The folk world has never paid enough or charged enough on the door for a four piece to make a living in Britain even when there were hundreds of clubs. It has always been considered a cheap form of entertainment and even today that is the case. A ticket price of £5.00 to see an internationally known name strikes me as ridiculous, but I know some clubs over here still regard that as okay. No group could survive in these circumstances, which is why those who do decide to try to make it as a full time outfit have to go for the radio /publicity/ festival/theatre option. The club world can only support solo acts in general, and at the moment seems to be on its last legs as a way for a musician to earn a living from his/her talent. The ladder to success in the new folk world is becoming more and more like the ladder of popular culture and I think something wonderful has been thrown away through parsimony. And I'm not blaming the audiences, it's most often the people who run the clubs who haven't moved with economic realities.