Robin Hall used to turn up regularly and occasionally sing at the Loft coffee bar in Hampstead (a place the size of a shoe box that rings bells with more than a few folksingers)circa 1960. He was already making records then and was very upbeat and talkative. Shortly afterwards, he had his big UK television success with Jimmy McGregor. The great thing about Scottish singers, then as now, is that no distance existed between them and their listeners. You listened, you met, you talked, you became acquainted. Things are still pretty much that way in the world of traditional music, I think, although I am no longer in close touch.