Hello. Yes I used to go there when it was at the pub just by the railway station, most weeks. I used to bring my guitar and sing. I always found it intimidating... as a performer in his early Twenties, as a songer-songwriter I found it virtually impossible to get any respect. OK this is the way it felt. I actually remember overhearing Pam once say something about not likeing Singer Songwriters singing about themselves. I even recall something about Johh Martyn having once appeared and being dismissed for a similar reason. John Martyn was a major influence in my music. If my memory is shakey on the details, appologies in advance... it was a long time ago.

The fact that the widely regarded Paul Simon who is called by many the greatest living american singer-songwriter actually writes the vast majority of his songs in the first person is perhaps an indication of prejudice?

Still the thing to remember is that it was a folk club. There were no such things as "Open Mikes" back then, and I went to the club because it was the only outlet to try my songs in front of people. I was good enough to become a resident at Orpington folk club for a while, and I plugged away at the scene until eventually I got eroded by the prejudices against "anything new" that was prevelant throughout the whole scene. Eventually in at 25 I gave up.

3 years ago I came back. I am in the South West now, and Open Mikes are common. With the opportunity to practice my craft in front of friendly audiences I have blossomed in a way that was impossible in the 1980's in South East London, where the only place a songer-songwriter could play was at folk clubs.

The folk clubs are what they are: they have their own set of unwritten rules and their own cliques, and own trends "The organiser likes Tom Paxton, so everyone sing some Tom Paxton". Residents are there to extend and promote themselves and newcommers are competition. We all know what the rules are and the orgainisers have every right to run a show as they see fit. However I am a great one for calling things what they really are. Dartford Folk Club was always worked like this, in my opinion.

Good well known guests were brought in which attracted big crowds and the reward the residents got was to play to packed rooms. To maintain the label of folk club, new commers are declared welcome, but in practice the climate is such that they will soon go away unless they can play the politics of the system and promote themselves somehow, or are happy to just tag along being tolerated.

Fortunately there are many more places to play these days if you are a singer-songwriter than folk clubs, so there really is no problem. The organisers obviously have done wonderful work and are to be respected for it, and indeed I admire anyone who does something that good for live music. But I could never have called Dartford friendly to performers twenty years ago, and unfortunately it appears that nothing has changed. The comments I see here about how newcommers are treated just muatch all I remember of the club. It's fine, people like me should simply go elsewhere....