Probably last word from me for now:
There is another aspect to this discussion.
I became involved in the revival at the beginning of the sixties through the Spinners Club in my home town of Liverpool
While this was the first place I saw Ewan and Peggy, you probably couldn't get further from Singers Club policy than what was happening there - MacColl had no sway in the policy whatever.
Where did "dictatorial insistence" enter into the equasion?
Is it being suggested that there were hundreds of clubs hanging on MacColl's every word and awaiting orders on what should or should not be club policy? How many clubs did MacColl actually control?
If my memory serves me right, while he and Peggy could fill any club they performed in (you had to book in advance to get in to see them), that was the only contact they had with the clubs they visited - or did I miss something and were all the clubs secretly being manipulated from 35 Stanley Avenue?
I have no doubt that MacColl was quite capable of arguing for policy he believed to be important; I've seen him do it often enough. Wasn't that his, and everybody's right - or is it being suggested that his views should be suppressed?
The people running the clubs I visited in Liverpool, Manchester and London appeared to be a pretty independent bunch: Terry Whelan, Mike Harding, Harry Boardman, Bobby Campbell, Gordon McCulloch, Frank Duffy, Christie Moore, Mick Groves.... can't think of one of them who would have sprung to attention when MacColl came into the room (but maybe I missed the on/off switch).
Even if it was a 'rule' at the Ballads and Blues, surely that was their perogative.
I visited clubs that banned musical instruments, ones that would not allow contemporary songs. Members of the Critics Group often complained about clubs where they were asked not to sing political songs (see fairly recent thread on this subject).
So what's it to be; was MacColl secretly using a Taser to impose his views on the revival or was he merely expressing an opinion?
Will look forward to seeing how (if) this is answered.
Jim Carroll