"Do you think that a punter turning up at a folk club has a right to hear a fair number of folk songs during the evening,"

A right? No. A reasonable expectation, yes. However if what they got was an evening of Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson or even Ewan McColl I don't think they could argue the Trades Descriptions Act. You just have to accept that club is not to your own taste (just as a club offering more traditional fare might not be to someone else's) and look elsewhere. that's how it's always been, at least in my own 45 years' experience.

What you don't seem to realise, Jim, is that the points you make, valid as they are, are the preserve of academics, collectors and enthusiasts. For most people, folk clubs are simply purveyors of a particular form of entertainment, one which is difficult to define but broadly recognisable. If they lead people into a deeper interest and understanding of traditional music then so much the better, but that is not what brings people in to folk clubs in the first place - they go because they like what they hear, and they like the special intimate atmosphere which most clubs generate.

It gives me no pleasure to say it, but I think one of the reasons for the decline of the clubs was because they became too hard-core, catering much more for the committed enthusiast than the casual enquirer. As that generation found themselves with less time to spare due to increased work and family commitments, the clubs failed to attract a new generation who turned instead to other forms of music.