breezy - if you can't be bothered to login to the folk on the folk on 2 website, why should I? More to the point, why should Mudcatters in Texas, Australia, New Zealand...

But the question of the value or lack of value of folk clubs is one which is not confined to people in one part of the world.

Folk clubs have been enormously important for the survival, revival and reinvigoration of a living musical tradition. The most important thing they have done is break down the division between performers and punters, and to make it possible for all kinds of links to be built up and maintained.

It may be that folk clubs as we have known them won't survive. Something will replace them which will enable those kind of connections to continue to be made. The experience of Mudcatters in different parts where the functional equivalent of folk clubs have taken on a different form could be very helpful.