Jack - that's jolly interesting about the radio ballads, I wasn't aware of that. Sounds like it might be worthwhile me checking them to see how MaCcoll & Co worked with adding sound textures to ballads.

"However, the British folk tradition of sitting with a pint and singing away may not last as long"

Maybe so. Though pub trad. music sessions seem to be filled with young bright things wielding fiddles & bodhrans etc. The interest in singing trad. song amongst younger generations is currently far less by comparison, but it could easily kick off in the same way. Maybe I'm being a bit unrealistic in thinking that the commercial 'buy me' side of folk and the people 'play me' side of folk will not forever be bound at the hip, with the former inevitably driving interest in the latter. Though if there were more initiatives involving education of kids and people in general about trad. music/song in England in particular, that might change and we could potentially end up with a situation more akin to that which our Celtic neighbours are currently enjoying.