The example I gave of one floorsinger (out of five) who was awful, while the rest were all very good, happened at a folk club that has been going for decades, and which was full on that particular night.

If bad floorsingers really was something harmful to clubs, surely QED it would have destroyed those clubs years ago. The fact that it hasn't suggests that if there's anything wrong with folk clubs it is something else entirely.

Personally I don't really think there is anything especially wrong with folk clubs. The UK folk scene is doing a hell of a lot better than plenty of other niche, non-mainstream musics.

Oh, and the really awful singer I referred to was a guy in his early 20s – precisely the sort of 'new blood' that bad floorsingers are supposedly discouraging from attending.