half of the people on the Froots disc have never even set foot in a folk club

To which "half" do you refer and what relevance has the venue anyway?

I have seen everyone featured on Looking For A New England in a "f*lk club (or at Cecil Sharp House which is surely close, with the exception of Spiro, and that's only because I haven't (yet) seen them live.

As far as the mini-revival of the early 90s is concerned, it needs to be borne in mind that this arose against the background of the ceilidh circuit and the folk club stalwarts such as those on Dick's list, both of which never went away but existed independently of the ascendancy of the dire mish-mash of comedians and singer-songwriters which dominated public consciousness through the 1980s.

Speaking for myself, it was without doubt a concert with Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr in 1994 that dragged me back into music. I walked into Gateshead library on the basis that I had known their mums when at a loose end after a disastrous television production was wound up and there I was, exiled and jobless. Very many people date their (re)involvement from this time.