It seems to me as an observer of this discussion/cum brawl that one of the main requirements for the running of a good club has been either ignored, or at best sidelined, namely, good, committed, competent singing.
Since that night all those years ago I watched Alex Campbell stagger onto a Manchester stage, fumble for his guitar, struggle unsuccessfully to tune it and slur those immortal words "near enough for folk song", I have believed that the club scene has been blighted with the idea that standards are not necessary for the singing traditional songs.
This attitude was echoed perfectly in an earlier posting from Georgiansilver. With respect, we have no idea how these songs were sung in the tradition because, by and large, nobody ever asked the singers. We caught the tradition at the tail end, when most of the traditional singers were either dead or of an advanced age and past their prime as singers, many of them not having sung their songs for forty, fifty, or more years. If anybody wishes to base their assessment on traditional singing on this situation they are very welcome to; it's not my idea of the standards required for the handling of something as beautiful, important and complex as traditional song. For me, it displays disrespect towards the songs and contempt for the people who made them, preserved them and passed them on to us.
I am never sure about singarounds and would tend to visit them and judge them on the general standard of the participants – if the were all (or nearly all) crap I wouldn't go back.
Clubs proper, with a resident and guest policy, I believe, have a duty to both the music and to the punter who pays at the door (or puts money into a hat), to present their songs and singers at a high enough standard to be both enjoyable and understandable. It is up to organisers to ascertain that the singing never falls below an acceptable standard.
It lies within the abilities of all of us, with very few exceptions, to raise our singing abilities to an acceptable level of performance – as long as people are prepared to put the work in. If they are not, I would rather they stayed at home and sang in the bath. Nobody should be encouraged to "practice in public". If you want to bring on and encourage new singers, run workshops, or persuade some of your more experienced singers to help new singers develop; don't let them embarrass themselves in front of an audience. Indifferent singing in public is boring and unsatisfying; bad singing is embarrassing.
There are many aspects to running a folk club well, but unless a club starts and ends with good singing as its main objective it is doing no favours to traditional song; indeed, it could well be helping deliver it a death-blow.
I have no great interest in ballet, and a marginal one in opera, but I have to acknowledge that performers, organisers and others working in these pursuits have invested a great deal of time and effort into perfecting their art and have more than earned the financial support they have received; I don't begrudge them one penny of it.
Personally, I would not like to see my taxes spent on activities which are not taken seriously by those participating in them.
I can think of no greater pleasure (fun) than hearing a good traditional song well sung, and, when I was singing regularly, I can't remember enjoying anything so much as, on the few occasions when I sang at my best, making my songs work for me and for my audience.
Jim Carroll
PS Just to remind whoever used the term; "finger-in-ear" refers to the practice common for centuries (probably millennia) and throughout the world, of cupping the hand over the ear in order to stay in tune – not a major consideration for many 'folk singers' today, I'll grant you!