This thread has just been brought to my attention, and there are a number of points I'd like to make as the other half of the Goose.

First: The Goose Is Out! was started specifically because there was no folk venue within easy reach of East Dulwich. We were trekking over to Walthamstow (very enjoyable evenings but a long journey) or up to town (not quite such a long journey but still a trek) in order to listen to the music we love.

We asked local people whether they would be interested in folk events and they said yes. We are not trying to attract people from other parts of London, that is not our intention.

However, strangely enough, our "dingy" "club" attracts regular punters from as far afield as Tunbridge Wells and Brighton as well as from other parts of London (we know this because we sell tickets on WeGotTickets and we get the names and postcodes of ticketbuyers).

Second: Our first venue held 120 people and almost all our events sold out. Our new venue holds 200 people - our first event was full and our Dick Gaughan gig has sold over 140 advance tickets so far. Clearly some people seem to think it's worth coming to East Dulwich to see Dick.

Third: As mentioned above, Dick does not say "ooh, I think I'll go and play a club in central London,that won't be out of the way". He goes where people ask him to go, and we feel privileged to have him come to East Dulwich considering he lives in Scotland.

Fourth: Again as mentioned above, put up or shut up Penguin Person. If you fancy putting your own money on the line (artists have minimum guaranteed fees you know - in some cases extremely high) and spending 90% of your "spare" time on a lot of high-stress activities in order to give people a great evening once a month, then start promoting your own folk venue.

If you just want to slag off other people's venues because (shame!) they are not within easy reach of the place where very important you lives, then STFU.

Fifth: If you could be bothered to get off your arse and come to our "dingy" club (candlelit and fairylight lit, actually) in a "Godforsaken place" (five minutes from a station and on a nightbus route into Oxford Circus) you would find it full of enthusiastic people, four different real ales, and excellent quality support artists (just have a look on our website. You'd normally have to pay to see many of them, and at the Goose they're included in your ticket price for our main artist.)

We also have excellent DJing from Big Chill DJs Folk2Future and a late bar till whenever the last person leaves (plus the nightbus of course so that last person can get home).

We think it's worth more than a ten minute walk, and clearly so do a lot of other people.

Sixth: Re the "missing the point" - you clearly have no idea whatsoever of where Dick Gaughan is coming from, musically and politically. Have you actually listened to any of his music? Do you know anything about him at all? If he could choose to play places, I'm pretty sure it would not be the centrally situated clubs he would be heading for.

When he comes to the Goose tomorrow, we'll ask him :)

Meanwhile, Penguin, we shall be happy never to see you in East Dulwich - in fact, I would go so far as to say, please don't darken our door. We like enthusiastic people at our events who appreciate our venue and the efforts we make for them.