One of the problems with the arguments we have about folk clubs and their quality or otherwise is that we are often arguing at cross purposes.

It seems to me that there are two main types of evening/venue.

1) The guest night/concert venue when a performer or band are paid to entertain an audience. In such circumstances, it is reasonable to expect a professional standard of performance from those who have been engaged to entertain.

2) The singers night/singaround when the primary purpose is participation by those present. Sometimes you get people coming along on singers nights to listen, but they are incidental to the main purpose of the evening and if you do come to listen on such evenings it is not unreasonable to expect you to take pot luck as the singers are not there to entertain an audience but to share songs with other singers.

Many of the criticisms voiced here of the quality of singing in folk clubs seem to me to be confusing the two purposes. If you are criticising a club for poor singing on a singers night, then maybe you are being unfair as the singers nights are, among other things, an opportunity to try things including new songs that may not have been completely learnt yet, for newcomers to dip their toes in the water and for those who have no professional aspirations but simply enjoy singing. On the other hand, if your criticism was of a guest on a guest night then that is a different matter.