PB died because the Folk Scene rejected him; he might as well have died of a broken heart. A month before he passed I witnessed about 40% of a festival audience wait until he took the stage before making a big show off standing up and walking out. I then had to leave my post at the sound desk and run off around the festival singarounds to drum up support for his performance. Somewhere I have a tape of it - same basic Bellamy set you'll hear on Songs and Rummy Conjurin' Tricks, only bigger somehow. Quite possibly his last ever gig.

As I said earlier in this thread (see my Suibhne posts) if he'd only waited a few years for Jon Boden et al to come along and champion his cause he'd be a bona fide national treasure by now. I can just hear him guesting with Bellowhead and having a ball.   

What would he have made of the internet? As an incorrigible & eclectic archivist he would have been the proverbial pig in shit, as the lingering shots over his legendary cassette collection in this 1980s video interview goes to show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bt3tKhVXBc

There was never, and there never will be, anyone quite like him.