Folkiedave, folk clubs are folk clubs and concerts are concerts. Different things with different pleasures. Countless times I've heard someone in concert and thought "Very nice, but it would be so much nicer to hear them in a folk club." and then been proved right when we booked them.

the "here is a song I only wrote this morning so I may not sing it right" syndrome

and other mythical beasts like the "John Lennon impersonator", "the teenage diary singer" and "the song strangler" who apparently dominate all the folk clubs in the land except the ones I go to. OK, I'm sure they exist but perhaps they are the price you have to pay for hearing J who turns the interpretation of Child ballads into a labour of love and S who, in her sixties, sings like an angel and looks like a young girl as she does so. Then there's M who has only been singing in public for two or three years and, yes, he was a bit shaky when he first started and still has a limited repertoire but his voice has matured wonderfully. He had a cake at the club on his eightieth birthday. None of these have ever been near a concert stage.

And then there's the satisfaction of seeing the Folk Prom at the Albert Hall on the telly and thinking "We gave that bloke his first solo booking and I've seen that other chap perform a few feet in front of me with no PA in front of an audience of fifty."

Not to forget N who remembers the singers in his grandparents' Sussex pub when he was a child and now turns up with his eleven year old grandson who sings and plays banjo.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to write this. It's helped me realise just how much I value folk clubs.