Personally I love ballads when engagingly performed (which isn't always the case, of course), and I do think they're the creme-de-la-creme of the traditional song repertoire.

But when I first started going to folk clubs all I wanted to do was join in chorus songs, and a ballad would have been a massive turn off - yet I would still say that, back then, I 'enjoyed folk song'.

As a ballad fan I would prefer not to hear a whole evening of them and - even in a session dedicated to ballads - I always hope that someone will have the good sense to throw in one of the lighter ones to balance out all the blood-soaked epics.

Finally I must give our OP, Big Al, due praise for a line that made me laugh:

"The House carpenter never points to the hills of hell and says (Chris tarrant style)...but we don't want to take you there, we're off for two weeks in Benidorm!"