Jim, that was a wonderful post and totally at odds with anything you have ever said before. What on earth was the point of the "leave it on the shelf", "why bother" remarks that have typified your previous posts?

You might volunteer to transcribe and annotate 80-odd Walter Pardon tapes

Don't think I could tackle all 80 and I'm not really qualified to do the annotations but I'd be willing to help out. Why not start a thread asking for volunteers? Could be a useful project for a Newcastle student.

Nor did he knock on people's doors delivering what he had to offer - he expected people to emerge from their shells and make the effort.

And he had sufficient faith in people to believe they would. You don't.

And surely you have the duty to make the effort to take it when it's on offer, albeit in a limited form?

Yes. Your point?

We are not the only collectors and certainly not the most important or prolific - how accessible is the work of others (do you want a list)?

You are the only one that I know of who is going round saying that it's not worth doing because nobody cares and the clubs are full of people singing Beatles songs.

You have accused me of being crass, of dumbing down and of promoting crap standards. I think I can cope with being called snide.