I, like Ewan MacColl, believe that anyone who wants to sing wants to sing well. Further to that, I believe that anyone who wants to sing well knows that it isn't simply a matter of getting up and doing it but it requires work and practice. They will do that of their own volition not because someone like me is standing over them telling them to do so. My experience bears this out.

Maybe I've just been unlucky - or maybe it's a North West thing, as SO'P suggested - but my experience is very different. I've seen - and heard - lots of people who hadn't put in the necessary work and practice before singing in public, whether because they thought they didn't need it, because they wanted to share their new song with the world or just because they wanted to perform and didn't think we'd mind. And mostly, of course, the audience genuinely doesn't mind - I can't remember ever hearing anyone leave a folk club stage without applause. That's called positive reinforcement, and it's heady stuff if it's not accompanied by a large dose of "here's what you could be doing".

At the Lewes Saturday Folk Club, we have quite a large core of residents all of whom perform traditional or "in the tradition" songs and music. We all care about the quality of our performances and work at achieving good standards. We have many regular floorsingers who share the same philosophy. Perhaps not all of them achieve it but nobody is unlistenable. Some surpass it.

That's the key, of course - peer pressure. Build it trad and the traddies will come.