I've read all this with interest.

We all love folk clubs but its amazing how soon we start bitching about them....I'm not quite sure of the answers to all these questions. Just occasionally you DO think, hey I've wandered into a support group for people who would like to be performers but can't face up to the responsibilities involved.

Other times its like going to a church where all the responses are in Serbo Croat - you know, weird versions of well known songs.

I do know this, I enjoy watching a really good original performer - more than performing myself, and its always a delight when I discover one - and the folk club is more likely to provide one than a night in front of two hundred tv channels of shite.

We, on the folk scene, should have one ot two of our own tv channels, as we obviously can pick better talent than the people whose job it is to do so.

all the best

Big Al Whittle