When a session gets hijacked... It happend to me with 2 events that I had been instrumental in starting.

One got changed from a session that welcomed beginners (we would try to help them and run through at least a couple of tunes slowly to make sure everyone played something...) to a beginners session where everything got played at snails pace and it ceased to be enjoyable for the better players and I don't think the beginners gained by having nothing to aim for.

The other which was more of a pub bash anyway, became a place where apparently it was fun to play badly out of time (yes turning tunes into an uncontrolled race, etc was "fun") and it was fun to have bodhrans and other drums beaten loudly to any old rythym, a guitarist who could play in time (I'd played with him on and off for years) not concentrating and following every mistake and making lots of his own, etc.

I tried to get things back under control but as Rick sugested I became the "bastard" although there was later agreement over the problems in the second session I mentioned - more rows with the guitarist who was reponsible for most of the messes - funny really, they told me about them but not one of them managed to a apologise to me when they realised I was right...

I can't help wishing that the people who set the new terms for the sessions (and were nothing to do with the startup) had found or formed their own sessions to wreck but again I fear Rick is right at least if you don't have the support of everyone else in the session. I learned the hard way that you can save your self a lot of grief by simply walking away. This sounds nasty but my take now is that if people can't be bothered to at least try (I'm no expert player) to get things right, they are not worth the effort of playing with.

Now on to Mudcat:

My feeling is that if a number of people are travelling more than say 1hr (probably less) to a session, they are likley to be coming for more than just music and that chatter will naturally increase. I'm having a hard time wording this - I'm not trying to suggest that people should be sociable in a session or that meetig friends is wrong - just that levels of talk are likely to be higher, perhaps higher than is suitable for a good session.

Depending on the size of the venue, increased numbers could be a problem and in any case, I think it fair to say that small sessions tend to be tighter musically than large sprawling ones.

There is also the question of the nature of the session. As an example, the session in Norwich where I was made so welcome when I first came here, is strictly Irish instrumental music. What would happen if I encouraged a number of people from away who don't play that sort of music? Would people get bored and chatter? Would the odd song and lets say Morris dance tune creep in? Would the session that was started by people who have been so nice to me get find their session pulled in directions that they don't want?

As you can see, it is a risk that I wouldn't take. I would of course, as was suggested in the Jug thread, consider (if I lived in a more reasonable location) starting a session for Mudcatters. I think the suggestion is a good one and one that could avoid bad feeling from all sides.

Jon