Oh, also I don't think folkies are any tighter than any other musical tribe. I've put on a lot of informal jazz gigs in bars in obscure corners of London where people have appeared to be genuinely surprised when I've asked for door money. Or where people have said things like 'oh I've only got 4, is that alright?' when the posters clearly said £5, and this does not appear to impede their hands having drinks in them throughout the night. Or when a hell of a lot of the audience ask for concessions but conveniently don't have their card on them. You let them in at that price anyway cos you're a nice person and not a very good businessman. But it seems frankly statistically unlikely.

I would also add that, while I strongly sympathise with landlords doing their best to support live music and facing an uphill struggle in terms of lack of returns from non-drinkers, there are just as many landlords who've said to me things like "hmmm, I think you should only charge £4 entrance, not £6, as it's only a Wednesday night" when they are charging me around £60 for the use of their room. Pointing out that, funnily enough, you'd quite like to actually pay the musicians something, and that you also wouldn't mind at least breaking even on your own invested money and time, doesn't seem to make much difference. It has quite often elicited a kind of look that's half amazement, half pity at the fact that you're actually paying musicians at all who haven't brought 50+ people.