Talk:Dick Gaughan

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Musicians

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians (assessed as Low-importance).

Scotland Low‑importance

	Scotland portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Scotland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Scotland and Scotland-related topics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ScotlandWikipedia:WikiProject ScotlandTemplate:WikiProject ScotlandScotland articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Roots music Mid‑importance

	Music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Roots music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles relating to roots, folk and traditional folk music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Roots musicWikipedia:WikiProject Roots musicTemplate:WikiProject Roots musicRoots music articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Untitled[edit]

Quite a comprehensive biography focussing not only on the field in which he is known. Nogwa

Hi. Nogwa, do you know the name of Dick's mother? I am looking for any extant samples of her voice, as I have heard so much about it. I credit her with raising this fine musician in the best way possible. MELINDA LEMMON (talk) 07:29, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

His mother was called Frances MacDonald. I have never heard that she was ever recorded singing, although she won a silver medal at one of the Gaelic Mods as a child in the 1930s - see the Biography section of the archive of DG's web site in the External Links section of the article. [[User:Molly Romanov|Molly Romanov]] (talk) 17:02, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Amendments made from 86.3.29.137 on 19th February[edit]

There are many aspects of these amendments which I strongly recommend are changed or deleted as they are either factually incorrect or personal interpretations. A few specifics follow, but by no means an exclusive list:

You have written: "Gaughan began as a classic singer-songwriters". Apart from the typo (and there are other typos in your amendments), this is factually not the case. DG did not start out writing songs at all - he was a traditional folk-singer in the early days (you correctly state that he was "playing mainly traditional songs on an acoustic guitar"). The general understanding of the term "singer-songwriter", at least in the UK, is of a musician who writes and sings songs relating to his/her personal life. DG does not perform introspective songs of this kind.

You also state "in recent years he has reverted to playing mainly an acoustic guitar". This is hardly "recent"! He played electric guitar with Five Hand Reel and Clan Alba. I will check the actual dates involved.

"His solo albums of the 1980s returned to the 'singer-songwriter' style in which he had begun" - see my paragraph above. DG was never what is commonly understood by the term "singer-songwriter", and the fact that he had started writing some (IMO excellent) songs does not make him so. The majority of the songs which he performs and records are written by others.

"A Handful of Earth is generally agreed to be his greatest album". The title is in fact "Handful of Earth". I do not agree with your assessment that it is "generally agreed to be his greatest album"; it is certainly the most crucial album of his career, epitomising his decision to follow the route of political song, rather than being tempted by greater material gains through performing less challenging and more generally-popular material.

"Perhaps surprisingly for such a 'traditional musician' Gaughan is something of a technophile, being strongly in favour of the democratic potential of computers in general and the internet in particular." The first part is very subjective and should be removed. Also, I have never heard any suggestion that his love of the Internet is specifically motivated by political principles, as is suggested by the use of the word "democratic".

I also intend to remove the link which you added back to his old web site at http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk, and which I removed and replaced with his current site not long ago (from 81.178.168.159). The old site is no longer updated and remains on the web only because it is much linked to from other sites; DG only maintains and updates the current site.

I will not be making any of these changes for at least 24 hours, to give you an opportunity to comment and support your amendments. --Molly Mockford 23:15, 21 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Gaughan" album[edit]

I have twice deleted the following sentence added by Martinevans123:

"1978 also saw the release of the first album in his own name, on the Topic record label."

The album referred to, "Gaughan", was not the first album in Dick's own name. Prior to that he released three albums in his own name: No More Forever (1972), Kist O'Gold (1976) and Coppers and Brass (1977) - as contrasted with albums under the names of "Boys of the Lough" and "Five Hand Reel".

The justification by Martinevans123 for restoring this sentence is "...still think both first eponymous album and Topic deserve a mention...". "Eponymous" does not mean "in his own name" - it means "named after himself". "Gaughan" is indeed an eponymous album; but that is hardly interesting or unusual - and "first eponymous album"?? It would be more startling if there were to be more than one album called "Gaughan"!

As far as Topic Records are concerned, unless we are to include the labels of all Dick's other CDs - the recent ones of which are published by Greentrax - I see no relevance in including a link to Topic for just one recording. One might as well mention that the cover photo was taken at Newhaven Harbour. It's just trivia!

The body text by no means includes the release dates of all the albums; this is the point in having a discography in its own section. So it is not as though the album "Gaughan" has been for any reason ignored or neglected in the entry.

In summary, my view is that the sentence is badly worded and misleading; it is also irrelevant and unnecessary.

Comments from others are invited.

--Molly Mockford (talk) 13:39, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ouch. Well that's me told. You are quite right of course, although I don't see anything wrong with including all the labels. Nor even with Newhaven Harbour. I'll just shut up now. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:11, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Other albums[edit]

... um, so why not have a new section for those "... recordings to which Dick Gaughan contributed only a few tracks", or indeed any track? Martinevans123 (talk) 18:25, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing at all wrong with that, as far as I can see! However, it really ought to be a separate section, and not conflated with the official discography. Maybe it would be a good idea if it specified on which tracks in each album DG plays/sings?--Molly Mockford (talk) 18:12, 3 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Links.[edit]

Dear fellow editors;
A few days ago (11 April), a template was added to indicate some link rot.
So, I had a quick look to see if I could help and it turns out that:

the link http://www.footstompin.com/artist-dick-gaughan now automatically re-directs to:
http://forum.handsupfortrad.co.uk/, but this doesn't provide a page or article about Gaughan anymore.

Therefore, since that part of the existing prose is no longer corroborated by a source, I will remove the rotten link and replace it with the 'citation needed' template where the previous ref tags were located.
I hope this helps for now.
With kind regards;
Patrick. ツ Pdebee.^(talk)^(guestbook) 16:18, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Latest update: I have now also re-formatted the other bare url's by adding names, titles and the 'Retrieved on' tags, duly updated with the original dates at which these links were contributed by other editors.

With kind regards;

Patrick. ツ Pdebee.^(talk)^(guestbook) 17:00, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Dick Gaughan/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

It contains an excellent level of biographical information but is lacking in structure. It has discography section but main text would probably benefit from sub-headings.

Last edited at 09:06, 14 October 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 13:22, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Substantial edit[edit]

I have enlarged the article to provide more information about Gaughan's music and to bring his career information up to date. I have updated the external links and expanded the discography. I have added numerous citations but will leave it to others to decide whether the BLP template may now be removed. RedKite (talk) 16:47, 22 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I remember Dick's talking about his dear mother. I know somewhat about her singing talent. But I am intrigued. Her musical influence on the boy was great, and I wish I could thank her. May I know her name in order to loom for any recorded samples of her voice? Again, I am intrigued with her[edit]

Does anyone know if there are any samples of Dick's singing mother on record anywhere? I would love to hear them. I don't know her name in order to search. MELINDA LEMMON (talk) 07:59, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Scottish musicians by genre removal[edit]

I have removed this article from Category:Scottish musicians by genre as that is a container category and as such should only contain other categories, not individual articles. Dunarc (talk) 22:53, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Dick Gaughan[edit]

thank you Dick Gaughan for your music, for the words and for sharing your beliefs. Your honesty has touched my very soul. 🌍🕊️👩‍🦳 84.9.3.85 (talk) 15:08, 5 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]