Just out of interest, did Bellamy refer to his Kipling settings - or the non-trad bits of the Maritime England Suite, i.e. most of it - as 'folk'?

In the VHS interview (linked to on the BBOT thread) he says Kipling's poems were inspired by Folk Song; likewise his setting of same, which elsewhere he calls of a 'traditional idiom'. He put a lot go his energies into this Creative Idiomatic Folk composition over the years, so one might infer that he saw such things as Folk in a Revival Sense, if not an actual sense, but paid exacting homage to the traditions he revered in tyne process. He wasn't above 'improving' on old songs, such as his melody for '98, or his switch from using E Trad melodies for his Kipling settings, to those of his composition within that idiom. Naturally, his own were miles better, though following this thesis I did once drop Puck's Song into the Morris tune of Idbury Hill (London Pride) and it fit like a glove. But Bellamy's is better - for that song anyway. I guess that's the hauntological essence of the Zeitgeist he was acting as medium to; Shamanic in his creative genius he tapped into something very rich indeed - Kipling likewise I'd say, but that's a discussion for another day!