"What I value about a folk club is its intimacy and you don't get that with an audience of 100 "
Does it have to be either-or?
We had the small, intimate singarounds as part of our workshop sessions, but along with these we could pull in large audiences for, say, Seamus Ennis or Joe Heaney, or Paddy Tunney or MacColl and Seeger.... with every musician and folk enthusiast in the Greater London area turning up so that the atmosphere crackled - magic!
The aim was always to narrow the gap between resident/lesser-known guest evenings upwards, not downwards.
It seems to me that being satisfied with small audiences is selling the music short - "come and we'll cater for you" did it for me.
Apart from anything else, I've always got the impression that strangers were often more comfortable in a crowd rather than a small group where they were obviously the odd-one-out.
I've walked into some of these 'small, intimate sessions' and been left with the feeling that I'd intruded on a private family gathering, or in some cases, a wake even - not for me, I'm afraid.
We were there for the music - the intimacy could come later if you played your cards right!
Countess and Cap'n
"screaming Hammond organ " - "the banging of dustbin lids"
Now look what you've done - as is the 'singalonga' mob with the finger-in-cheeks wasn't enough!
Jim Carroll