Whatever Happened to Dick Gaughan?

His onstage wit and wisdom were as sparkling as his songs championing diversity, understanding and social justice were razor sharp. His musicianship and vocal qualities were world class. As a performer, he was a giant, charismatic presence on any stage – and then suddenly, in 2016, he was gone.

During the year or so before that, Gaughan had seemingly suffered a stroke or strokes, affecting his dexterity and memory, and his performances declined. When he retired, or rather slipped away, he did so completely, having no online presence and making no public appearances bar a surprise walk-on last year at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival during a concert, helmed by Billy Bragg, in celebration of early 20th century socialist John McLean. As festival organiser Donald Shaw put it, when Gaughan appeared, ‘grown men were in tears’.

For complex reasons, much of Gaughan’s recorded work from his early career (1972–88), when he was focused on traditional repertoire, never made it into the digital era – neither CD nor digital platforms – and is not available to third-party licensors. Only one album from this period has been remastered and re-presented this century. The Harvard Tapes (Greentrax, 2019), a short 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, 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 often saw Gaughan in concert in the 80s and 90s. He was a force of nature – a compelling performer and recording artist. I found myself thinking late last year, ‘Why do we hear nothing about him these days? Why is his work slipping into obscurity?’ It felt alarming. I had to do something about it.

Through a mutual friend, English folk legend Robin Dransfield, I got in touch Dick, who is living modestly in Edinburgh, legally blind. Being professionally involved in the world of vintage music anthologies, I created, on paper, a 7CD+DVD box set spanning 1969–83, which would major on material from concert recordings and broadcasts (BBC, WDR, STV and Danish and Austrian stations) to restore the availability of the artistry otherwise lost, in its commercially recorded form, to business issues. It would both salvage a lost repertoire – fabulously performed in unheard recordings, including some wonderful early 70s radio and TV material from BBC NI – and make a substantial amount of money for Gaughan.

Dick eventually allowed himself to become excited about it. Many record labels that I work with on other archive projects just didn’t see a market; I thought differently. With fellow Gaughan supporters like Scottish musicians Barabara Dickson and Karine Polwart on board, I determined to create this project, titled R/evolution: 1969–83, via the Kickstarter online crowdfunding platform. It launches this Monday – 24 March. It may well be the first time such a multi-licensor archive project has been created in this way.

The response in February from a Facebook teaser ‘announcement of the forthcoming announcement’ of a crowdfunding campaign was overwhelming. The overriding message was that hundreds remembered Gaughan standing up for good causes in his decades of music in service to social justice and wanted to give the love back. ‘We need his voice more than ever now’, was a common response.

Noticing the social media flurry, Billy Bragg was immediately on board: ‘Dick Gaughan's entire career has been about showing solidarity for people in need,’ he says. ‘Let’s show some solidarity for him now and get this project funded and flying.’

I filmed a Kickstarter promo video in Edinburgh last month with Barbara Dickson and Karine Polwart – who both venerate Gaughan as an artist and a human being – plus a self-deprecating cameo from Dick himself.

‘He’s amazing – a completely unique, iconic Scottish musician,’ says Barbara, who appears at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre on 13 April. ‘I was almost in a band with him in the 60s! My youngest son, who’s in his 30s, absolutely loves Dick Gaughan – but nobody he knows has ever heard of him.’

‘The inaccessibility of so much of Dick’s repertoire is a crime,’ says Karine Polwart, ‘ a massive loss to culture and music, and an injustice to Dick himself as an artist who has invested so much in folk music and in community, in the way that he conducted his career. There’s no reason why his music shouldn’t live again – because it’s beautiful, it’s virtuosically played and sung, it’s meaningful, it’s got deep, contemporary relevance. It’s not just a retrospective project – it’s stuff that sticks.’

R/evolution: 1969–83 will restore a whole era of lost music with an extensive booklet to be written by Edinburgh native and acclaimed biographer of Kate Bush, John Martyn and others, Graeme Thomson. If its 1,000 units sell out, it will deliver a very meaningful sum for Dick Gaughan – over £30,000 – which will make a difference to his way of life. One ‘extra reward’ on the Kickstarter platform will be a very limited-edition digipak CD, Untroubled: Live in Belfast 1979–82, signed by Gaughan, with a booklet appreciation by Tommy Sands and drawn from recordings of his three Sunflower Folk Club gigs in that period – recorded by former News Letter columnist the late Geoff Harden.

Gaughan was a beacon of integrity, humility, compassion and optimism – qualities that seem to be in short supply these days. But he was also, in my view, one of the all-time greats in music from Britain and Ireland during the ‘rock era’ of the late 20th century, regardless of genre. He deserves to be in the same ‘cultural space’ here and now as, say, Bert Jansch or Christy Moore – to mention just two examples of veteran ‘folk’ artists who cross boundaries. The first part of allowing a reappraisal to happen is resurrecting his early work from oblivion – and the quality of the material that has been sourced for the box set is sensational.

If the project succeeds, further unreleased gems from Gaughan’s career are lined up – and a tribute concert at Celtic Connections 2026 is also on the cards.