folk clubs in 2014? Nuff said.

What exactly is your point here Bryan - that the folk revival is booming and I'm making it all up - that people who have no interest in folk music yet call their clubs 'folk' are figments of my imagination.

My point is that the state of folk clubs in the UK is not as you describe it. There is plenty of traditional music and song and new music influenced by the tradition being played up and down the land and not just in Lewes. Do you think I am lying or that it is all a figment of my imagination? Yes, there are clubs which tend more heavily toward contemporary singer/songwriter music. I have heard indirectly of clubs that are actively hostile to traditional music but I have never personally come across one. You have given permission for anyone to play what they like. Your idea of what corresponds to what folk song sounds like has no more authority than anyone else's.

Are all the people who take part in these forums and say their experiences the same as mine lying.
Are those who agree with that conclusion yet defend the situation by saying nobody wants to listen to the old stuff anymore because its had its day figments of my imagination?

Just examples of your selective reading of the evidence as I pointed out before. (You called me an arrogant little prat.)

Can British folk song both in performance or as a research topic look forward to a glowing future

Yes, I think so but it would help if we had more support from people like you instead of the constant, destructive negativity.

There was little sign of that being the case fourteen years ago - even less now.
There certainly wan't much sign of it when I spent a week in London earlier this year

Gosh! You spent a week in London. Which clubs did you go to?

Off to Oxford next month to do some research work on two radio programmes on Ewan - any suggestions of what to look out for

Well. you could try these.
Nettlebed Folk Club
Oxford Folk Club
Martyn Wyndham-Read on 10th October at Oxford is an excellent singer and a great exponent of Graeme Miles' songs.

P.S. You still haven't responded to my post of 02 Sep 14 - 01:13 PM.