A local club has started to encourage another organisation to film the night's proceedings and "Live Stream" it on Facebook.

It wasn't quite as intrusive as I feared but I noticed that some of the audience were still filmed. The first we heard about it was an announcement on stage.

Of course, this proved very popular with many of the "usual suspects" on Facebook who just live down the road and don't bother their backsides attending the club in any case. You know, all the "Sounds like a great night", "Brilliant photographs", "Wednesday's a bad night for me" types......

The argument from the organisers of clubs and venues which allow such activities will surely be that it encourages people, especially the young, to come along to folk clubs. My response is that if they are that interested, they'll come anyway....just as I've had to do for the last 45 years.

Being present at a live performance is obviously a far better experience than watching it on a computer or other device BUT if it's a cold or wet night and the guest artist is an unknown quantity or not your biggest favourite, you might just be tempted to stay at home and watch it there instead(or later, perhaps).

As it is, I (and many others) will already have a keek at You Tube if we hear of an artist or band with whom we are unfamiliar who are touring in the area.

There was a time that we'd all attend our local clubs regardless of who was on. This is less likely these days and online videos, You Tube, Face book and so on aren't blameless here. They even provide opportunities for chat and blether. So, the users don't even need to leave the house anymore to converse with their pals!

Anyway, it's still early days but I can't see that such innovations will help folk clubs in the long term. It's likely that "Guest Only" type clubs will be affected even more than those clubs which encourage resident and visiting performers to do spots. The latter may actually become more popular with those who "seek the limelight" although more reserved and modest people may not want their efforts shown far and wide.

Rant over. Any thoughts? ;-))