Well, just for the record...

I first met Al in the spring of 1965, at Judith Piepe's flat. At that time Judith was working for the Religious Broadcasting Department at the BBC, and was managing to get some contemporary songwriters - including Sydney Carter, Bert Jansch, Paul Simon - featured on the Five to Ten radio programme. ("Five to ten - a story, a hymn and a prayer").

When Al eventually did his audition I was impressed by his guitar technique, by the inventive wordplay of his songs, and by his obvious dedication to his craft. Some of his material seemed a bit over-elaborate to me - a bit too literary for the folk-club environment perhaps - but he was clearly a young man who was going somewhere. (Though I didn't forsee then just how far he would eventually go.) Anyhow, Al passed his audition, got his slot on Five to Ten, and the rest is history. Didn't the kid do well?

Wassail!