i dunno!

i don't agree that he didn't fulfil his potential.

I think what he was did was rather splendid, but the world undervalued it. Its only now when we have a folk club system groaning under the burden of 'serious' artists that we can see just how much he did achieve.

he actually spoke a lot more truth than his audience wanted to hear. he had at one point gigged the Northern clubs - i think it gave him an edge that folk audiences recoiled from.

One night from the stage at Ampersand near Hinkley, he said - who you got here next week? someone said ewan mcColl and peggy seeger

Ewan Mccoll and Peggy seeger....(he said meditatively)....they say every man carries his own cross around with him......

Someone on the front row leapt to their feet and said, APOLOGISE FOR THAT LAST REMARK.....!

He said (shaking his head regretfully),.....no

I saw him do an extraordinary schtick one night in Birmingham. the thrust of it was - sixties music was crap. We had all heard the records - which sounded great - but the actual musicians were rubbish. It was a revolutionary thought for 1977. A point when the captains of the music industry had just lost the American market, and we all looked back to the balmy days of the Merseybeat. John peel was playing non stop cacophonous shite, and every record company was queueing up to sign it and bankrupt themselves.

no wonder Tony drank a lot.