I think I'm with Alison on this one. I've been playing in sessions for some 25 years and the best ones have always been the unpaid ones where a (usually) regular crowd turns up and anyone is free and welcome to join in. Unfortunately these seem to be on the decrease. Where I live now (Brussels) several promising sessions were destroyed by landlords paying some people (not necessarily the best musicians and who subsequently got on their high horse excluding others, etc.) and not others. After some years we have managed to get a "normal" session going again on an occasional basis where everybody is free to join in as an equal. Don't get me wrong, I like a paid gig as well as the next musician but a gig is a gig and a session is a session IMHO.

All the best.

mcmoo