That is accepted wisdom I am sure. However, there is a problem with this in that there was no Ewan MacColl to take his name from.

However there was an Evan MacColl - which takes us to the next question, did he change it to Ewan, so that it sounded better, or did he make a mistake.

There is also a story which has done the rounds for years that he was met at a railway station post war in between two military policemen and said to Joan Littlewood, "Call me Ewan".

However whilst this may be of minor interest to some people - I do believe his songwriting, his performances with Peggy and his thoughts on the nature of singing, folk music and performance are infinitely more important. Along with his politics and his work with travellers and on the Radio Ballads.

An absolute giant, whatever he decided to call himself.