I have heard Bellowhead and they are worthy winners in my opinion. Number of live shows is not the issue, quality is. After all they have hardly been on the scene more than a year, but wherever they appeared they went down a storm. Longevity of career is not a prerequisite - being good is what the "best live act" award is for.

Hitchin deserve their award too (though I have few similar clubs to compare them to in my area - Nettlebed being the other one). What rankles here is not the winning of the award, but the naming of it, because I think it should be for the best concert club, which is what Hitchin is. As this award is voted on by the (major) performing acts, it presents a very specific view. And sure, as a performer, I always prefer the bigger venues that can pack 100 or more, have a stage, pay better etc, because it all feeds back to my own importance.

But Folk Clubs (and my use of capitals is intentional) have another role too - to keep live, participatory music going; to keep tradition alive while at the same time giving a platform for the new talent and the future traditions to form; and this while trying to survive the vagaries of licencing, dearth of affordable venues and inadequate funds for advertising. After all, all the major artists that have just voted for the best concert club, started their careers in some Folk Club or other - did they not?

Still, I appreciate that identifying the best Folk Club (from the Folk Music's point of view) would be hard, very time consuming, and would run the risk of coming up with subjective answers anyway.

So well done Hitchin - and well deserved. But who will reward Les and Market Rasen, John at the Topic, Mike at Herga and the dozens of clubs that are the springboard for tomorrow's stars and the true stewards of live folk?