Harry, I'm absolutely certain that losing the ability to entertain has played a large part in the decline of the folk clubs. One of the biggest headaches I had as an organiser was dealing with the people who clearly shouldn't have been performing because their skills were so poor that they were tolerated rather than enjoyed. Often these people had no notion that entertainment was part of the equation.

In the early days it was not so much of a problem as there were so many good performers that I could slip the odd dodgy one in and with a bit of banter and perhaps accompanyment we could make their performance passable.

As time went on the audiences began to grow tired as more of the poorer performers wanted to sing while at the same time the people with talent were disappearing as the didn't want to sit through half an hour of embarassing stuff before they go their spot. Indeed there were some club members who seemed to have a mission to get anyone and everyone performing.

As the poorer performers became regulars they would of ten get quite affronted if they were missed out so that a decent act could go on.

I think we've been far to kind to people over the years to the detriment of the folk scene in general. None of the people I'm thinking of ever improved their performances or finally learned their words. Most are still singing the same repertoire by all accounts.

As far as the comaprison with classical music goes, we are not talking about 100 people playing a complicated half hour score. We are talking about three or four verses and as many chords.

Cheers - Captain Swing