No reason to disbelieve Jim's account of an evening at C# House; but EFDSS has changed since those days, and changed and changed again. Not all the changes have been for the better (depending on one's point of view and tastes) and like any organisation it is still far from perfect. But overall it does much more for folkies in general than it did of old, giving similar weight to dance, song and music.

Besides participatory events and concerts it also runs seminars and conferences on various subjects. Bob Askew hosts occasional "ballad chats" where we listen to one or two version of a ballad, sung by one or other of us and/or recordings of transitional or revival singers, and then discuss the ballad, somewhat as we do on here but in real time face to face.

One development of which some of us would approve, but Jim presumably would not, has been several courses about folk song by Steve Roud.