Back from a very enjoyable weekend at Gosport and Fareham Folk Festival.

Seems to have been some relatively intelligent discussion amongst the name calling. I can't cope with it all so I'll pick out a few points.

Jim Carroll

But I believe that what goes on in the clubs should lie within recognisable parameters

What are those parameters? Who defines them? Where can they be found?

Pip Radish

Anyone who didn't know better would think that we were all in agreement.

I have said, a number of times that I think Jim would find much to his liking at The Lewes Saturday Folk Club as, I believe, would you.

OK, quick quiz.

I'm not sure if you are inviting me to take part in the quiz but it doesn't matter whether I mind people using the word 'folk' in lots of different ways because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. What I do object to is the tendency to declare the folk revival dead just because some people use "folk" in a different way. It seems to me to be more important to concentrate on the music than worry about the word.

Spleen Cringe

Using Snail (sorry Bryan) as an example, despite not actually knowing him, in terms of taste and activity he appears a bit of a classic 1954er, but he clearly has a healthily anarchic streak that rails against being boxed in as such.... marks out of ten for this pithy analysis, Bryan?

Well, not really Nigel. In my 35 years on the folk scene before I joined Mudcat I had never heard of the 1954 definition. I seemed to get by without it. I am happy to describe what we do at the LSFC as "folk" even if it isn't all 1954 compliant. I'm not sure about the "healthily anarchic streak". I gather some strange things go on at some places calling themselves Folk Clubs but I rarely if ever encounter it so I don't feel the need to get over excited about it nor do I feel I have any right to tell them to stop.