"One point I was getting at is that not everyone who goes to a folk club as a participant is a professional performer, and not all have strong aspirations in that direction. They are simply people who enjoy folk music and enjoy singing (and playing an instrument in many cases) and in fact care about their music.

To use pejorative terms such as "snigger snogwriter" or "practicing in public" or to condemn them for forgetting their words sometimes - what professional hasn't done that some time? and wanting to keep a cribsheet handy as a confidence booster is a gross insult to these people."

To my mind this is a rights AND responsibilities issue. If a club or singaround 'grants' you the 'right' to sing (and most do, in my experience) then you have a 'responsibility' towards the the other members of the organisation (whether it be the audience or other singers) not to bore the pants off them, or cause them discomfort and, hopefully, to entertain and move them. If you can't remember the words, or sing in tune, or interpret a song in an interesting way, then you are not fulfilling your responsibilities - and THAT'S insulting!

This debate is ALWAYS framed in terms of discouraging beginners - but, I insist, it is not! There is nothing wrong with encouraging beginners but I don't think it's unreasonable to ask beginners to work at their art and to try to improve; it is their responsibility to do so. What annoys me is people who are crap as beginners and crap 3 or 4 years later. What often tends to happen is that they transcribe longer and longer songs into their f****ng exercises books and hence take longer and longer to mumble and moan their way through them!