Following the release of my album A Firmer Hand in August 2024, and after the promotional tours, sessions, interviews and sundry other bits and bobs had more or less dried up, my diary was given the briefest of chances to breathe. Mine is rigorously colour-coordinated, as those who know me might expect. As autumn rolled in, the tomato red I use for all the music-y stuff was replaced by sage green, the colour I reserve for socialising (and fun little errands). There had been for some time, however, a uniquely bright swatch a few pages down the line: a blob of tangerine slap bang in the middle of September. I assign orange to appointments I can’t quite work out where to put; curious, exciting, surprising things; professional, perhaps, but always with the promise of something else besides. The orange in this instance was a meeting with Jenny Niven, the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF).
It’s true, I’m often billed as a “literary” songwriter, an adjective seemingly interchangeable in my case with “wordy”, “verbose”, or simply “self-interested”, but truth be told, book festivals have made me feel somewhat deficient in the past, bookish though I may seem. Jenny had kindly arranged the meeting to ask me whether I might like to put something special together for the festival’s 2025 programme, incorporating music, lyric, poetry and performance – a homage of sorts to a Scottish literary hero. My answer was immediate. There’s only one writer who has ever merited that kind of title for me, and his name is Ivor Cutler.
The term ‘spirit animal’, in the strictest shamanic sense, refers to a spirit which provides someone with protection, guidance, and perhaps the odd wise teaching throughout one or more phases of life. Since discovering his work as a teenager, Ivor Cutler is the only writer ever to have fit this bill for me, and has provided as much joy and inspiration as any New Romantic poet or garage-rock mystic. I decided he would serve as my twinkly-eyed spirit guide throughout the festival, uniquely positioned to blow absurdist holes in any stuffiness I might encounter. He would protect me more than any number of tweed jackets I might drape across my anxious frame.
Ivor Cutler was a poet, musician and humorist, as well as a visual artist. Born in 1923 to Jewish parents in Govan, Glasgow, at the age of 19 he began a career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, but was soon grounded as a result of his ‘dreaminess’. He moved to London [ . . . ]
A skilled interpreter and social justice champion, Gaughan is a hero to the likes of Richard Hawley and Billy Bragg. Yet much of his work has been stuck in limbo for decades – until a determined fan stepped in
By Jude Rogers
‘It felt to me as if the world had forgotten about the Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley of folk, or a singular figure in the mould of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash or Richard Thompson.” So says Colin Harper, curator of a slew of new releases celebrating the stunning music of Scottish musician Dick Gaughan. Harper had recently reconnected with his music after several decades, “and I couldn’t believe the quality of it. His singing and guitar playing were astonishing – he performed traditional songs and championed social justice so powerfully.”
But if you haven’t heard of the 77-year-old Gaughan, it’s not surprising: much of his work has been unavailable for years, the rights to it having been claimed by the label Celtic Music, who have not made it available digitally. Gaughan doesn’t recall receiving a royalty statement from the company in 40 years. He is battling for ownership and, in turn, hopes to help other veteran folk artists regain control of their catalogues. “To find that the music I made, that I put a lot of work into, is just not available – it’s like your life isn’t available,” he says.
Born in Glasgow in 1948, and raised in Leith in an impoverished musical family, Gaughan became a jobbing musician at 22, later recording 12 solo albums and multiple collaborations. Capable of both stunning delicacy and fiery spirit in his performances, he recorded nine sessions for John Peel (solo and in groups), who said during one of his 1977 shows: “He’s a singer so good that prolonged exposure to him could drive you daft.”
Gaughan became a much-loved regular at folk clubs up and down the country. Later in his career, he brilliantly led Emmylou Harris, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Kate’s 21-year-old son Rufus Wainwright on folk ballad Wild Mountain Thyme, on a 1995 episode of Scottish TV show Transatlantic Sessions. “I was so lucky to work with Dick Gaughan at an impressionable age,” says Wainwright. “His ability affected my singing for the duration.”
Richard Hawley also saw him in the 2000s at Greystones folk club in Sheffield. “It was very quickly apparent to me that this man was a force to be reckoned with,” he says. “It was a night of powerful song that I’ll never forget.”
The singer, songwriter and guitarist had presented BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk from 1983 to 2010.
Folk musician and former BBC Scotland presenter Archie Fisher has died at the age of 86.
The singer, songwriter and guitarist had presented BBC Radio Scotland’s Travelling Folk from 1983 to 2010.
Born in Glasgow into a singing family, he released a number of albums over the years and was among the earliest steel-string players in British folk music.
In 2006, he was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours for services to traditional Scottish music.
In posts on social media, Scottish singing star Barbara Dickson described him as “the great Archie Fisher”.
She said: “My musical mentor and huge cultural icon here in Scotland. Rest in Peace, Archie. Bx”.
Scottish BBC radio and TV presenter Vic Galloway said: “I’m very sad to hear the news about the passing of Archie Fisher.
“I met him many times at the BBC over the years & he was always a real gentleman, as well as being a great broadcaster. Obviously he was a legend of Scottish folk & traditional music as well… Archie RIP.”
Scottish folk singer Iona Fyfe said: “So sad to hear of the passing of Archie Fisher. A true folk music hero and inspiration. Rest easy Archie. Thoughts with the family and all who loved Archie and his music.”
Fisher, who died on Saturday, moved to Edinburgh in 1960 and lived in the south of Scotland in his final years.
