"You keep saying that folk clubs should only do what it says on the tin i.e. Folk Music not written sings."
No I am not Bryan
The Singers Club catered for both - traditional songs and songs based on traditional styles
What we are talking aout hre goes far beyond that - even to include Geldof
The club scene has become a venue for any type of song, without borders, and folk song has been the main victim
We are now at the stage of having to defend the definition of folk even though it is an extremely well-researched genre whose name goes back as far as the 1830s
If you advertise yourself as a folk club, you commit yourself to providing something that loosely conforms to that description
Folk clubs have become song clubs - the term "folk" no onger applies to many of them.
This forum has ben bombarded with complaints from peope who have turned up at a club describing itself as "folk" and being made ot feel unwelcome.
I have left a folk club after sitting through an evening of not having heard a folk song
I know you are aware of this story, but yr 'tis again.
Walter Pardon was booked to do a television interview in London as, as usual, he asked to stay with us.
Pat decided to do a mini-tour for him in th South East Clubs, and she contacted one on the list we had been fold would take him
She phoned up the organiser, who told her she had never heard of Walter Pardon, so Pat described who he was and what he sang.
"Sorry", was the reply, "we're a folk club, we don't do that sort of thing"
I get the impression that this is the stage the folk scene is at in Britain - and no - we all can't jump on a train and nip along to Lewes - life isn't like that
Jim Carroll