Greetings from Northern France.

My first introduction to folk was in 1965 or 66, in a pub on the corner where the road from the town arrived at the seafront. A couple of singers would entertain a small group of eager schoolboys/girls but it was never a 'club' as such. Graduated from there to the Bay in Cullercoats, probably the best folk club in history, especially in those days when the quality of the floor singers was such that guests just got the same as everybody else - max three songs either side of the interval.

I remember going to an all-day ceilidh there (the bar closed between 3 and 6 and the music just spilled out into the streets) then at closing time heading off to the town to do a 26-mile sponsored walk starting at midnight from St James' Park.

We also used to go to a Sunday night modern jazz club in a posh hotel in Whitley Bay, which might very well have been the Rex. If three of us went along, we would normally have made up at least half the audience.