"they also generally have little interest in the tradition or the revival(s) - they're too busy enjoying themselves"

But there are also a lot of other bright young things, Nigel, who have respect for and interest in the tradition. Malcolm Taylor, the library director at Cecil Sharp House, says the people coming in are younger and younger: kids in their 20s who want to know where all this stuff came from. Then there are the kids doing the folk music degree in Newcastle, who study the tradition as part of their course. They're there because they want to be - because they think it matters.

So to assume it's only old farts like us (and given some of your early folk influences, I reckon we must be around the same age) who are interested in the traditional, or who equate it with folk, is throwing the baby out with the bathwater...