I haven't ordered the book yet but I think I should.

My local club, the Herga, has greatly changed in character since I was a regular attender in the 70s. Nowadays mostly oldish people but mostly recently made songs: make of that what you will. It's not much to my taste so I go there only on special occasions; but it IS still going strong, after over 50 years.

The only club that I attend regularly nowadays is Sharp's, at Cecil Sharp House. There we get a mixture of ages and a mixture of kinds of material, but with a good proportion of traditional songs. Occasionally there as many as three guitars in the room, other times none. (And on rare occasions Tom Paley brings his, and we're in for a real treat.)

Quality of performances ranges from dire to brilliant, with most being at least pretty good. I can put up with the dire because there's not a lot of that and because I can look forward to the next person probably doing something completely different and much better.