The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155680 Message #3664647
Posted By: Musket
30-Sep-14 - 06:51 AM
Thread Name: Guest Nights on the way out
Subject: RE: Guest Nights on the way out
I suppose that's how folk clubs have transformed. I had been going to many folk clubs for a number of years before I ever came across a sing around in the "go round this way" sense. They may be a default now, but there must have been a time when the switch happened.
Most of the clubs in South Yorkshire and The North Midlands up to the mid '80s when I started working away a lot tended to be "get up and stand in the corner / stage area when the M/C gave you the nod. Their job (my job for that matter..) being to ensure the night had a mixture of entertainment and opportunity with a broad selection of tastes.
Seeing people reading and leafing through song books whilst you are singing is still something I have problems getting my head around. I do support a few local clubs and have a good night out, but I don't in my mind compare them to what I recall as folk clubs, where one week we'd have Vin Garbutt, then Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise, followed by Jake Thackray, then Strawhead....
Having helped run a large club years ago that booked big acts and an advertising budget to match, my advice would be that booking Gary and Vera Aspey puts the bank balance in the red for the last time...