I am not going to get drawn into this thread. I initially found it interesting and made a couple of posts myself but have grown to despair of it as the same old arguments get churned over endlessly and the analysis has now reached the dictionary

I have added nothing to the list of things that people haven't said - I have had my own say in my own terms and quoted nobody

I do not fear for the future of the music that has been round longer than any other. On one website alone there are already over 70 significant festivals in the coming year. As regards folk clubs, unless I am mistaken they are independently run by individuals or groups of hardworking enthusiastic intelligent and knowledgable people who put their own time and energies into creating the type of club they want with the performing policies that they who put the work in decide - and bless every one of them

My suggestion for getting 'our' music (you may or may not like what I like) some respect is for each of the protagonists in this sad thread to wipe the slate clean, ignore what has been written to date, and each one to set down independently without reference to others what they would like to see in Folk Clubs

The one obvious thing in this thread is that you are not going to agree and you are not going to persuade each other - it would have happened by now. A list of each of your own personal preferences would be far more useful to a Folk Club organiser trying to get ideas than ploughing through everything that has been written here

Looking at the list of posters to this thread, it started off quite varied but it is now down to the hardcore so far from influencing people you are now down to the number of people you could get round a table. Pardon me if I now leave that table - I'm off to the bar