Nah - too old and biased - having too much trouble remembering.... now what was the question again?
MtheGM would get my vote
There have been plenty of bits and pieces to sift through and choose from on threads like these with a mass of stuff I had no idea was out there.
Heard a nice lecture by Peta Webb some time ago on Topic Records, and one on the radio on the same theme entitled 'Little Red Label' (utterly spoiled by agenda, in my opinion, but still...)
Folk Britannia had stacks of information, somewhat drowned out by the sound of axe-grinding in places.
Ian Watson's 'Song and Democratic Culture in Britain has a great deal to be drawn from.
Fred Woods's pot-boiler 'Folk Revival' is a pleasant enough read, but has too many 'spot-the-not-really-deliberate' mistakes to make it any more than that.
I really hoped that Dave Harker's 'One for the Money' was really going to help push the boat out, but sadly, it didn't.
Mike Brocken's efforts - best passed over maybe.
All of these have valuable information, experiences and opinions to be drawn from, but don't, in my opinion, come anywhere near being complete and often in need of verification.
Don't know Bill Leader's, Mike Yates's or Dave Bland's situation nowadays but all are wells of information to be drawn from.
Hootenanny has given us much information on the earliest days.... the list is endless.
I have always thought that if a sufficiently open mind could be found, the job really wouldn't be that difficult - time-consuming maybe, but certainly not impossible - what are you doing next week Les?
Now where's me pills?
Jim Carroll