"Many of the youngsters people throw up as up-and-coming are the 'names' who have had a degree of success - it seems the dogsbodies and instigators with a feel for the tradition are not being replaced at the rate they need to be "

The "they should do something" rather than "we can do something" attitude seems to have taken root. I see a fair few youngsters stewarding for free tickets at festivals but it is definitely the bus pass generation putting out the chairs at folk clubs.

My own observation of the "decline" was that it was, to some extent, to be expected with the big input into the clubs in the 60s. People left because of the normal issues of families, jobs and mortgages and shifts in fashion meant that there was nowhere near like for like replacement.

Many (by no means all) clubs were left in the hands of pretty indifferent singers. I am sure that the failure to even partially replace a declining audience had as much to do with quality as with content.

What is striking is the success of concerts. It is the same demogrphic as the clubs but, from the ones that I have observed, not the same people. The baby boomers seem keen to come back to folk but aren't spending their pensions on watching a floor singer who rubbish in 1970 and hasn't improved since.

That isn't something that I am happy about and it isn't healthy in the medium term. I am aware however of (relatively) younger people running informal folk events but the label "folk club" seems to be toxic as far as they are concerned.