"I'm a bit confused about the timescale. Jim seems to be suggesting the rot set it when the clubs started booking professional guests."
No Howard - that always happened, as you pointed out
Becoming reliant on professional guest didn't help, but the main thing was moving away from the type of song that brought us together in the first place
Now Ray is saying that all is well - better get yourselves a hymn sheet you can all sing from, I think - and maybe an abacus to count the number of clubs that have gone awol
Jim