We kick off our Burns week (#bellasburns) with some great music from Michael Marra, Dick Gaughan’s favourite song of all time (which says everything it is possible to say about anything) and Karen Mathieson from last years Celtic Connections…
We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.
Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.
The inclusion of Dick Gaughan here reminds me of one of his gigs about twenty years ago when my mischevious side got its come-uppance.
Dick was playing at The Man on the Moon in Cambridge, in those days an old Irish pub that’s now one of those so-so pubs for local bands. A mate and I, he was from Fife and one of the GCHQ workers sacked by Thatcher, had cycled to the pub to see Dick. As usual, it was a brilliant gig and we’d had more Guinnesses and rum and blacks than was good for us.
After closing time we went to the pub car park to unlock our bikes. As we were walking through the car park with our bikes, we saw Dick loading his gear into what looked, to our drunken eyes, like a flash car. I shouted across to him, “Great gig Dick”. In a pathetic attempt at post-modernist irony or counter-cultural workerism or whatever you want to call it, I added, gesturing to my bike, “By the way, we’re taking the working class transport”. Quick as a flash, Dick shouted back, “Aye, but it’s a fuckin long way back to Edinburgh”.
My mate was in hysterics. I had to pick him up off the floor and he dined out on that for years after. The moral is: no matter how many Guinnesses and rum and blacks you’ve had, don’t try and be a smart-arse with Dick Gaughan.
Pleased to see that the link you’ve provided here, has my favourite Dick Gaughan song, ‘Bonnie Jeannie O’ Bethelnie’. Beautiful lyrics, stunning guitar playing and Dick’s characteristically powerful vocals. What more could you ask for. Turn it up!
Bought a record of Dick Gaughan’s a long time ago and fell in love with ‘Now Westlin Winds’, he sings it so beautifully and I am not surprised to hear it is his favourite song.