Very pleased to see Lea Nicholson given a name check on this thread. He was a resident at Merlin's in Clerkenwell around 1973, along with other little known folkies like Richard Thompson and Ssimon Nicol. He used to play a mean "Dam Busters March" on his squeezebox! One week I think he and RT did "Coronation Scot" together (ancient light music piece about a British streamline train, for the colonials' benefit).

Strangely enough Bill Vanaver and Livia Drapkin also appeared at Merlin's - I seem to remember that they were heavily into Cretan music, and Livia (or was it Bill)played a bouzouki/bouzar/mandolin/whatever using a goose quill as a pick.

And what about the ineffable Tom Paley? Did he learn to play the fiddle eventually?