""Whether we like it or not, no matter how wide their tastes, everybody compartmentalises their music - try singing a traditional ballad, or performing a piece of chamber music at a pop venue (which, it appears to me, many folk clubs have metamorphosed into) - and then get ready to run for the door.""

That just shows how out of touch one can get.

I regularly attend two different open mike nights where rock and pop are the staples. In both venues I am treated with the same well mannered acceptance as is accorded the occasional pop, or rock number that makes its way into a predominantly folk event.

Look again my friend, because the kind of tight arsed proprietorial attitude you describe is beginning to look very much like projection.

Don T.