I don't suppose Harker got everything right, which is why it is interesting to hear other points of view. I wonder why Sandman finds the 1958 date too early? One key piece of evidence for it would be the words MacColl wrote on sleeve notes to an LP in 1961: 'At the hundreds of concerts and hootenannies where I have sung or acted as chairman I have made a point on insisting on the rule that singers do not sing anything but the songs of their own native traditions'. This must take us back to the days of the Blues and Ballads, though it does not mean that all Blues and Ballads meetings did follow it: it is said to be one of the things that Nixon and MacColl disagreed on, though no specific reference is given for this.

I'm not sure why people regard this as so important: I was aware of some disagreement about whether it was something 'imposed' by MacColl or something democratically agreed upon.

Are MacColl's other achievements more important? Maybe so, but as I have tried to suggest, this book seems to take a balanced, pros and cons approach, and I don't think anybody could finish reading it without seeing that MacColl, though 'marmite' perhaps, had many talents and achieved a great deal.