Sorry Tim - I think we have the same concept of Morris but a different one of song clubs
The clubs I were involved in were not sing arounds - they were very much latecomers on the scene and pretty much equivalent to the singers circles I have described
You can neither control standards or repertoire in singaround clubs
Our clubs were resident based - if anybody wished to sing they were given a song in the singers from the floor spot - if they were good enough they might be given a booking and those desiring to do so could join our singers workshop to be helped improve.
The residents embarked on feature evenings around a theme, put on a Mummers Play occasionally - the Singers Club put on an annual theatrical event which took about three weeks to learn and rehearse and ran nightly for three weeks.
The residents researched songs and made albums based on their researches - they opened up the London repertoire and made two albums on the results, made one on the 19th century fight for the vote and the effects of the Industrial Revolution, two superb albums of sea songs and the women did an album of women's songs
They co-operated with some of Britain's finest actors and readers to produce two sets of albums of poetry and song for schoolchildren - 'Poetry and Song (14 discs) and the other 'Voices' (8 discs, I think)
You could never have done a fraction of that with a singaround set-up, nor could you have demanded a basic standard or repertoire
As I said, Morris was a revival - given the arguments here, there was no reason you shouldn't put on Swan Lake
Jim Carroll