I admired Ewan MacColl greatly, and still celebrate his achievements whenever I get the chance. I found John Brune good and polite company, though one song he sang to me from his collecting seemed far too outre to be true.
If he managed to create a group of songs that were not so suspicious that they were accepted as authentically 'traveller' - whatever that may be - then that's interesting. It would be extremely irritating and frustrating to be on the other end of such a hoax, I hate being fooled, myself.
But MacColl put a lot of his own songs into the Radio Ballads, a couple of which I have heard presented in recent years as "authentic traveller songs". If I'd had the chance, I'd at least have been tempted to try and smuggle a song of my own in, for the crack and the challenge.
The Singers Club may not have been fierce about who could sing what and how, but certainly the message that it was came to Glasgow, and seemed accepted in London in the few months I sang around clubs there, to the point I went to the Singers Club once, but was too nervous of something or other to ask to sing there.
I know lots of swear words, but never understand how using them in this kind of discussion is helpful to anyone.