@ Sandman: You mention that Pardon will have enjoyed knowing Mackenzie and Carroll. Obviously, as he let Mackenzie arrange bookings, stayed at them when in London and so on. It seems from the evidence we have that Pardon did take an interest in the ideology of the revival. For example, he refers to a book given to him by Bill Leader. Now I would love to know what book it was and what ideas Pardon took from it.

Because, according to Hillery, and this is backed up by what I read about MacColl and Lloyd, in the 2nd revival they had an emphasis which was lacking in the first on trying to see traditional singing in its context. The problem with this approach viz a viz Pardon, was that his own direct experiences of context seem limited. His main personal experience was of family gatherings, much of what else he says is as it were 'hearsay'. That context had gone, as we all know and for years he was more or less just in contact with music via his radio, his record player (assuming it kept working) and his melodeon. So that line of research (as for example MacColl and his Travellers (though that was critiqued on the MacColl thread) is not really available.

What interests me just now is how Pardon's ideas about music as well as his delivery of it was linked with the context in which he performed it, namely the various venues and situations which arose as a result of his being taken up and 'lionised' by the 2nd revival. As a research question this would be difficult to 'operationalise' even if you could go back in time with a tape recorder (or mobile phone with cameras), and it any interview techniques and questions would require very careful thinking about. The lack of dating on some information about Pardon therefore frustrates me.

I know there are all sorts of issues about getting at 'the truth' or 'reality' when it comes to those complex things called people, but leaving those aside there seem to me to be at least two problems with getting at Pardon: on the one hand there seem to be multiple problems with research strategies especially interviews, and then there are issues around selectivity and bias and so on in the presentation of the material, which is often done in a (very interesting and at times well written) journalistic style suitable for magazines and also often driven consciously or unconsciously by the plain ideological agendas of those producing the material. Hillery mentions MacColl and Lloyd in connection with the 2nd revival, both of whom had clear political agendas in relation to folk music. One of those who has produced literature (using the term in a broad sense) about Pardon is something close to a disciple of MacColl, for example.

I'll give a little example of a statement about Pardon's context that, in my interpretation, can reasonably be interpreted as demonstrating ideological bias. It is a statement to the effect that since the roads in Knapton were not 'made up' when Pardon was young there were very few outside influences. This came in a piece which also suggested (perhaps from, a London Centric viewpoint) that Norfolk itself was relatively isolated! The underlying ideological thinking in the statement about Knapton would be that rural folk could exist there unpolluted by the commercial world etc etc, that 'the tradition' could flourish. I came across this after reading a history of Knapton, which may be why the assertion struck me as misleading with such force.

It would be reasonable to assert on the contrary that Knapton was reasonably well connected with the wider world. It had its own school from the first half of the 19th century. It had a railway station (shared with another village) from the 2nd half of the 19th century, used for livestock as well as passengers. By the 1930s it was developing a tourist industry. It had both church and chapel, both sources of 'outside influences' in one way or another. As we know, agricultural trade unions (outside influences one has to assume) had influence there. Its residents came from a range of social classes, some of whom across the spectrum would have had access to a variety of animal drawn conveyances capable of travelling on unmade up roads. It would surprise me if there were not rules laid down stipulating that particular farmers/landowners had duties to maintain bits of whatever roads there were: this was the case in other parts of the country I have looked at. On Pardon's own evidence broadsides reached the place, as did the musical instruments used in the band he talked about.

Sorry to post at length.