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 into record shops in March 2026.
What’s in the box?
· 126 audio tracks (9 hours) and 37 video tracks (2½ hours, spanning 1970–2012) from five broadcasters and two amateur documentarists.
· 83 audio tracks are unreleased (43 BBC session/concert recordings + 40 club/concert recordings) including many songs and tunes never commercially recorded by Dick.
· All 37 video performances are unreleased (including two otherwise unrecorded Gaughan originals).
· Maximum variety of repertoire (over 100 distinct songs or tune sets on the audio discs)
The audio is mastered by Cormac O’Kane and the video content is restored and mastered to stunning effect by Eroc. The set is curated by Bert Jansch/John McLaughlin biographer Colin Harper. Two extensive illustrated booklets are included featuring: (1) a new 10,000-word essay by Graeme Thomson; (2) vintage interview features by Ian A. Anderson, Jerry Gilbert, Fred Woods and Colin Irwin; (3) rare and unpublished photos from Ian A. Anderson, Dave Peabody, Frank Scott, Tom Steenbergen, Barry Plummer and Val Wilmer; (4) song notes by Steve Byrne. Crucially, ALL profits will go to Dick Gaughan.
Sales link here, with full box set contents listed:
https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/products/dick-gaughan-r-evolution?srsltid=AfmBOor0SNlPCGFuIjUvVedXDS9NGGFPrAPtcNVUplBg-vswKmJrCzo3
January 18 tribute show booking here:
https://www.celticconnections.com/event/1/true-bold-a-night-for-dick-gaughan/
Many congratulations on getting this one over the line Colin – a Herculean effort I’m sure.
Well, if only you knew the angst over the last couple of days around a spreadsheet error (173 additional people, hidden deep in an opaque Kickstarter spreadsheet, expecting delivery of a Kickstarter ‘extra’ item over the past couple of weeks, when 218 others were already receiving that very item… meaning I need to get more manufactured ASAP)…
Thankfully, pledgers have been tremendously understanding. There’s lots of goodwill around the project. The box set isn’t *quite* over the line – but it’ll be off to manufacturing in a couple of weeks, all being well.
@Colin-H may I suggest a darkened room, a fine single malt and a soothing backdrop of somnabulant sonic ambience from Eno or suchlike while you recover from your Excel Hell?
Not far now, keep up the spirits, nearly there, no rest for the wicked, etc. etc. etc.
Fighting talk, Vulpmeister…
I’m off to see Martin Hayes at Belfast Grand Opera House tonight – a different sort of restorative! But I daresay we’ll have a whisky after the show. 🙂
Thanks for all your good work @Colin-H
I already have my CC tickets. Having some problems signing up with LNFG. I will try again later after the fitba. Enjoy you gig tonight.
It might be legendary.
Aye, that’s the 2nd time you’ve used that word ‘legendary’ you devil. I see that Emmylou Harris has just been confirmed for a CC gig 2 days before the DG gig. She’s pretty legendary. Of course, I consider the likes of Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis & Martin Simpson to be pretty legendary and they might be in the area.
Emmylou tickets for the Ovo Hydro on sale from 10am Friday.
It is, I concede, a favourite word.
I saw the sublime Martin Hayes tonight in Belfast. You mention Emmylou – I saw Martin Hayes & Emmylou play double header at CC in 1997 or thereabouts. I reviewed it in a newspaper – ‘the master of silence and the queen of doom’ is a phrase from it that springs to mind!
Martin is a huge fan of Gaughan – ‘Handful of Earth’ especially.
For anyone who might be interested, I must correct the information regarding Emmylou’s CC appearance on 16/01/26. The venue will actually be the Emirates Arena in Glasgow’s East End.
The last time I saw Emmylou was in 2008 in GRCH. Back in the 80’s I was at gigs by both Dick Gaughan and Martin Simpson. Heady days.
Congratulations Colin, I’m looking forward to receiving the box which is certain to brighten up gloomy February. Thank you
My copy arrived just after lunch today – rather earlier than I expected.
My necessarily brief first impressions: very high quality package. The two booklets are detailed and packed with reading and photos. The two discs I’ve managed to listen to this afternoon (one listen only, Tiggs) were superb, both in content and sound quality. Even the clamshell seems better than standard.
Well done, @Colin-H – a remarkable project altogether and the box set is superlative.
Plenty of listening and reading coming up in the next few weeks…
Thank you Fitter! It looks like the good people at Last Night From Glasgow have started the mailout a little earlier than planned. I’ll be posting all EU orders out (from Rep of Ireland, for all sorts of helpful reasons) next week.
I glad you noticed the clamshell being decent quality – things like the black lining inside add something like 15p or 20p per unit but my designer, Mark, recommended it as an extra touch of quality and I thought, ‘What the hell’.
Going for a ‘casebound book’ format (e.g. like the Jethro Tull deluxe album sets) would have added £5,000 to costs. I felt I couldn’t justify that for the sake of cardboard, so doing what we could to add quality within the humbler clamshell format was key. The two booklets are perfect-bound, for instance – and the page count is twice what I envisaged at the start. The clamshell box itself was custom tooled to handle this – not an off-the-shelf option. A bit more cost, yes, but how often does one get an opportunity to create a 1969-83 Dick Gaughan box set? We gave it everything we could, within reason. So I’m delighted to hear that the effort hasn’t gone unnoticed. 🙂
I hope someone with more knowledge of Mr Gaughan’s music (and folk in general) will write a proper review here, in due course.
Likewise!
I hope to buy the R/Evolution set when it becomes available to the general public.
Is the release date early March or something?
Most importantly, will it be available to order from anywhere in the EU?
The distributor that I’ve heard mentioned in the past is Last Night from Glasgow. Will anyone else be selling it, because, living in Sweden, I can’t order from the UK without incurring enormous extra charges due to Brexit?
Early February is the general release date, Duc. It is only distributed within the UK. But if you PM me, I can sort you out with a copy sent from within an EU country (I’ll be mailing EU Kickstarter orders next week).
I’m sure that someone more erudite than I will be – at this very moment – writing a comprehensive review. However I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that this box set is a thing of beauty and a remarkable achievement. Colin set himself some ambitious targets – and has met them all. Chapeau!
Thank you, Lando. At present, the pre-selling of ‘general release’ copies of the set from Last Night From Glasgow (official release date: 27/2/26) is paused, until all Kickstarter pledgers have received their copies. Sales reopen early February.
Just in case anyone goes to LNFG online before then and tries to order (a temporary ‘sold out’ message would appear).
The Gaughan tribute concert at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow on Sunday was stunning.
Colin, do you know if the tribute concert is likely to appear on TV at any point?
Thanks
It won’t be on TV but BBC Radio Scotland recorded it (audio).
I employed two camera pros to film it (to sync with the BBC audio) to have it in the can if there should be an opportunity for a new TV Gaughumentary, in which extracts could potentially be used.