Even so I've never actually regretted not hanging around to watch T.Rex after The Damned had finished their set at the City Hall in Newcastle back in March 1977. Not quite The Sex Pistols at The free Trade Hall, but the gig has similar legendary status in that if everyone was there who claims they were there they'd never have fitted in; but I was there and had Captain Sensible's blood soaked promo postcard for years after to prove it!

I also think it's a mistake to assume that Free-Improv / Experimental or the Avante Garde call-it-what-you-will ever set out to be challenging as such; it just explored different idiomatic paramenters & possibilities and continues to do so quite nicely in terms of its own Tradition. You're far more likely to hear of some new folk act determined to breathe new life into the music than some new improviser determined to do do likewise. I breathe life from folk as much as I do from free music, though as I keep saying it's easier to slip in a few Folk Songs to an audience at a free-improv gig that it is to start improvising at a folk gig. Back in the day we were buying vinyl of Gaelic Psalm singing, the obligatory Gamelan (the Nonsuch Explorer Music from the Morning of the World is still much cherished), as well as albums of Davie Stewart, Harry Cox, Sam Larner, and Willie Scott et al.