I know many of you will be aware that the legendary Scottish singer and guitarist Dick Gaughan had a stroke in 2016 which meant he has been unable to perform for some time. A benefit concert was held in Edinburgh in late 2016 which included performances from Eddi Reader, Billy Bragg, Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain, Karine Polwart and more. A further benefit concert was held at this year’s Celtic Connections which also served to honour the incredible contribution he has made to the folk world. It was an emotional event as this Celtic Connections blog post tells:
At the Old Fruitmarket last night, the Dick Gaughan Benefit Concert unsurprisingly proved an emotional, uplifting and musically sumptuous occasion, with a stellar list of performers and enormous love in the room. The latter was expressed most powerfully in the truly almighty roar that greeted Dick himself, when he was eventually coaxed onstage by compère Elaine C Smith – and the one that followed when he said he’d be back. Celtic Connections Blog
Well, he said he’d be back and the good news is that Dick Gaughan has begun performing again. A huge thanks to Pete Heywood of The Living Tradition for sharing this. Watch him performing his song “Childhood’s End” below as part of the recent Far, Far From Ypres Stage Show. The video opens with narration by BBC Radio Scotland presenter Iain Anderson and Dick begins performing at 1:44.
The stage show has finished it’s current tour and included performances from Barbara Dickson, Siobhan Miller, Mairi MacInnes, Ian McCalman, Iain Anderson, Professor Gary West, Stephen Quigg, Ian Bruce, Sangsters and other well-known faces in the Scottish folk scene. Peter Heywood operates the overhead slide projection.
You can order Far, Far From Ypres – Songs, Poems & Music Of World War One via Greentrax here https://www.greentrax.com/music/product/world-war-one-songs
Read our recent review of the Topic Records release An Introduction to Dick Gaughan