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.

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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.

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.

25/09/2025

The fourth and final part of Shane Kirk’s critically acclaimed trilogy of reminiscences. Over in name-drop corner – BJ Cole, Gretchen Peters, Jason Ringenberg, Jon Langford, Mark Olson, Mary Gauthier, Melanie Safka, Police Dog Hogan, Neil Innes, Rich Hall and Robyn Hitchcock among many others. We are firmly of the opinion, however, that he does not feature in any of *their* memoirs… “The incomparable Shane Kirk has released another book! This one is all about his Maverick adventures, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous read. It’ll make you wish you’d been there – and then, realise that you absolutely could be next time…” Quote/Unquote.

You should pay attention to my editor Helen, she has read it very carefully. Carefully enough to suggest all of the typo and punctuation corrections, indeed. All and any of the errors you think you’ve spotted will be where I ignored her for dramatic effect.

23/09/2025

18/10/2025

National Album Day is back and, like Viz, not as good as it used to be. What started as a celebration of the long-playing format has turned into yet another RSD, with a plethora of inessential coloured vinyl.

This year’s theme is Rock, hence the inclusion of, er… Amy MacDonald, Mozart Estate, T’Pau. List includes albums by both Kasabian and Stereophonics.

Although I might buy a copy of the Hole LP if I see it cheap later.

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

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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.

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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.

01/04/2025

Vulpes Vulpes berated me privately about not promoting the Dick Gaughan box set aggressively enough here… Trust me, I’ve been busy throwing track down in front of the train these past 9 days, promoting it on social media, scrambling to create new ‘extras’ because things keep selling out etc etc. That said, here’s a ‘9 days in’ PR sheet about where we’re at: £76,000+ / nearly $100,000. It really is a phenomenon – and tremendously heart-warming, to know that a lifetime of fabulous music and activism informed by values like compassion, social justice and peace will be appreciated anew, and that great amounts of ‘new old’ music and scattered rarities will be polished up and made easily accessible. 🙂

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Dick Gaughan – R/evolution: 1969–83

Phenomenal success of crowdfunding campaign (9 days into 30 days) to restore folk legend’s early repertoire and re-establish his legacy

Unable to convince any record labels that there was a market for a box set on Scottish folk icon Dick Gaughan – who retired after a stroke in 2016 and now lives modestly, off the grid, in Edinburgh – Belfast music biographer Colin Harper decided to do it himself. The proposed R/evolution: 1969–83 (7CD/DVD) » Continue Reading.

30/05/2025

Few bands have left as distinct a mark on the musical landscape as Horslips. Emerging in the early 1970s, they more or less created ‘Celtic Rock’, drawing from Irish traditional music and British/American rock, crafting a sound that was both timeless and radical.

The BBC captured the band in the 1970s and again during their unexpected Indian summer return in the 2010s. At The BBC gathers these vital recordings – spanning nearly 50 years – into one definitive collection.

Disc 1 (1973–74) – Live BBC performances from Radio 1 In Concert, Old Grey Whistle Test, and John Peel Show, capturing Horslips’ early energy and innovation.

Disc 2 (1979–2019) – A 1979 Radio 1 In Concert set, a 2010 unplugged session, and their final 2019 recording, Sideways to the Sun.

Disc 3 (2011) – The BBC Radio Ulster mix of their orchestral concert with the Ulster Orchestra, featuring The Táin, The Book of Invasions, and I’ll Be Waiting.

Disc 4 (1979 Bonus Disc) – Unreleased Short Stories, Tall Tales studio mixes from Windmill Lane.

Disc 5 (DVD) – Old Grey Whistle Test clips, 1974 documentary footage & 2011 fan-shot concert videos.

Disc 1 begins the journey in 1973–74, landmark years » Continue Reading.

19/03/2025

Dick Gaughan – R/evolution: 1969–83 Advance notice of Kickstarter campaign (due in mid-March)

Music biographer Colin Harper is launching a Kickstarter campaign in mid-March to crowdfund R/evolution: 1969–83 – a 7CD+DVD Dick Gaughan box set, with all proceeds going to the Scottish folk icon, who was forced to retire after a stroke in 2016.

For complex reasons, seven of Gaughan’s 12 albums from 1972–88 have never or only briefly been on CD and are not on digital platforms, nor available to third-party licensors. Of the other five, only one – the classic Handful of Earth (Topic, 1981) – has been remastered/re-presented in the past 28 years. The Harvard Tapes (Greentrax, 2019), a 1982 concert, was a welcome but isolated archive release in recent years. Where other artists of similar vintage see their names and music kept alive by reissues, anthologies, use of music in films etc., this hasn’t happened with Gaughan. To a new generation of people who might be interested, it’s almost as if he never was.

‘I found myself thinking about this late last year,’ says Colin Harper. ‘It felt alarming – upsetting, in fact – that such an incredible artist who had seemed to be » Continue Reading.

21/02/2025

Available from an internet near you from Friday 21st February, ‘The calm beyond the storm’ is a single lifted from the recent ‘Infodemic’ album. A spokesperson for The Eisenhowers claims that the lyric advocates switching off ‘the signal and the noise’ to escape from the digital landscape of relentless social media and information overload. Like we all need to devote time to creating our own reflective headspace, or something. Hope you like it. The video link will appear in the comments.

24/03/2025

Friends, I’m going to need your help in a few weeks – especially friends in the music world, for whom some of this might resonate. That help will be sharing links on your own FB pages and elsewhere.

I’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign that involves aiming for a significant sum of money. I won’t be taking any of it – my role is philanthropic – but I’ll be thrilled if the target is reached: it will allow to happen a project of preservation, celebration and remuneration around a partly ‘lost era’ of work from one of the great artists of the 20th century, in my view.

Dick Gaughan was a folk music giant – a singer *and* instrumentalist of astonishing, singular quality, whose early career was mostly based on traditional music, moving more into songs of his own time in the mid-80s. He was brilliant at all of it and a man of rare compassion and optimism in his worldview.

His first album was released in 1972, his last in 2008. His career ended with a stroke in 2016. He is off the grid and legally blind, unable to play an instrument – but that remarkable » Continue Reading.

23/02/2025

Sensational jazz writer and classy old-school Modern jazz quartet leader Simon Spillett has a new album out – ‘Up In Town’. It’s a big deal, because he has a long held antipathy to recording, often loathing the results, but rather likes this one.

He’s also ‘up in town’ on 23 February at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Soho. His quartet has been having a good run lately – including a recent sold out Ronnie Scott’s. But his punters clearly don’t like pizza. The show looks like being for a ‘select’ audience. If you’re within travelling distance, give it a go.

Here’s what Simon (not as dour as some may think) has to say about the show on his social media page:

Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho Sunday February 23rd 2025 A concert by the Simon Spillett Quartet launching its new album ‘Up In Town’ (Mister PC Records) featuring the music of Tubby Hayes. As well as the quartet with Pete Billington, Alec Dankworth and Pete Cater and the opportunity to purchase the new album ahead of its official release date there are a host of attractive diversions including:

* Italian cheese on toast * unpronounceable desserts * a range of » Continue Reading.

28/01/2025

Sounding the Century: The Exhibition gathers paper ephemera, record sleeves, photographs and original artwork to highlight the life and achievements of Bill Leader, the prolific sound engineer and record producer. The experience of viewing is designed to complement the experience of reading Sounding the Century, the projected eight-book series by Mike Butler. The books and exhibition between them tell the whole story of the British Folk Revival.

Bill Leader was born on Boxing Day, 1929, in Newark, New Jersey, to Londoner cousins of Irish heritage. The Depression drove the family back to England and, during the Blitz, Bill’s father’s factory was ordered to evacuate to Keighley, West Yorkshire. Bill co-founded the Bradford branch of the Workers’ Music Association with Alex Eaton. This left-wing front believed in social change through music. Topic Records, its record label, existed to supply members with a monthly 78rpm record of Shostakovich and factory choirs or some such. Bill maintained the association upon moving to London in 1955 and volunteered to record folk singers for Topic. It was at just the moment when folk music was deemed a suitable vehicle for the workers’ struggle, and, coincidentally, folklorist Kenneth Goldstein identified a gap in the » Continue Reading.

20/12/2024

My good pal Mark Case has created this seasonal promo for recent releases on the splendid Madfish imprint. I was delighted to have worked with Mark, and Madfish, this year past on the Fairport Convention 12-disc set featured in the promo. I’ll be involved in at least three Madfish projects next year (Horslips at the BBC 4CD+DVD, Martin Carthy at the BBC 20CD and a mystery Horslips item later in the year) – and perhaps more. Exciting!

19/07/2025

My Christmas has come early with the announcement of a reunion show by Fareham’s finest septet.

Their two proper albums have made it to Spotify, final odds-and-sods round-up, Tremendous Magic: Lost Songs 2008​-​2012, is still on Bandcamp.

Tickets are only a tenner. See you down the front.

25/04/2025

Pentangle: The Albums: 1968-1972 boxset to be released on vinyl for the very first time via Svart Records on 16th April 2025

1968 to 1972, saw the release of 6 studio albums from Folk’s first supergroup Pentangle. Featuring the songwriting talents of guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, alongside bassist Danny Thompson, drummer Terry Cox and singer Jacqui McShee, their innovative folk-fusion encompassed elements of jazz as well as pop, which left a lasting influence and legacy.

The first 5 albums were released on legendary Folk label Transatlantic, while Solomon’s Seal (1972), on the Reprise label, was their final album with the original line-up.

Now for the first time ever, these albums are available as a 14LP deluxe box set. Each album has been expanded with a wealth of bonus material, including choice selections from contemporaneous solo LPs by Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, out-takes and live tracks. Across the package, there is an impressive amount of 22 recordings which are previously unreleased on LP. Some of the albums are being reissued on vinyl for the first time in decades with Solomon’s Seal last being released as an LP in 1977, shortly followed by Reflection in 1980.

Each » Continue Reading.