Dick Gaughan

Dick Gaughan
Gaughan at the "Rätsche" in Geislingen an der Steige, Germany, May 2006
Background information
Birth name	Richard Peter Gaughan
Born	(1948-05-17) 17 May 1948 (age 68) Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Protest songs, folk
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter composer, Orchestrator
Instruments	Vocals, guitar,
Associated acts	The Boys of the Lough, Clan Alba
Website	Dick Gaughan's official website

Richard Peter Gaughan usually known as Dick Gaughan (born 17 May 1948, Glasgow) is a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs.

Gaughan was born in Glasgow's Rottenrow Maternity Hospital, when his father was working in Glasgow as an engine driver. He spent the first year-and-a-half of his life in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, after which the whole family moved to Leith, a port on the outskirts of Edinburgh. His mother was a Macdonald from Lochaber, and was a native speaker of Gaelic. As a child in the 1930s she won a silver medal at the Gaelic Mòd. His father was born in Leith, and his paternal grandfather was an Irish speaker from Mayo, who played the fiddle. The three children, of whom Dick was the eldest, grew up surrounded by the music of both Scotland and Ireland. The family experienced considerable poverty, which had a very strong influence on Gaughan's chosen path in life and his political views.

Gaughan took up the guitar at the age of seven. Although he later sang in Scottish Gaelic, he is not fluent in that language; he does, however, have a powerful command of Scots. Gaughan sang in Edinburgh folk clubs and became a professional musician in 1970, playing mainly traditional songs on an acoustic guitar. He now writes his own songs as well as performing those of others. Although his approach to performing focuses on the words to the songs, Gaughan is also known as a master of the acoustic guitar. An example of his purely instrumental work is Coppers and Brass (1977).

He made one solo album, No More Forever, before joining The Boys of the Lough, singing and playing guitar on their debut album in 1972. After leaving, he was a guest of the High Level Ranters when they recorded The Bonnie Pit Laddie in 1975, performing on two tracks. From 1976 to 1978 there then followed a hectic period of his life pursuing two careers, one as a member of Five Hand Reel and one as a soloist. It was a time of hard drinking, travelling continental Europe in vans, and seeing very little of his wife and daughter. The crisis came when his daughter was struck by a car while he was away. The daughter survived, but Gaughan had to take stock of his life and re-prioritise things.