>>Many organisers(not all - Kevin Sheils certainly excepted) are extremely silly and indeed selfish and short-sighted on this issue<<

Countess Richard go f*** yourself. You insulting person, and I don't give a toss who you are.

V I am shocked!
Also think you are justified in that reaction if you took the comment personaly.
Now I happen to know Villan and love going to his well run friendly village hall /club.
I have played there and hope to again shortly.
He can advertise his events.
He can get good deals from great well know performers.
He is a true gent and has put a great deal of effort into providing a service both to the regular performers and to the audience.
But there is nothing further
he can do to make people want to come and listen.
The trouble is as stated further up the thread the diehard folkies.
The ones with a snotty attitiude.
The ones with the fixed opinions and tedious definitions.
Have managed to kill the interest of any young inovative new people into forming the new bedrock that the scene needs.
There are so few performers in their teens and twenties who see any fun or enjoyment in attending the museums of ancient music that you short sighted narrow minded officious prats have created.
I know most of you on here will have been doing what you do for fourty years or thirty years and probably about ready to jack it in after all that solid service to the cause.
It is a shame that you didnt tell these dead weight self satisfied boring and meaningless passengers where to get of while there was still time for the good ones among you to find the next generation of club goers.
It is all very well having the few on the telly or handpicked for stardom by the watersons or the Carthys or smooth ops etc.
But you needed to have a supply of new blood in the clubs to keep them going between the extra special visits of the near famous.
They are not there around these parts.Have you got them at your clubs?
IF you have try and keep em.
The trouble with selling any product is that someone must want to buy it.
reclaiming songs from the refuse bin of history is fine.
But dont forget they were dead and thrown away by the generations that knew them when they were traditional.
Now they are revitalised relics.
If you want them to live and be heard you need somewhere to play them and an audience to listen.
I know you may like the extra status you imagine you gain by knowing obscure and elite musical forms.
and maybe you only want to keep it for yourselves so it can be used for making you feel special.
But if it is truly folk it needs to be heard and the local folk clubs are the best way of acheiving that.
WHo will the customers be in thirty years?