Please don't reduce this further by partonising me Dave - I will only construe it as being defensive
Venues have always been the problem, as has our ability to overcome it
You have ignored the real problem, as has everybody else - that a cloud of distortion and misinformation has been deliberately wrapped around the term "folk" in order to make it a cultural catch-all for anything people cant think of another name for but would like to perform publicly - that has become a hostile take-over and has edged real folk song off the satge many of us worked bloody hard to create
Dedicated people walked away from the scene because it stopped providing what they were looking for
The same would have happened if football grounds had begun to put on ice hockey or The Royal Opera House had begun to specialise in Big Ballads
We had our choice of what we listened to surgically removed gradually

It strikes me that if you spent as much time actually discussing the subject as you did defending the indefensible (somewhat insultingly) we'de get much furhter with these discussions and would have remained friends - I miss that feeling from you as much as I miss not being able to go out for a friendly pint
Jim