A great man - and it's a parallel type of defiant tradition to that surrounding the music, and involves similar people often enough. And sometimes the same people. Here's a site with some stuff about Fred - and a song about him, with a sound file, by Pete Martin, who sounds like he's one of those "same people". Here's the chorus:

'ave you seen 'im? 'ave you 'eard 'im?
Chuggin' down the road, ridin' on 'is old steamroller.
'e's a famous steeplejack
And the old smokestacks
Make his face go black.
'e's a feller from Bolton
Ohh Ohh Fred Dibnah.