Thank you all for your thorough and interesting replies.

I could have gone to see a discussion Bert was chairing in the 1970's at Birmingham about Whither the Folk Revival?, but by that time I was so royally pissed off with being excluded from the Grey Cock singers list (because I had the wrong influences), I didn't go and make his acqaintance.

I knew all about Lloyd's reputation and achievements, so there was no real excuse for me - just the imapatience of youth. Or maybe the premature onset of middle aged narrowmindedness.

To clarify further though - were these claims made as a precis-ed introduction from the stage? Or were they made in scholarly publications?