I really enjoyed the grapes in sheffield because i did a gig there to a full house.
I do not mind clubs having rules, but having rules means the club becomes proscriptive, I had the choice not to go to the singers club, there were and still are plenty of clubs in london and the uk that put on "songs that in some way or other fitted the documented and long tested description of folk songs and weren't Urban Spaceman or September Song - in fact - what it said on the tin."
Jim, if you are in teeside I think you would enjoy Billingham folk club,