Wednesday last, Brighton Singers' Folk Club celebrated being 30 years old. Nothing special, admittedly, compared with those such as Horsham and other veteran clubs that have made their 40th recently.

The difference is Brighton Singers' has nearly always met in a public bar and followed a Singaround format.

Being bar based most of the time has its own rewards, argues our Vice President John McCluskey. The biggest, I suggest from my observations, is that you can spot someone who's curious, have a chat with them, and perhaps get them to try a song they like or knew at school.

For a while in the 1980s we issued certificates to people who made their public debut at our singaround. We issued over a 100 in quite a short space of time!

Though all of the certificate recipients have long moved on, several of our supporters of today may not have ventured into singing folk had we not been accessible in a bar environment.

I recall debates not so long ago rubbishing bar based folk clubs. Without a doubt there would be less folk singers active today if all clubs had shut themselves behind doors and fat entry fees.

Ian Fyvie - Co-founder and President. BSFC