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Along the Road Forever: Martin Carthy at the BBC 1965-2022

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17/07/2026

MARTIN CARTHY – ALONG THE ROAD FOREVER: LIVE AT THE BBC Released: 17th July 2026 MARTIN CARTHY – ALONG THE ROAD FOREVER: LIVE AT THE BBC

THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE MARTIN CARTHY COLLECTION EVER ASSEMBLED – 20 CD SET WITH LIVE AND SESSION PERFORMANCES RECORDED FOR THE BBC OVER A 57 YEAR PERIOD

INCLUDES 80-PAGE HARDBACK BOOK WITH AN ESSAY BY CELEBRATED BIOGRAPHER CLINTON HEYLIN, COVERING MARTIN’S WHOLE LIFE IN MUSIC

WITH UNSEEN PHOTOS, MANY FROM MARTIN’S PERSONAL ARCHIVE, SEPARATE SESSION NOTES BY RENOWNED CARTHY CHRONICLER KEVIN BOYD AND A PHOTOGRAPH SIGNED BY MARTIN

The troubadour, the folk-rocker, the guitar hero, the acapella master, the champion of songs from the people, the voice of history, the wit and raconteur, Martin Carthy seemingly walked the road forever, never strayed far from the folk clubs and never sold out. This limited edition set – lovingly curated by Colin Harper – includes a lavishly illustrated 80-page hardback book with essays by Clinton Heylin and Kevin Boyd, a 1971 Keith Morris photograph signed by Martin and 20 discs of audio magic mastered by Pete Reynolds. With your hosts John Peel, Suzy Klein, Andy Kershaw, Jim Lloyd and further denizens of Broadcasting House, » Continue Reading.

Martin Simpson leads the campaign to retrieve 22 albums for 12 folk legends

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28/05/2026

Help us get this music back to those who made it, and get it heard by a new generation

Almost the entire catalogues of Bill Leader’s twin Trailer and Leader imprints and also the Rubber Records label from the same era – catalogues all claimed currently by the same entity – have been unavailable for many years, most never available on CD let alone digitally.

These catalogues contain joyful, powerful, and beautiful music – but audiences have been unable to legally buy it other than through second-hand LPs on eBay, and artists and their heirs have been unable to earn royalties or see their work enjoyed by new generations.

Now, thanks to Cliff Richard (yes really!) some of the pioneering artists of the 1960s and 1970s have a clear-cut legal route to regain access to their work – including the rights to re-release it and to ensure session musicians get a share of the payment.

We’re fundraising, collectively, to cover the legal fees for a group of artists to hire the expert solicitor they need. To get more specific: if we raise the full target (outlined in more detail below) it will allow these artists active in the early » Continue Reading.

Bill Leader (1929-2026)

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Obituary

I’m sorry to say that Bill Leader (1929-2026) has passed on. A legendary, remarkably modest and remarkably prolific engineer and producer of folk and traditional music from Britain and Ireland from the mid-50s to the end of the 70s (and very occasionally thereafter). Recorded history in that sphere would be unrecognisable without his herculean contribution to documenting it.

He recorded dozens of now revered musicians, several of whom maybe no one else would have – the very first albums by Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, Bert Jansch, The Watersons, Sweeney’s Men, Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson, Gerry Rafferty (yes, really), Dick Gaughan, The Boys of the Lough, Robin & Barry Dransfield, Roy Bailey, Vin Garbutt, Dave Burland…

And classic albums by Irish trad icons like Willie Clancy, Martin Byrnes and Seamus Ennis, and Christy Moore’s proto-Planxty ‘Prosperous’…

Many of these were for his own labels Trailer and Leader (1969-78) – after 15-odd years recording for Topic, Decca, Argo and Transatlantic, he put his money where his mouth was and captured magic, locking it down forever. Albeit, circumstances mean that much of that music never made it into the digital era – at least not yet.

Mike Butler is four volumes into » Continue Reading.

Terry Cox RIP

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Obituary

Sad to say that Terry Cox, an extraordinary, unique drummer – and also, with Pentangle, an underappreciated singer and songwriting force (alongside the more obvious Jansch, Renbourn and McShee) – has left us. He was 89.

Before Pentangle he played and recorded with jazz legend Sandy Brown, Alexis Korner, Duffy Power / Duffy’s Nucleus (with Danny Thompson and John McLaughlin) and others, and during the Pentangle era (1967-72) he also played on numerous albums by others, jazz, folk and pop, from John Williams to Dave Bowie, the Bee Gees, Elton John, Shirley Collins…

In the later 70s (living in Majorca, I think) he toured and recorded with cabaret/jazz sensation Charles Aznavour. He was involved in the 1982-83 orginal Pentangle reunion (tours of Italy and Australia) and stayed on for two new Pentangle albums along with Bert Jansch and Jacqui McShee (and Thompson on the first of them): ‘Open the Door’ (1984) and ‘In the Round’ (1986). He took part in the final all-originals Pentangle reunion shows in 2008 and 2011, including several TV/radio spots and the live album ‘Finale’.

His drumming and percussion (including ‘that bloody glockenspiel!’ in his words) for Pentangle, especially during the original era, was extraordinary » Continue Reading.

Gaughan tribute concert – on BBC Radio Scotland and iPlayer tonight

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A public service (broadcasting) announcement… Link in the comments.

True and Bold: A Night for Dick Gaughan Travelling Folk

Recorded at Celtic Connections 2026, we have highlights of the True and Bold: A Night for Dick Gaughan concert, put together to celebrate one of Scotland’s most significant folk singers and songwriters.

Featuring an incredible host of musicians, including Siobhan Miller, Billy Bragg, Ricky Ross & Lorraine McIntosh, Lisa O’Neill and Paul McKenna, the concert celebrates Dick’s amazing back catalogue and even features an appearance from the man himself.

Sorrow Hides The Longing To Be Free – The Songs of Bert Jansch

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06/03/2026

A public service share of info about an beautiful sounding album homage to Bert Jansch by an Australian duo, about whom I know nothing. It can be heard – and bought – via Bandcamp, and heard via YouTube.

Here is the blurb…

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Guitarist & producer Shane O’Mara, and singer Jac Tonks, announce their tribute to the songs of Bert Jansch – ‘Sorrow Hides The Longing To Be Free’, out March 6 via Cheersquad Records & Tapes.

The brilliant Bert Jansch pioneered a “folk baroque” style that blended traditional British folk with elements of blues and jazz. His innovative fingerstyle guitar technique was one that redefined the instrument’s role in the 1960s British folk revival.

Long before his passing in 2011, Jansch was famed as an inspiration to acolytes as gifted in their own rights as Paul Simon, Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Donovan, Mike Oldfield, Nick Drake, and Johnny Marr.

Add to that list guitarist virtuoso Shane O’Mara, who, with singer Jac Tonks, channels the great Scottish folk stylist’s lyrical melodies and ethereal chord voicings like an uncanny mist forever suspended beyond the madness of modern times.

With a deft balance of masterful technique and disarming empathy, the duo » Continue Reading.

A tribute to Alex Harvey

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Ulster punk legend and muli-instrumentalist Glenn Kingsmore – The Defects, Ashanti, currently drumming with Henry Cluney in XSLF etc. – has a new solo album out later this year, ‘Cairn Holy’, a homage to Scotland.

He’s just shared this song and SAHB-filled video from it, a doff of the cap to Alex Harvey. He has a knack for a memorable tune.

The Adventures – live at the Empire, Belfast

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Venue:

The Empire, Belfast

Date: 10/01/2026

The audience:

Lots of blokes with cropped grey hair and their partners, but also a fair number of younger women dancing around, who couldn’t have been ‘there’ back in the days.

It made me think..

About that link to the 1960s. Also about mortality – I lost a great pal from the Belfast music scene recently, and he was only in his 60s, one of those people seemingly indestructible and around forever. The Adventures make a still young sound, yet they’re pensioners. But let us be joyful and celebrate them while they’re still rocking (once in a while)! And if any GB festival promoters are reading this, trust me – book them and they’ll wow your crowd.

Leaf Hound – the (second) comeback!

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Few would deny that Leaf Hound’s ‘Growers of Mushroom’ was one of the great rock albums of 1971. Vocalist Peter French went on to front the greatest of all Atomic Rooster albums, ‘In Hearing Of…’, later that same year. One album with each band. And then… he disappeared. There were a few more recordings with this or that band in the 70s but nothing that anyone’s ever heard of. He must surely be the greatest ‘classic British rock’ vocalist never to have found a vehicle with longevity and public acceptance comensurate with the quality of his voice.

French reconstituted a new Leaf Hound in 2004, recording new albums in 2007 (studio) and 2012 (live).

He then joined a reformed Atomic Rooster with fellow 1971-72 member Steve ‘Bolton’ Bolton and the blessing of late bandleader Vincent Crane’s widow Jean in 2016. I think he continued with Leaf Hound as well for a period overlapping with this, but eventually focused on Rooster. Wikipedia tells us (!) that he left in the middle of a 2023 European tour, reportedly not able to keep up with the touring schedule – though there had previously been talk of musical differences (a wonderfully 1970s phrase!).

An » Continue Reading.

Anthony Toner, live in Belfast

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Venue:

The Sunflower Bar

Date: 18/12/2025

Belfast’s Sunflower Folk Club is a bit of an oddity, but a welcome one. It happens every Thursday at the Sunflower Bar in a central Belfast backstreet and is unashamedly a throwback to the 1970s. For a start, it’s an English-style folk club on the 60s/70s model, on an island that has only ever had two or three clubs on those lines – happening in an upstairs room of a licensed premises, two halves with floor singers in the first and a guest artist in the second (or a mix of both in the two halves) plus a raffle.

The club is in part a homage to a Sunflower Folk Club that ran from 1977 into the mid-80s at a different pub that was also called the Sunflower, on an even more desolate thoroughfare of Belfast – a venue that was front-page news twice in the earlier 70s for fatal bombings and shootings by terrorists. I imagine the publican must have bitten the late Geoff Harden’s hand off when he offered to run a weekly folk club in the upper room there in 1977. Barry Moore (the future Luka Bloom) was the » Continue Reading.

12 minutes of exquisite ‘British folk-baroque’

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Dariush Kanani – a modern disciple of the Jansch/Renbourn/Davy Graham school of fingerstyle magic has just filmed a session for Turnstone Guitars (playing one of their instruments). There’s no boring gear talk – just 11 mins 48 of fabulous music: ‘Angie’, ‘Lady Nothing’s Toye Puffe’, ‘Sermonette’, ‘Blueberry Hill’ and ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’.

I know Dazza slightly but I’d be posting this clip even I didn’t – a beautiful sound, marvellous music and marvellous playing.

Link in the comments. Enjoy!

Vice Squad – time for a reappraisal?

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While the rejuvenated Cockney Rejects are out there playing anywhere that will have them, Vice Squad have taken a different path. I don’t think they’ve performed live since lockdown – deliberately so – taking the route of recording at home (Rebecca & Paul’s place, VS vocal/guitar & guitar) and creating social media videos from home. Very effectively, it seems to me – and good luck to them.

There’s little or no money in touring at the club level, and a lot of risk, so the Squad seem to be a good example of a heritage act (I’m sure they’d hate that phrase) operating a firmly DIY operation to get their music out to fans from their living room/kitchen without schlepping around the country playing to 40 people a night or whatever it may be.

They have a new ‘best of’ just out – titled ‘Punk Rockers’ (lest there be any confusion), own label, own distribution – featuring newly recorded versions of classics. I salute them for ignoring the remains of the trad record industry and doing it themselves.

They have a knack for decent tunes, adding aspects of pop to their metally punk. Speaking of which, on this number, ‘Punk » Continue Reading.

Oi! Oi! Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner wants to smash the West Ham system

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As well as running the Cockney Rejects’ popular comeback, Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner has recently started a podcast talking about soccer, boxing and punk – and most recently, he seems to be keen to get rid of some people from West Ham. I’m not a soccer follower myself, so does anyone know what this is about? And is he on the right or wrong side of history?

Stinky’s call to storm the barricades is in the comments.

Dick Gaughan – Live at the BBC: 1972-79

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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.

Danny Thompson – ‘Victoriana 1963-75 / 87’ 3CD-in-waiting

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On the back of Retro’s post about Danny Thompson, here’s something that doesn’t exist. I offered it freely to the label you would all think most likely to say yes and they said no – needing 2,000 sales to make something like this viable and not believing they’d get that. I think they’re mistaken about that non-viability, but it’s no skin off my nose. If anyone here wishes to offer it to other parties, go ahead. I can supply the unreleased audio. I think I’ve proved how badly wrong the existing archive music labels can be in deciding on viability with the current no-labels-involved-cos-they-didn’t-get-it Dick Gaughan box set (and associated releases) project.

That said, I offered it to a man at Ace three weeks ago via a mutual friend and he hasn’t had the courtesy to reply yet. I offered it to Earth a week ago. Fill in the next sentence yourself.

It seems like end times for the archive music labels (in the wake of Universal hiking their third-party licensing percentages up and fewer people buying physical music) if they’re all chasing easy-option licenses and re-re-re-packaging a smaller pool of music and taking no ‘risks’ / using no imagination » Continue Reading.

Gaughan – ‘R/evolution: 1969/83’ – available for pre-order

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-1975 – crowdfunded reprint!

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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.

Cockney Rejects – time for a reappraisal?

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A year on from reforming the Rejects after his three comrades decided to call it quits, Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner has announced he’ll be starting a podcast soon ‘Stinky Turner’s Rough & Ready’, interviewing punk rockers and boxers. The revived Rejects seem to be doing well – indeed, Jeff says in this interesting interview (in the comments) that they’re ‘more in demand than ever’.

Is it time for a reappraisal?

Hugh Taylor interviews Dick Gaughan on Celtic Music Radio

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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.