Talk:Dick Gaughan

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More information about this article... The following comments have been left for this page: 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. (edit)

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

[edit] Amendments made from 86.3.29.137 on 19th February

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)