Help Dick Gaughan in seeking to retrieve his music

This is a crowdfunding appeal to raise legal fees to test the claims by an entity called Celtic Music to the rights to a tranche of recorded works by Scottish folk legend Dick Gaughan – music recorded between 53 and 30 years ago.

If you can help Dick Gaughan towards establishing his rights to some or all of his works, allowing them to be widely heard in the 21st Century, it’s possible that the process will reveal information and set precedents that may allow other now elderly artists from the 70s or their heirs to pursue claims of their own.

The Dick Gaughan albums in question are: No More Forever (Trailer, 1972), Kist O’ Gold (Trailer, 1977), Songs of Ewan MacColl (Rubber, 1978 – with Tony Capstick & Dave Burland), Live in Edinburgh (Celtic Music, 1985) and Call It Freedom (1988) plus the band albums The Boys of the Lough (Trailer, 1973) and Clan Alba (1995) and the two Gaughan tracks on the collaborative album Woody Lives! (Black Crow, 1987). The other members of the Boys of the Lough – Aly Bain, Cathal McConnell and for the late Robin Morton his widow Alison Kinnaird – are 100% behind Dick’s campaign as are Dave Burland and the former members of Clan Alba.

None of the seven albums in question are available digitally and they have been absent from the CD marketplace for many years – bar the 1995 Clan Alba CD, which can be bought through Amazon Marketplace for £31.23 at the time of writing, from a mail-order entity linked to ‘Celtic Music’.

Dick Gaughan does not recall having received a royalty statement from ‘Celtic Music’ – either during the 1985–95 period in which he trusted the late founder of the label (whose ‘C M Records Ltd’ was dissolved via compulsory strike-off at Companies House in 2016) or since. He has never heard of ‘Northworks’, an entity – the name of an address linked to one of the ‘Celtic Music’ personalities – that does not exist at Companies House, and that claims 100% mechanical royalties to 61 of his works registered at the PRS.

But this is NOT a witch-hunt of personalities living or dead – it’s simply a matter of applying the law and, we hope, bringing Dick Gaughan’s music home to the man who made it and then sharing it far and wide.

In April 2025, just over £84,000 (after platform fees) was raised by crowdfunding towards the goals of: (1) creating a box set and supporting releases addressing the ‘legacy gap’ created by the absence of several of Dick’s albums from the 70s from the current marketplace by way of BBC and concert material; and (2) giving funds to Gaughan himself, who retired after a stroke in 2016 and is now disabled. The legacy releases are in progress and Dick has received a substantial sum to help with his costs of living.

This campaign is distinct: it is solely for legal fees, which are expensive. We have a fantastic – reassuringly expensive – team of copyright solicitors in Edinburgh instructed, but we can only do this with your help.

We have no idea if we’ll raise £500 or £5,000 or £50,000 – we will do what we can with whatever we have. There are so many worthy causes in the world, and this may seem like a battle from long ago that no longer matters much. But no artist who gave his heart and soul to creating timeless work that deserves to live on, nourishing and inspiring current and future generations with the love, hope and compassion that went into it, wants his music to be kept away from the world.

It is Dick Gaughan’s express hope that other artists of his generation who have felt their own legacies to have been affected by a record label’s claimed ownership of their works will be able to benefit from this campaign – by any precedents set and by money towards their own legal fees, should any funds be left over. In the event of further funds left over, they will be donated to the charity Help Musicians.