Never mind fractious children. When I ran clubs in basic North-eastern England pubs - Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Shildon - my problems were with adults

Darlington (The Spinning Wheel club) was pretty well behaved. Shildon was probably too small a town (though my town) to support a club at all, though we had our moments. But Bishop!

At our first venue, the Castle Hotel, the landlord complained about the state of the Ladies after our club nights. I cannot shed light on that! And guests/floor singers moaned about the noisy crowd. Tom Gilfellon called it the worst club he'd ever encountered. The bar was in the folk club room which didn't help, even though the room was big, and the landlord saw no benefit in closing it during performance.

When I saw the conditions imposed by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger for respect and order (and no bar) during their sets,   I realised I couldn't possibly have them at the club.

If only I had waited. Soon, we had a lad on the committee who was, well, a lad. V bright, v engaging but hard as nails. One night, someone started blowing at a mouth organ in the Gents - directly behind the makeshift stage - during a guest spot. Big Pete went in,
and suggested the youth be quiet. Youth gave one last, defiant blast. Pete responded quite forcefully. It is close on 40 years ago and I no longer remember whether it was a butt, and punch or a slap. But it ended with Pete telling him: "You're a good turn, but you were on too long."

I disapprove of violence, naturally. I approve of the fact that it seemed that night to work.

Colin

Salut! Live



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