Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 07:07 AM

No No No Breezy ...he is wunderful!!!! His phrasing on songs like Song for Ireland and Westland Winds is quite magical. Ok the band idea was not brilliant (apart from the fact I got to see 3 of my favourite musicians at once) but as Martin said he's really a solo artist and a very fine one at that.

Still in rapture

Sarah

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 08:24 AM

It's always a personal thing, music. I couldn't pass this thread by without saying I love Dick's music. I've caught him playing live down in Devon twice in the last couple of years and I can testify to the fact that he is a thoroughly nice man as well!

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Pete MacGregor
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 10:16 AM

Breezy - keeping time is for dancers. Not really much to do with singing at all.
PM

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: SmileHabitat
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 09:48 PM

"DG always makes his music immediate and relevant to the present."

And part of the problem with performing topical music, especially the political stuff, is it sounds dated rather quickly.

I didn't see this programme. I have seen DG perform live a number of times, have met the man a coupe times, and have corresponded with him online. I think I know him well enough to critique both his music and politics.

I don't find him all that curmudgeonly, or even a bastard. Quite the contrary, on a personal level, he has always been quite polite and gracious with me. He seems to be a generous performer.

But none of that changes the fact that his voice (which I once enjoyed) seems to be gone (at least in the last live performance I heard, and I've heard from others who are fans that it wasn't just an off night). Much of his music now sounds dated. And while I agree the world could certainly use some new form of socialism, I don't think the old school socialism will pass muster nowadays. Nor should it. The world has changed a tremendous amount in 20 years time. Sadly, I don't know that DG has kept up with it.

I do have problems with the political worldview of a lot of musicians who have spent their entire adult lives "not getting their hands dirty" (or dry and chapped from doing the washing up, as one female friend would say) as someone mentioned above. I really don't think most of the male folk musicians of DG's generation especially, get what people are enduring these days, whether working or not.

It is almost as if the whole world passed DG by, in the blink of an eye.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Effsee
Date: 14 Nov 05 - 10:01 PM

He's our Pete Seeger.....and we are thankful for him!

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 09:50 AM

I've no idea why the BBC chose the title 'A Different Kind Of Love Song'. The concert included no songs from this 1983 album
I was a bit confused by this post CR so I rewatched the programme and A Different Kind Of Love Song was recorded on my copy!

Actually just an excuse to remind people that Dick's at Walhamstow on Sunday

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 10:31 AM

Haven't seen it, Kev. He didn't sing it at the actual concert as far as I remember. Then again, maybe he did but the sound was so bad I didn't recognise it. Or perhaps it's taken from the sound check (if they had one, which is doubtful). Or, more likely, after the interval. I'm told he joined LW III onstage at one point after I'd left.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 11:08 AM

Now wiped the prog so can't check to see if LWIII is lurking in the background or if just the soundcrew are there.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: The Unicorn Man
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 03:20 PM

Well, we shall all see in a few days how it will turn out. I am doing some stewarding of some kind, so I should see most of the second half. DD

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: breezy
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 03:51 PM

Hello Martin

Hows the singing coming along?

Will you be wearing that usherette's uniform as well ! ?

At least you'll get to see George Papavgeris who will have his own gig at Windward on fri 25th at the comfort in St Albans.

his latest song 'Anytown ' is well worth hearing. as well as his song that was used as an encore by Bailey, Carthy and J K at the south Bank last week.

have all the tickets gone yet do you know?

With any luck alison will give you a support spot at her next concert.

hope it goes well

jeremy taylor on Sunday 27th Nov last chance, as the club will close then.

hope you come to support Hilary on Friday.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Jamie
Date: 15 Nov 05 - 10:44 PM

I wasn't able to attend the Bush House concert, but I did have the opportunity to watch and record the broadcast. I agree that the sound quality of the broadcast (can't speak about how it sounded live) did leave something to be desired, This is a perennial problem for musicians wherever they perform and is largely out of their control. In this instance however, is all the more irritating considering that the BBC has the technical resources that most gig venues just do not offer.

With regard to some of the comments made in this particular topic I should mention that I have followed DG's career for several years and have watched him play live on several occasions. Musical preference is a personal choice and I would not have it otherwise. However, I regard Dick Gaughan as one of the most influential and multiply-gifted musicians that Scotland has ever produced. This opinion is based partly on my own background in music and the numerous settings in which I have heard DG perform.

As for DG's politics being outdated, I was a student in the late 80s and as president of the students' union, in the thick of student politics. I now despair of the way in which many of the things we campaigned for have been watered down in our materially obsessed society. Individuals such as DG who are not afraid to stand up and speak out are just as relevant today as they ever were. I speak from personal experience and understanding of a side of life that few are directly aware. I am a doctor who has worked with children throughout my career(both in the UK and overseas). Many of my young patients are victims of abuse - physical, sexual and/or psychological. Despite the apparent wealth that many in our 21st century society enjoy, so many children still come from materially impoverished homes that would not be out-of-place in a Dickens' novel.

As for the references to musicians who don't get their hands dirty, I am sure this does apply to many who, for commercial reasons, pose as the sons of toil from pure working-class stock. In DG's case however, he has a long history of getting his hands dirty. It is a matter of record that at the beginning of his musical career, when it was not financially possible to survive on music alone, he continued to work in the less than salubrious surroundings of an Edinburgh paper mill. Later, he trained as a plumber. More recently, he studied web-design at college and in-addition to maintaining his own superb web site, still works on commission projects. What is less well-known is that he has also designed web sites for charitable trusts on a no-cost basis. How he finds the time is a mystery.

Dick Gaughan's politics still resonate with me and many others who work in the firing line of social deprivation and we have found him to be a tireless champion of our efforts. In the time that would jokingly be termed his 'private' life, Dick actively campaigns (as opposed to those who just write letters to the newspapers) for social justice that echoes the message that still comes through in his music. For those who suggest that he may not be seen as frequently as in previous years, the truth is he is extremely busy. As well as his live performance schedule, he is a record producer, adviser to television and film companies (check out the recent Ewan McGregor film 'Young Adam'). At-present, he is recording a new album concurrent with producing an album for another musician and writing a concerto due to be performed by a full orchestra next year! All this of course, takes some time away from touring, an activity that DG places a high value on as it keeps him in-touch with the very people who buy his albums and listen to him in broadcast. In this age of the plastic, fantastic, factory-produced noise that is promoted as 'music', Dick Gaughan (like others of his ilk) is the genuine article. That probably is enough to qualify him as being 'outdated', but give me this raw, uncompromising honesty any day.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: shepherdlass
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 06:25 PM

Well said, Jamie. There are still a few of us grateful for Gaughan's strong voice of conscience in the wilderness of modern Britain.

Subject: RE: Dick Gaughan BBC 4 next weekend
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 16 Nov 05 - 06:36 PM

I am entirely with Gaughan's politics, and have also worked in two papermills, one in Sweden and one in Kent, England). But his playing reminded me of spandau ballet (the original meaning, not the band): the occasional frenetic burst without apparent connection to the timing of other movement.

Not one tune could I walk away whistling any part of - and this is not a comment on my whistling.