A query on Eric Hobsbawm and oral history

We have received this query from Brian Smith relating to Eric Hobsbawm and oral history - if anyone can help Brian please contact Keith Flett at the address above - many thanks 'I have a vivid memory of reading something by Hobsbawm to the effect that when he started to research the late 19th century history of the British Labour movement, via veterans [ie those active in the late 19th and early 20th century labour movement who Hobsbawm presumably spoke to while putting together Labour's Turning Point (1948)], he quickly realised that he had to know more than they did about the subject if they were going to be useful. Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it, and Richard Evans tells me he never has. I wonder: would it be possible to put a note on the socialist historians site? I am sure someone there knows about it, and it's a very useful quotation!'