I've just caught up with this thread after a few days away.

From experience I would say that Keith is one of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of knowing when it comes to encouraging new performers. He was the one who persuaded me to sing at a session in the first place and always was there to help with words and tunes if I dried up. If it wasn't for Keith I'm not sure that I would have started singing at sessions at all. Now some people might say that would have been a good thing......

The point is that there is a difference between someone starting to sing and suffering from nerves, (or, as happens to us all, that 'senior moment' when you totally forget a song that you've sung hundreds of times) and the person who turns up not having even tried to practice and makes a total dog's breakfast of everything they do. If someone comes in to listen and is persuaded to sing, fine - they would not have had the opportunity to prepare but, if you know you're going to perform beforehand then the least you can do is respect the other people there and PRACTICE. OK, you may still make mistakes, but, from experience, it is so obvious when someone hasn't prepared and, to my way of thinking, that doesn't show respect for the group as a whole. It also shows a great lack of self respect - do you really want to show yourself up like that?

Kendall, on the other hand, having sat through a performance like that with his head in his hands, would leave in a huff saying "what an ar****le"!