I have a complete set of Folk Roots . . mostly in order of issue number. Within reason I could do a certain amount of photocopying for you, if you can let me know what articles you want. You can email me on ghawesatadvaopticaldotcom

One possibility . . Does anyone know for what years EFDSS published the Yearbook? You could probably obtain some stats of number of clubs/artists/whatever listed in there. I guess they hold the set of "back numbers" in their library. Trouble is, you then have to consider the extent to which the EFDSS correlates with the Folk Revival as a whole.

If (as, from my encounters with "Academia" lead me to suspect) the real "point" is just to get SOME valid statistics into the dissitation then you might try looking at some of the longest-established events (Festivals, Folk Clubs) and look at statistics for them on an event-by-event basis.

An interesting bit of data gathering would be to contrast the decline in the number of folk clubs with the rise in the number of Art Centres (who mostly put on some folk performers) . . but I can't think of any way of getting reliable data on the "decline of the folk club . . "

G.