Please, will folks stop worrying about the state of the master tapes. As I've pointed out several times already, I have copies of most of the Leaders and they are in sufficiently good condition for high quality masters to be copied from them.

In any event, I can think of several instances of master tapes being rescued from skips and dustbins before being (re)released on LP or CD. I can even think of one set of masters of an important Irish singer, which ended up dumped under hessian on the roof of an office block. You would never believe it to listen to the digital transfer.

For that matter, anyone who is interested in early blues or old time country music, as I am, will know that the vast majority of reissues have been pressed, not from the original masters, but from scratched and battered 78s that enthusiasts picked up from fleamarkets etc. If they can be returned to saleable condition, then so can the material in the Leader catalogue.

Earlier John Moulden described me as being knowledgable in this sort of field. Vastly overrated I'm afraid. However, I have had some luck in pushing the right buttons, both in terms of things I've worked on, and in terms of projects which other people have been involved with.

This one has me stymied I'm afraid, simply because the costs of leasing the recordings would add a large overhead to what would already be a loss making venture.

If anyone can get their head around that one, I'd be glad to hear from them. That's the issue we should be worrying about, not some vague possibility that the original masters are no longer for for purpose.