Fair point Jim, but in music more than most arts isn't a writer/performer personality part of the whole so to speak. Especially when the music becomes well known and reaches so many as McColl's did. Also particularly in Folk music big names such as McColl, tend to be much more accessable for people to meet, talk to etc in the relative coziness of a folk club, hence performers and fans get to see/meet the peronality more and as we see in this thread, have their own feelings good and bad about the person in question, and after all the original aim of this thread was for personal experience. I don't think anything in here has taken away from the fact that McColl was a hugely important figure in Folk and British music overall