I was lucky enough to to meet Hamish several times, including at the symposium given for MacColl on his 80th birthday in London (along with Howard Goorney, Lomax and Norman Buchan) and was present at a 'Memory Lane' session between them all when they swapped stories about 'the old days'
Hamish was speaking about the argument he and others had had with Hugh MacDiarmid, who apparently was no lover of folk music. He had written the introduction to MacColl's Uranium 235 when it was published, where he compared him to Sir David Lindsay - when MacColl left the theatre MacDairmid described it as 'desertion to doggerel' (or something similar).
Hamish told the story of MacDairmid's literary tour which included Russia and China during the Sino-Soviet dispute when relations between the two were not at their best - to put it mildly. He was travelling to Russia from China, and was carrying two bottles of Mau Tai (Mountain Dew, the Chinese equivalent of Irish poitín) in his hand luggage. The Soviet customs officials had orders to confiscate everything Chinese, so when MacDairmid reached the desk and was told he couldn't bring them through he drank both of them on the spot and was rushed to hospital where he had his stomach pumped.
Don't know how true this is, but it was well told.
Tom Munnelly pointed out to me that a holiday postcard which has a photo of the the Padstow Hobby Hoss includes a smiling Hamish at the front of the onlookers.
Does anybody remember the name of the film which opens with Hamish emerging from a plane at Barra 'International' Airport (the beach)?
Jim Carroll