"anything-goes clubs are doing the songs a disservice."

But this is still somehow assuming that folk clubs have some duty to be about traditional music.

There is no moral or legal precedent which requires this.

Furthermore I've seen plenty of evidence to witness that folk clubs have existed from the very start which were not about trad music - they were more about skiffle and/or blues than trad song, many have always allowed show songs and acoustic pop, and/or encouraged song-writing, (and then there was all that comedy in the 70s).

But even if every club in the land had started as a Trad club, there's nothing to say it should continue to be Trad if the people who go there don't want it to be.

Of course this is a shame, but you can't blame the clubs. This is just some people out enjoying live music. And that's ALWAYS a good thing.

Yes, we do need to do a big education job around Trad song - of course we do, but that's as much around schools and the media as about clubs where people have no real interest in or knowledge of Trad.

So yes, I'd love to encourage Trad song in clubs, and more new Trad clubs, but this MUST be done in an understanding that there is no duty to do Trad.

Clubs which choose to do something else may still be called Folk Clubs with impunity.

Tom