07/11/2025

As some may know around here, I’ve had the great pleasure of being involved in creating a Dick Gaughan box set this year, with tremendous crowdfunding support.

But as well as that forthcoming box set (for general release in February 2026), we’ve created a cheaper offering (on LP/CD/DL) available to the general public – ‘Live at the BBC: 1972-79’.

The vinyl version is available for pre-ordering at Last Night From Glasgow. And as of today, the CD version of the release is available – stock is in – from Talking Elephant Records, run by my good pal Malcolm Holmes, prog-rock panjandram and doyen of the East Anglian Morris Dancing scene.

The album comprises 10 songs from BBC master tapes – a fabulous snapshot of Dick’s work in the 70s – taken from the ‘R/evolution: 1969-83′ box set but mastered and pitch corrected exclusively for this LP & CD by Eroc Ehrig. Both formats include essays by myself and guitar legend Martin Simpson, no less, plus rare 70s photos. The LP version includes in an insert a near-facsimile reproduction of Fred Woods’ 1974 ‘Folk Review’ interview with Dick.

Talking Elephant will also be making the album available for » Continue Reading.

22/10/2025

‘General release’ copies (in addition to those ordered via Kickstarter in April) of the Dick Gaughan box set I’ve been organising is now available to pre-order exclusively from Last Night From Glasgow – ahead of release in February. Exciting… 🙂

‘True And Bold: A Night for Dick Gaughan’ – a tribute show with several legends booked – is also now out there for booking, on January 18 in Glasgow. Link to both LNFG and show tickets in the comments.

_________________________________________________________________

Description

In March–April 2025, a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign ran with the twin goals of: (1) creating the 7CD+DVD box set R/evolution: 1969–83; (2) raising some funds for Dick Gaughan himself, retired and visually impaired. With active and generous endorsement from fellow artists including Barbara Dickson, Karine Polwart, Billy Bragg, Patsy Seddon, Chris Brain and Andrew Cronshaw, the campaign was an unmitigated success.

900 copies were pre-ordered through Kickstarter; 1,500 have been manufactured – thus, 600 are being made generally available. Various factors mean that this is a one-off pressing – when they’re gone, they’re gone.

In February / March 2026 we will be thrilled to bring this box set to the masses. The remining items will be distributed » Continue Reading.

17/10/2025

Northumbrian Blues: The Lost World of Big Pete Deuchar Vol. 1 (1933–60) by Colin Harper

Peter Deuchar (1933–88) was the biggest character on the Tyneside jazz scene of the mid-50s – a fearless personality who made things happen, a black sheep from the upper classes, a ladies man, a leader, an adventurer, the heir to millions, the founder of a band that outlived him. On the cusp of 40, in 1972/73, Deuchar cycled the world entirely solo, ‘because it’s there’ – a two-wheeled George Mallory breaking records and keeping his demons at bay.

That same year, his protégé Mahavishnu John McLaughlin was conquering America with a sound light years away from the music they’d once played together in the Professors of Ragtime while still being some sort of jazz. John would fondly recall his old band in interviews. The name, he said, tells its own story. Deuchar’s story has never been told before now – a singular human interest tale, from Dickensian beginnings in a dysfunctional mansion in deepest Northumberland to founding a jazz club on Newcastle’s seediest street and undertaking a pilgrimage to the source of the music, when it was still possible to meet on the » Continue Reading.

15/10/2025

Sensational news – vintage jazz / folk / psych music mogul (books, records, everything) Richard Morton Jack is running a crowdfunder towards a reprint of his epic volume ‘Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75’, which sold out its first run in 2023 and now fetches silly money on eBay if copies come up. I have a copy – it’s a thing of beauty. Heartily recommended!

At £65 it’s actually great value for money – a huge sized volume containing reproductions of impossible to find albums (front and back covers) and rare press and promotional materials from the period, plus Richard’s penetrating notes on the music. It is, in my view, a stunning testament to the photography, iconography and graphic design of the 60s lets alone the informational and aesthetic value.

The crowdfunder is offering (if the target sum is met) either (1) a reprint of the book (with poster) or (2) the book (with poster) + art cards + an EXCLUSIVE LP featuring unreleased Rendell-Carr Quintet recordings on vinyl from 1969, authorised by surviving member Dave Green and the estates of Don Rendell and Ian Carr, for only £95.

Hats off to Richard! He explains more – with » Continue Reading.

11/10/2025

Sensational stuff – CM Radio presenter Hugh Taylor plays songs from the soon-forthcoming Dick Gaughan vinyl LP ‘Live at the BBC: 1972-79’ and interviews Dick at a vibrant pavement café in Edinburgh about his career.

Here’s the blurb (link to the show in comments):

He is folk music royalty and widely regarded as one of Scotland’s leading songwriters with many protest songs featuring in a distinguished career.

Dick Gaughan’s limited issue album, Live at the BBC 1972–79, contains ten songs from the box set R/evolution: 1969–83, which is due for release in January.

The songs have been drawn from archive performances at BBC Sessions and cover the ‘lost period’, where Dick’s historically and culturally significant early albums – No More Forever, Kist O’ Gold, and Songs of Ewan MacColl – are missing due to disputed rights.

Dick suffered a stroke in 2016 which forced him to retire.

Enter Colin Harper, a music biographer and journalist, who launched a Crowdfunder to raise enough money to produce the box set.

It was a huge success, breaching its initial target in less than a week and raised over £84,000. Colin was then able to expand the content and to make a substantial » Continue Reading.

11/10/2025

As the Half Moon’s blurb puts it:

Let’s go Pentanglin’ with our afternoon Listening Party celebrating the remaster and two-CD reissue of Solomon’s Seal, Pentangle’s final folk-jazz statement, originally released in 1972.

Prog magazine’s Jo Kendall and Mike Barnes will be in conversation with vocalist Jacqui McShee who will shed some light on her favourite Pentangle album, before we settle in for a playback of the record in its entirety, also hearing selected bonus tracks from the new Cherry Red reissue.

There will be a chance for the audience to ask questions, and to have items signed by Jacqui, too.

Tickets are £12 in advance, £8 concessions, and £15 on the door on the day. Each customer will get a Solomon’s Seal button badge memento.

23/09/2025

14/08/2025

U N I T E D B I B L E S T U D I E S

New album – STRANGE IS THE COASTLINE (from 5th September) LP / CD / Digital

– – – – – – – – –

New Single ‘In The Arms of Lewes’ 14th August Digital

Rotating Irish / International collective United Bible Studies (UBS) release its 28th album, Strange Is The Coastline (LP / CD / Digital), this Autumn from 5th September on Talking Elephant Records / Hobby-Horse.

The album will be preceded by the single ‘In The Arms of Lewes’ which will be available on all digital platforms from 14th August.

Strange Is The Coastline is a collection of original folk-rock songs written by current core members David Colohan (co-founder of UBS) and Alison O’Donnell (Mellow Candle / Flibbertigibbet) in the company of multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins (The Owl Service). Melding and meshing classic folk, contemporary pop and passionate tune-smithery in an inspiringly complementary way disparate, yet delightfully cohesive, themes glide from Albion myth and legend to Victorian-era murder ballad via chilling contemporary stalker tales and climate chaos. Artwork is penned by occasional collective contributor Dom Cooper.

United Bible Studies was » Continue Reading.

11/07/2025

I’ve been helping retired/disabled Scottish folk legend Dick Gaughan towards a box set (a mock-up pack shot is pictured above) and further planned releases, in part inspired by the unavailability of much of his recorded canon. That unavailability of catalogue shares some space in a Venn diagram with an entity known as Celtic Music. Not a criticism – just a statement of fact.

Dick Gaughan (not me, Dick himself) has now engaged serious solicitors to seek the retrieval of seven albums and two tracks from this entity. Those solicitors have thoroughly vetted the video script and accompanying text used in this GoFundMe campaign – just launched. There is nothing defamatory therein. I don’t encourage defamatory statements here – this is purely a business matter, and I’m confident that some, at least, of the albums and PRS registrations in question will come back to the artist…

If you believe in it, and you are able to throw something in, please do – and please share. With luck, it may establish precedents that can help other folk artists whose works are claimed by the same people to begin the process of retrieval, if they wish.

We are blessed to have » Continue Reading.

14/11/2025

A spin-off from the 7CD+DVD box set-in-progress ‘R/evolution: 1969-83’, this single-vinyl ‘Live at the BBC: 1972-79’ will be released in a limited edition in November/December via Last Night From Glasgow distribution. I’ll post a link in the comments. Below is the back cover text and tracks list.

***

Dick Gaughan was professionally active from 1970–2016, retiring on health grounds and living now quietly in Edinburgh. While Handful of Earth (1981) remains his most lauded single body of work, it marked, for the artist himself, the end of an era – the absolute best that he could do within traditional music. From that point on, contemporary songwriting, often in service to social commentary, became more prominent. For reasons most easily described as the vicissitudes of rights ownership and the consequent absence from the marketplace of several early albums, ready access to the ‘first phase’ of Dick’s career – the ten years preceding Handful of Earth – has long been difficult.

This album – and its parent set, the 7CD/DVD R/evolution: 1969–83 – retrieves that ‘lost era’ in abundance, revealing the magnificence of Dick Gaughan’s early music for the twenty-first century listener. An insert contains a new appreciation of Dick » Continue Reading.