Subject: Gaughan reissues Kickstarter
From:
Jack Campin
Date: 17 Feb 25 - 07:03 PM
From Colin Harper on FB:
Friends, I’m going to need your help in a few weeks – especially friends in the music world, for whom some of this might resonate. That help will be sharing links on your own FB pages and elsewhere.
I’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign that involves aiming for a *significant* sum of money. I won’t be taking any of it – my role is philanthropic – but I’ll be thrilled if the target is reached: it will allow to happen a project of preservation, celebration and remuneration around a largely ‘lost era’ of work from one of the great artists of the 20th century, in my view.
Richard Gaughan was a folk music giant – a singer *and* instrumentalist of astonishing, singular quality, whose early career was mostly based on traditional music, moving more into songs of his own time in the mid-80s. He was brilliant at all of it and a man of rare compassion and optimism in his worldview.
His first album was released in 1972, his last in 2008. His career ended with a stroke in 2016. He is off the grid and legally blind, unable to play an instrument – but that remarkable optimism remains. He deserves some good luck.
Most artists with a long career see periodic reissues, anthologies, even box sets of their work – keeping the flame of their artistry alive – in their later years and into retirement. This is the case with peers of similar singular artistry from the background of the folk revival – Bert Jansch, June Tabor, Martin Carthy...
Gaughan has been unlucky in this respect: 7 of his 12 albums from 1972–88 are out of reach to licensors and have never or never properly appeared on CD (one appeared briefly on low-run CDr) let alone digital/streaming; of the other five, only one has been sonically refreshed/reissued in the past 30-odd years (the fabulous ‘Handful of Earth’, 1981, remastered/repacked 6 years ago).
This has created an alarming ‘legacy gap’ – let alone the money that might have gone to Gaughan and the reputation-burnishing and introducing to a new generation that might have happened had his early work been periodically re-presented. Look at the tranche of national publicity, for example, that greeted the simple reissue on vinyl of Martin Carthy’s first LP last year, or this month’s broadsheet and monthly magazine features on Vashti Bunyan, on the occasion of a simple 20th anniversary reissue of her 2005 comeback album after a one-album original career in 1970. It’s not enough for musical artists to do great work – that work must be periodically refreshed and re-presented, made available to new listeners, celebrated anew by the faithful, with the artist themselves benefitting either directly (with revenues) or indirectly (with publicity that helps generate ongoing work or sales of other releases).
I saw Gaughan performing many times in the 80s and 90s – an awesome experience. Last year, I began to think that he and his music were fading from view – and I resolved to try and do something about that.
In brief, I created on paper ‘R/evolution: 1969-84’ – a 7CD+DVD box set restoring that lost repertoire and magical early era via BBC and club/concert recordings along with stray studio tracks from scattered various-artist albums, two albums in full and selections from two others, plus film from five broadcasters. 128 audio tracks / 83 previously unreleased and 21 video tracks.
Labels weren’t interested, they didn’t believe there was a market. I believe there is a market – and I also believe the artistry is of a level of greatness that even if that market is modest, it *has* to be created. It’s not hubris, it just feels wrong to give in. So, I’m going to be running a Kickstarter campaign to fund it, launching in late March, all being well.
The late publisher Rayner Unwin, confronted with Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in the 1950s, telegrammed his father, Sir Stanley, head of the firm, saying ‘I think it’s a work of genius but we might lose £1,000’. His father, to his credit, replied: ‘*If* it’s a work of genius, you can lose £1,000.’
Happily, with the all-or-nothing Kickstarter crowdfunding model, I won’t be losing £1,000 – but I’ll need to raise around £25,000. The costings are nearly all in, and even with generosity from several of the professionals involved, that’s the sum necessary.
Gaughan is fully on board. We’ll be filming a Kickstarter promo video together in Edinburgh in two weeks, with a few other ‘team members’.
It is a project of preservation, celebration and remuneration for Gaughan, one of the folk music giants of the late 20th century: (1) to preserve, polish and present a remarkable body of work from 1969–84 (most of it previously unreleased); (2) to celebrate his incredible artistry once again, years after he and much of his recorded work have faded from view; and (3) to remunerate him fairly and squarely for that work (receiving ALL the revenues after costs).
Look out for the campaign launch in March and help share it far and wide if you can!
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sj
