Of course not Shimrod.

MacColl was a special person to me as well. The first people ever to publish one of my songs were Ewan an Peggy. Isaw him loads of times, and I used to even attend the Grey Cock FC , where I was unwelcome as a floorsinger, when Ewan was the guest. ("Who are your influences ...? Ralph McTell! I'm sorry, we've got to draw the line somewhere!) Used to take my family and friends.

The biggest loser in the game has been English folk music, which threw away an audience for a mistaken set of ideas about folk music.

You know Shimrod the first time I came across the name A.L. Lloyd was as a translator of French Surrealist poems in the Penguin book Poetry of the Forties. And that's Folksong in England is, its a wonderful set of ideas. Like Wilde said, we make ideas acrobats to delight and entertain us.

But the English people are going to go on expressing themselves musically and in song And that is destined to be the true Folksong in England. Whatever we may wish and whatever our ideas are.