Dick Gaughan – Live At The BBC 1972-1979: Album Review

By Seuras Og on 16th December 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

The prodigious talent of Gaughan, in his heyday, and largely solo prime.

Release Date : 12th December 2025

Label : Talking Elephant/Last Night From Glasgow

Format : CD / Vinyl / Digital

A RIGHTEOUS KERFUFFLE

If you haven’t noticed there has been a bit of a kerfuffle around Dick Gaughan this year, well, frankly, you haven’t been paying attention. Or enough attention, as this giant, stated entirely without hyperbole, of Scottish Folk has, at last, been granted the opportunity to have his catalogue made again available. Or, at least, the sizeable chunk kept under wraps, in the vaults of CM music. CM, Celtic Music, were/are a label who, last century, bought up a tranche of back catalogues, largely folk releases relating mainly to the 1970s.

Some, but not much, of the music was made briefly available for re-release on CDR, with the artists receiving zilch, and then they ceased to release anything at all. Also, they refused to let any of the artist have access and would not even sell the rights back to them. One of the more affected artists was Gaughan, who has subsequently been unable to play or perform to any great degree, since sustaining a sizeable stroke and retiring, in 2016. Access to his back catalogue might have added considerably to any income in those intervening years.

A GIANT, WITH A THUNDEROUS VOICE

Gaughan, as said, is a giant, with a commanding voice and a prodigiously percussive guitar style. Starting his professional career as a singer in 1970, he, as well as releasing a string of solo releases, was also instrumental in launching a never more Caledonian strain of folk-rock, with, first, Five Hand Reel, and then the short lived behemoth, Clan Alba, one of the first electric bands to feature bagpipes. He had also been an early member of acoustic trail-blazers, Boys Of The Lough. With a thunderous voice that could strip paint, in an all but indecipherable Scottish burr, he can send shivers both up, down your spine, and sideways. I cannot understate his importance, his significance and his power.

HARPER’s BAZAAR

Enter Colin Harper, a Belfast writer and musician, who, as a fan of Gaughan, and enraged by the ongoing saga with CM, set up a crowd fund to enable Gaughan to gain redress and to access his own music once more. With the enticement of a meticulously archived 7CD+DVD, box set, R/evolution: 1969-83, a staggering sum was raised, £92k and counting, and it will be released in the new year. The monies raised will help facilitate a legal challenge against the recalcitrant “owners” of Gaughan’s rights.

However, in the meantime, here is an appetiser, a single disc of BBC sessions, hitherto unavailable. CD and digital versions are already available, through Talking Elephant, with a vinyl edition round about now, from Last Night In Glasgow.

A MAGNIFICENT LAMENT

The first couple of songs come from the Boys Of The Lough, back in 1972, opening with the magnificent lament for the fallen at Flodden Field, in 1513, Floo’ers Of The Forest. Over his own guitar, the gently sighing fiddle of Aly Bain and Cathal McConnell’s poignant whistle, Gaugan almost hums out the words, prolonging and emphasising the consonants over the vowels, in his characteristic style. The two hundred years younger Rigs Of The Rye follows, which displays his sensitive touch on a guitar. Effectively solo, it is a beautiful rendition and prefaces his later version, on 1977 album, Kist O’ Gold, yes, currently unavailable.

Five tracks from 1977 follow, all just majestic voice and meticulous guitar. Farewell To Whisky eclipses many of the alternate versions, including that by the Battlefield Band, which included his long term chum and co-pilot in Clan Alba, Brian McNeill. Freedom Come All Ye’ is a song of the first folk revival of the 1960’s, written by Hamish Henderson, to the tune of an old bagpipe melody from WW1. A tremendous anti-war song, it was one Gaughan returned to frequently, recording it with both Five Hand Reel and, much later, in his 1996 album, Sail On. But, it is in this raw stripped back version that it carries the greatest heft.

EMOTION CONTROLLED AND PALPABLE

My Donald, sometimes Donal, is a song that seems to have slipped from the tradition. Another relative youngster, it was written also in the 1960’s, by one Owen Hand. Popular in the folk clubs of Edinburgh and Glasgow, notables such as Ray Fisher and the Ian Campbell Folk Group also performed it, as did Barbara Dickson, herself also integral in the current battle for Gaughan’s catalogue. Rashy Moor and then Raglan Road are two stalwarts of traditional song, and when I say there are few more relaxing sounds than to hear Gaughan glide through these two songs, you have to believe me. The emotion is controlled but always palpable. Tears are allowed, don’t hold them back. The applause, included, comes almost a s a surprise, forgetting these are live recordings, and offer a sudden jolt

ALONE AND UNEMBELLISHED

Fast forward two years, and it a brace of of two of the best, Fair Flower O’ Northumberland and, o joy, Willie O’Winsbury. The former, introduced by a brisk Good Evening gets taken at a swifter lick than this song often gets, none the worse for that. Having come late myself to Gaughan, in the 1990s, for Clan Alba and the aforementioned Sail On, hindsight shows his greater strength is this sort of setting, alone and unembellished. Winsbury, of course, is the finest of all songs, with a tune to accompany any last meal.

A highpoint of Gaughan’s eponymous debut for Topic records, that label showed a far greater respect for his muse, and still does. It may not be as sweet as the versions you are possibly more familiar, but work with it, as, like a peaty malt, once the flavour can be accommodated, you won’t be wanting that softer stuff any more. And just catch that rolling and rippling guitar!

A GOB TO BE SMACKED

Finally a flashback to 1973, for MacCrimmon’s Lament, unaccompanied, his voice as tuneful as the pipes and fiddles that generally play the works of Clan MacCrimmon, hereditary pipers to the MacLeod’s of Skye. The lyric commemorates Donal Bàn MacCrimmon’s demise, during the 1745 Uprising. Gaughan’s stunning delivery closes this disc, drawing forth awe as to his then splendour, and is worth the price of acquisistion alone. If having my gob smacked was a thing for me, this is what I’d want it smacked by.

If this has raised any, alongside the admiration for and enjoyment of this singer, righteous indignation in you, as it should, here is a link to the ongoing campaign. Every little helps, as will purchasing the album.

ENJOY!

Not on this disc, but on the forthcoming set, here is a tremendous remastered recording of Magdalen Green, a song never committed to any studio outing. Enjoy, as much for the introduction: