Excellent idea Faye. But it won't work.

Look at the number of posters who automaticlly assumed that you're criticising the clubs when you explicitly say that you're not. Most of them seem to have missed your point, which is that singarounds, etc., are fine, but the circuit needs to have professional performers (I'll come back to a definition of that word in a minute) in order to keep standards up and attract new audiences.

I ran a club in the '80s. I had to close it when I moved to another town because of my work. There was already a thriving club in the new place so it would have been pointless opening another.

We couldn't afford many "name" artists so I booked mostly what Tom Bliss would call "local heroes"- good local musicians who were prepared to play in return for whatever we took on the door (which was sometimes quite a good amount.) They were drawn from the ranks of my mates, the better floor singers who turned up, or floor singers that I met at other clubs. I can't remember any duff ones and we never had a bad night.

If you'd come along to me than with a list of local heroes from, say a fifty-mile radius, I'd have had a listen and booked those that I thought were right for the club. This is not being "force-fed" your choice- it's just an extension of my finding singers by visiting other clubs.

We did have singers' nights- about twice a season. There's nothing wrong with a singaround club- I enjoy singarounds myself- but not every week. (Just my feelings- no need to to contradict me publicly if you don't agree!) Our booking policy ensured that we put on evenings that were varied and enjoyable for the audience (we nearly always had a full house) and we provided a place to play for new musicians and bands.

For me this is the way that a club should run. Once again- singaround clubs are fine, but without a national network of performance venues, the music will suffer.

Professionals: not necessarily people who play music for a living, but those who get paid for what they do and take it seriously. As such, they're more likely to lift the standard and present a kind of shop window to newcomers to the folk scene. I don't see singarounds doing that.

Just take the tomatoes out of the tins before you throw them...