London. 'Nuff said - but after years of moaning about the place being a musical desert I got off my arse and started looking, and found there was life in the old tart yet (even if most of the life is injected by a handful of tireless and unsung stalwarts like Martin Nail and Gerry Milne - Gawd bless 'em).
Most weeks I go along to Sharp's in the bowels of Cecil Sharp House, where there's a very friendly and eclectic club running. This week we had Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, with Johnny Collins just happening to turn up to support the choruses, resulting in a magical evening marred only by the fact that one of London's leading showbiz PR companies had booked the adjoining room for a Christmas party (for a laugh, ha ha, as Peter Sarsted would have put it), which brought the bizarre sight of mega-promoter Harvey Goldsmith and his acolytes hogging the bar surrounded by PR bimbettes in party finery while the Sharp's regulars struggled to get through for a pint of IPA. As one said: "It's like a tarts and vicars party, only with no vicars!"
What made it the more galling is that, for all their fame in the folk world, Dave and Anni can't afford to be full-time musicians - relying on the goodwill of the London Borough of Ealing to release Dave for their tours and gigs - yet here were some of the biggest movers and shakers in the music business in an adjoining room and they apparently couldn't give a toss. Grr. End of rant - but that's London for you.
Then there's Islington, which I don't go to as often as I should, but which puts on some superb acts and, for all its wanderings, has always seemed to be what a folk club should be - and out in the suburbs are a fair number of good clubs that I just don't get the time to see.
It has to be said, though that London - particualy central London - isn't a folk-friendly area. There's any number of venues showing live music, some of them deservedly legendary: Ronnie Scotts, the 100 Club, the 606, the King's Head - but for those of us who like to make our own music pickings can be slender. At weekends I' in rural Hertfordshire, where there's a heck of a lot more happening (sadly most of it during the week when I'm stuck in town) - most of it detailed on Kevin McGrath's excellent website.