"So why did you cite it as an example of what is wrong with English folk clubs?"
It was a comment on what has happened to the scene in general - as far as I'm concerned, the Electric' scene was a giant stride in that direction - making the same indigestible 'electric soup' of a song form that is basically narrative.
My misgivings are of what has happened to the clubs in Britain - not just in England - my brief thumb-through included the scene as a whole.
I seem to remember that it was a Sussex folk club that was offering pop hits from the fifties on their 'folk', though I might have mis-remembered that one.
England does have a 'Folk Metal scene FOLK METAL UK but it's beside the point.
It really doesn't matter Bryan - as far as I can see, with notable exceptions, the scene has gone down the pan, and some of the arguments being put forward here have done little to show I'm wrong.
Instead of nitpicking, perhaps you might answer the question I asked earlier - what is your opinion of what some of the 'anything goes' clubs are putting on, and what is being argued for here?
Do you believe that is is acceptable to turn up at a folk club and never hear anything resembling a folk song?
I really could do without the waffle about "It depends what you want" and the crap about my going to clubs waving a copy of '54 - that has never been my position, and we've been disagreeing for long enough for you to know that.
Do you think that a punter turning up at a folk club has a right to hear a fair number of folk songs during the evening, or has the term lost any meaning for you too?
"the best in-depth and no-nonsense discussions"
I take your point entirely about New Penguin Book Sue - we have to bite the bullet before we shell out for 'Street Ballads - I saw a copy in I.T.M.A. in Dublin, - looks fascinating, but lending libraries that would stock such an item are a bit thin on the ground here in the Wild West.
That's what gets me about these arguments - there is so much published evidence, past and present, of what constitutes folk song and virtually none on what people claim it has become, other than, "folk song is whatever I choose to call it", or the old cliché that inspired all those lovely old Hollywood musicals, - "I just wanna sing!!!"
Jim Carroll