About a year before he died I experienced, what must have been, one of Ewan's last performances at a folk club in North West England. Before the performance started I got into conversation with him. We discussed my adopted city of Manchester and I told him of a book I had been reading about its history - he listened with interest. I was also able to tell him how much I admired his Topic LP, 'The Manchester Angel' and what it meant to me. I asked him if he would sing a particular song from it ('Black Dog and Sheepcrook') and he agreed and sang it as part of his set. This was all very civilised and a treasured memory for me. It's not often that you get to tell a favourite artist what their work means to you and, in this case, particularly poignant because he died so soon after. I usually find that if I meet someone I admire I either can't think of anything to say or I say something embarrassing - thankfully, neither of these things happened on this occasion!