"I would expect repertoires in a hundred years time to include some of the recent songs along with some of those that are already old now."

Hmm, I must confess that I feel this to be an idealised romantic projection into an unlikely hypothetical musical future, which will no doubt be quite different to anything any of us might imagine.

Just consider how the internet has revolutionised the record industry in a matter of a smattering of years. And before that how the industrial revolution basically dispatched the old oral tradition. A hundred years is a very long time in the modern world. The old oral tradition (bar token remnants in schoolgrounds and terraces) died a death, as collectors like Jim Carroll will testify to - we have even heard from him how the Irish travellers he collected songs from lost their oral tradition in a matter of around 18 months just because they were able to buy TV's! The modern era destroyed the old oral tradition, but we have at least a body of historical documents in the form of the songs they once sang, to refer to and to explore and to enjoy *in our own way* - which IMHO is never going to be identical to the way in which they enjoyed them.

I too suspect that the revival - as a particular modern cultural phenomenon distict from the old oral tradition (or at best an artificially summoned revenant) - is itself on its last legs, and will likely fade out with the very same generation of enthusiasts who forged it in the first place. It might not.. But I personally suspect it probably will.

On the other hand the old songs will always be there to potentially inspire and fascinate fresh generations of enthusiasts - in the same way that the collected works of Shakespear will be. But in what fashion those future generations will go about engaging with them, will be anyone's guess. For now, I'm simply happy to be singing and sharing the Last of the Summer's Wine with others who are happy to do likewise. And while I'm busy enjoying the now, the future can fend for itself ;-)