I didn't bother re-visiting this subject in the hope that the unpleasantness would disappear.
A word on the original subject - hopefully without the hassle.
If a club opens its doors to the public and advertises a certain type of music, the organisers take on the responsibility of ensuring, as far as possible, that those coming through the door are given the opportunity to listen to that music in the best possible conditions (given the prevailing circumstances) and to a standard that doesn't fall below 'acceptable' to a listener (not the case if you are just a bunch of mates sitting round to 'have a sing')
I believe that most people have the ability to be singers and with work, can become good singers.
Clubs - singers gathering together regularly to sing - provide excellent opportunities to encourage people to start singing and develop as singers; it largely depends on the will of seasoned singers to devote time, thought and energy to working with others.
Virtually every club I have been involved with developed a workshop to give advice and access to material to develop repertoires and assistance, should it be requested.
We found the best method of work was through self help groups giving positive, friendly and practical advice; in that way workshops became two-way streets in which all benefited - we were all students who took something away from the work we did..
We fought against the idea that clubs should be used as places to rehearse and we never encouraged singers with major problems to work those problems out in front of our audiences - not fair on the audiences, on the other singers, and certainly not fair on the music which we felt was important enough to pass on.
Certainly not the only way of helping singers, but it worked for us and it's still working for me now that I have returned to singing after a long gap.
Jim Carroll
A couple of footnotes.
We are at present considering a radio programme which we hope will cover the work done by MacColl, which will certainly cover his work with The Critics Group.
Our collection of Clare songs (280 of them) will be going up for public access on the Clare County Library Website in the new year - a wealth of songs from some of the county's finest singers