I agree wholeheartedly, greg. I have an addiction to archive recordings but, at the end of the day, there's no way that I would make an attempt to sound like them. I DO use them to encourage people who don't feel that they are good singers ... as such are defined by the current establishment. And there are issues of regionality in 'source singers' as well which need to be encouraged.

Re: rugby, I just heard on a radio documentary last night that the Welsh introduced the notion of singing national anthems before games in 1905. The Kiwis were apparently playing Wales and were doing their Hakka (sp?) and one of the Welsh organizers reckoned that the only way of regaining the psychological advantage was to have the Welsh players sing Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. This had, by 1905, become well established in Wales and all the supporters joined in. Apparently scared the beejayzus out of the Kiwis!

siân