I have to admit I had believed that the club scene had deteriorated since I attended them regularly (up to ten years ago Snail), but I hadn't quite realised how far this had gone.
Ebor-fiddler
"That's why we started the clubs in the first place"
No it wasn't - I was round in the early days too. Sure we had The Clancys and The Dubliners, and we sang our heads off to them - when we were invited to. But we also had the sense - sorry - the desire to listen to singers like Jeannie Robertson, Joe Heaney, MacColl, Lloyd, Killen - you could hear a pin drop when they sang their ballads and songs, not just out of respect, but out of a desire to hear what THEY were singing.
I started off in the Spinners Club in Liverpool forty-odd years ago, great chorus club, but when a solo song came up it was listened to in complete silence, and if any brain-dead ego-tripper (usually with 'the drink taken') tried to join in they were shushed into silence. If they persisted, which I can't remember ever happening, they would have been bounced out of the club and into the street in two seconds flat - great days, great singing.
This was the case pretty well throughout the thirty-odd years I was involved in the clubs, at The Spinners, The Singers Club, The Waggon and Horses in Manchester, and the dozen or so others I sang at and helped run, also at Festivals like Keele and Poynton..... everywhere, pretty well right up to ten years ago.
Coincidently, I am just indexing some of the hundred-odd interviews we carried out with Norfolk singer Walter Pardon. He talked about singing at home, at the harvest suppers in the local farm barn. Crammed with people, lashing of food and drink, yet complete silence for the non-chorus songs: Van Deiman's Land, Lord Lovell, Broomfield Hill..... even though everybody present had heard them a thousand times and knew them backwards - you could hear a pin drop. "We had too much respect for the singers and for the songs" - wonder where all that respect went?
Richard:
Since when was singing a compulsory singalong activity and what's it got to do with how good or bad a singer is?
Snail,
"Jim on the other seem determined to destroy its reputation and undermine the work of the many folk club organisers"
Your posts get nastier and more dishonest every time you make them - was it something I said?
With respect, I suggest that it is the club organisers who have renaged on their responsibilities, allow their club nights to be practice sessions for non-singers and openly advocate that no standards are necessary for singing at a club - even the ability to hold a tune, who are the ones set on undermining the club scene - wonder who that could be? I suppose after having made these proposals, and having played down the existence of SSs "Blues, Shanties, Kipling, Cicely Fox Smith, Musical Hall, George Formby, Pop, County, Dylan, Cohen, Cash, Medieval Latin, Beatles, Irish Jigs and Reels, Scottish Strathspeys, Gospel, Rock, Classical Guitar, Native American Chants, Operatic Arias and even the occasional Traditional Song and Ballad" all performed "irrespective of ability"" clubs, you are now going to tell us that the Singalongamax clubs of this thread don't exist either? Perhaps, now you're here, you could give us your opinion on the theme of this thread.
Yes, things are different here in Ireland. People who go to singing sessions do so to listen to the singing and the singers, not to show the world that they know all the songs, the result being that, just as the fortunes of the music have been changed for the better to the extent that you can be pretty sure that it will be listened to and played by at least the next couple of generations, singing seems to be on the up with excellent new young singers taking up the songs – and being listened to with rapt attention – can you say the same or are all the good people contributing to this thead making it up?
Jim Carroll