Vic - promised Les I would finish, but you've brought up a number of points worth responding to.
Is presentingfolk songs really "holding back the tide" - if so, my point is made - the music we have dedicated our lives to no longer has a place in folk clubs and attempting to perform it in those venues can only damage any understanding of what and how important it is, which is what has always interested and motivated us.
I am frankly not interested in presenting watered down versions of folk songs, nor am I interested in filling clubs with people by putting on music that I know is not folk because the real thing isn't a draw any more.
I've described how far we pushed out the barriers and I've also said that I believe we never abandoned our reason for being there.
For me, Folk Song remains the most important, most generally neglected and most misunderstood art form there is and replacing it with something else really isn't going to change that.
Never realised Fred wrote Music Hall Songs - would have thought the genre had long departed the scene long before he started writing song.
Fred was a long-time member of London Singers Workshop and, while we had our differences, I enjoyed Fred's singing of traditional songs and most of his own compositions that I got to hear.      
Sorry Les - shall I sit at the back of the class?
Jim Carroll