ABSTRACT
Bert Lloyd brought a stimulating set of influences to the revival but they were highly subjective and contextual During the period prior to the outbreak of war (say 1937–39) Lloyd spent a great deal of time in the Reading Room of the British Museum researching into his interests in folk music and economic and social history. It is to Bert Lloyd that many folk music adherents still turn when any folk historical veracity is challenged, for his work remains both powerful and eloquent. As folk luminaries go, few come larger than Ewan MacColl. He is frequently cited as the epitome of the difference between communal and consumer music, the evidence of the truth behind that difference. MacColl was one of the few Britons who had made contacts with the American radical music scene in the 1930s. The apotheosis of British post-war urban experience and artistic expression was probably 'Mod', which also developed in the late 1950s.
