" i suppose you would say this is alright because it was a traditional singer doing it not a folk comedian.methinks your biased against folk comedians,"
I have no idea why I should suggest this behaviour tolerable from anybody - I suggest you have my attitude to traditional singers arse-uppards.
I can give examples of badly behaved traditional singers - if they consistently behave badly don't book them.
Any booked performers have a responsibility towards whoever booked them and to the audience who come to listen to them.
The problem with traditional performers is that they are invariably unused to the folk-club environment and what is required of them needs to be carefully pointed out - if you don't do this, anything that goes wrong is you'r (the club's) responsibility.
The people I am referring to are seasoned performers who have made bad behaviour part of their act - I know that there was once a whole bunch of them; don't know if that's still the case.
I've known performers - some of them among the best, who have had (IMO) an over-fondness for drink, but who still manage to remain fine musicians - not a problem, revival or traditional.
It's the unprofessional posers who think it permissible to behave badly and constantly inflict that bad behaviour on audences who get up my nose.
Jim Carroll
Incidentally, one of my all-time favourite musicians had a drink problem to the point of it being an illness.
He invariably put in an excellent, often spectacular performance, though occasionally not as good as his best.
We booked him regularly, but always attempted to find out at what stage his drinking was and planned accordingly.
One night I was horrified to see a group of folkies deliberately tanking him up - presumably just for the hell of it.
He was not at his best, but he was still good,
The braindead behaviour of a few morons could easily have ruined things for the audience that night and seriously damaged the reputation of the musician forever - think on't