Re Tom Bliss's post of 2.32 above.

I really believe that "removing the pane" is a far better solution than heaving me, as one individual, in through the window. In the second scenario the rest of the "potential audients and participators (and organisers)" remain outside. In truth, though I might sometimes come across like a whinger with nothing good to say about folk clubs, I'd much rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. If I just accepted what I'm currently offered locally unconditionally, I'd merely be contributing to the perpetuation of the current situation. Maybe that's what I should do, some of you? Just shut up and put up? Would that be better? Respect the status quo, don't rock the boat?

Folkie Dave makes a good point about the festival scene being proof that the folk world has the potential to be more inclusive and outward looking than its danker corners would lead you to believe was possible. However, I don't necessarily think that the younger people attending these festivals are largely folk club stalwarts - they simply like folk festivals (and in some cases maybe concerts and singarounds and sessions). I also suspect that the festival circuit would not be enough for most performers to earn them a living (to briefly return to the original post).

However, if there is a range of folk clubs scattered across the country that consistently attract, say, 50% of their audiences from the under 40s, I'd genuinely love to hear about them. In fact, it would be the best (folk related) news I'd have heard in a long time. I think our differing perspectives on this probably stem from our differing starting points - the posters here are largely on the inside (although unlike some in that position, at least Dave and Tom appear to understand and appreciate the value of looking out of the window whilst beckoning in a comely manner) whilst I'm not part of the folk scene (as far as I know), I'm just a "paying customer" who came to folk via recorded music and hoped to follow this up by attending live performances at folk clubs and have found the experience unsatisfactory on many levels due largely, it would appear, to an accident of geography.

Finally, Snail, my comments are not meant as an attack on "the whole folk club scene" and to continue to misrepresent them as such comes across as essentially an attempt to stifle what to my mind is a perfectly valid discussion. Why would you want to do that? My words on this forum are not exactly going to cause - say - the Lewes Arms to implode. What they might do, and what I hope they do, is to contribute to a longer term process of opening out the folk club scene to a newer audience who may carry it on in some form. After all none of us would like them to die out with the generation that currently dominates them, would we? Snail, you have two great clubs in your small town. You can afford to be complacent. Some of us aren't so lucky. Please don't piss on our fireworks when all we want to do is make things as good for ourselves as they are for you. Is that not a reasonable and decent thing to hope for?