I can concur with that last summation; most punters can tolerate a few Early English tunes for a short while, but respond better to more familiar singalong stuff. We therefore would start with the older stuff and gradually inject more familiar stuff as the evening went on. One of our worst gigs was playing Early Music, as we had been commissioned to do, to an obviously uninterested audience, only to find them erupt with delight when the main act came on and did uptempo skiffle songs, all of which we could have also done for them if they’d asked in the first place.