Cap'n
I would echo Dave's comments
Regarding John Brune's behaviour - you can get it from the horses mouth in the interview with Sheila Stewart by Bob Pegg in The Living Tradition; No 42. April 2001. My reply is in the following edition. The ironocal thing is that the story has always been told as being against MacColl - it never occured to the tellers the enormous damage Brune's vindictive 'prank' would have done to Travellers if it had gone unchecked.
I too have great regard for Reg Hall with one qualification; he and others of his time in the revival have an enormous flea up their collective arses regarding MacColl; so much so that Reg found it necessary to provide deliberately misleading information on MacColl and Lloyd's influence on the early revival. On the first of the Folk Brittania programmes he produced a record sleeve purporting to represent MacColl and Lloyd's desire to form 'folk ensembles' similar to those found in Eastern Europe. The impression given was that the notes were written by either MacColl or Lloyd or both. In fact they were written by an American collector and had nothing to do with either of them.
Yes - I had an enormous respect for MacColl, and always will have.
Will be happy to discuss with you who else I have respect for.
Jim Carroll