Dick Gaughan’s first two albums (‘No More Forever’ and ‘Kist O’ Gold’, both for Bill Leader’s Trailer label) and his fourth (‘Songs of Ewan MacColl’, shared with two other singers, for Geoff Heslop’s ‘Rubber Records) are unlikely to be reissued in the digital era. They are owned by the heirs of a controversial businessman who seemed – to the casual observer – to buy defunct/troubled labels and then do nothing with them. Decades would pass and beloved artefacts of cultural history would lie in his warehouse, presumably decaying like all else to the ravages of time.
I asked the mighty Eroc – aside from the work he will do on the forthcoming Gaughan box set’s DVD content – to master from near-mint vinyl those first two albums and some associated tracks, using his extremely high-end vinyl gear and his unique ears, and I’m freely sharing the results.
Here’s ‘Kist O’ Gold’ (recorded 1975, released 1977) and the four Gaughan-sung tracks from ‘Songs of Ewan MacColl’ (1978), his joint album with Dave Burland and Tony Capstick for Rubber.
(link in the comments)
Splendido! Free the Gaughan Three!
Such bounty!!
And now a fabulous remaster of ‘Call It Freedom’ (1988) and two fabulous 1987 bonuses from ‘Woody Lives!’
Thank you so much chaps, it’s brilliant to be able to hear these gems once more.
And now, ‘No More Forever’ (1972) – Gaughan’s debut, mastered anew by Eroc from near-mint vinyl, with every track slightly pitch-adjusted to what was originally performed, plus three associated 1973-74 tracks. The last of the trilogy of ‘free to share’ remasterings of albums that are othewise locked in a vault.
Outrageous services to music-kind Colin! All power to you and Eroc – great work!
Thank you, Vulpsmeister! They really are fabulous bits of sonic splendidness. 🙂
This generous sharing of glorious music has certainly been the best retrospective surge of folkish brilliance that I’ve experienced since late last century.
Back in the late eighties, I’d bumped into a guy at a record fair in Old Market, Bristol, who happened to have a stall next to my buddy and I. We were selling a large lot of used LPs or varying degrees of quality and musicality, while he had a similar number of titles that were all delightfully acoustic, and often difficult to track down, especially in as-new condition. It turned out he’d bought the stock from a distributor who’d sold up, and he had, shall we say, a trail of leading topical titles of interest to a folky.
A week later I diverted from my drive home to go 100 miles out of my way and call in at his obscurely rural storage facility, where I literally filled my boot with otherwise unavailable titles at ludicrously fair discounted prices before returning home on what was also a glorious day filled with the golden light of Bright Phoebus.
These bonanzas of talent rediscovery don’t come around very often, so thank you Colin, for sharing this wonderful music here.