Episode 6 Opry an Iúir

# Life's a road

# Paved with joy and tears... #

TRANSLATED FROM IRISH:

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

TRANSLATED FROM IRISH:

# He's my forever friend... #

APPLAUSE

CHEERING

Oh, you're welcome, Charlie. Welcome to Opry An Iuir.

# I do not count what I've lost, what I'm losing

# I'm a traveller with no fixed abode

# All of the gifts yesterday spent refusing

# May well be waiting further down the road

# I tried to take every chance I was given

# If luck's a lady she never showed

# There's more to life than just making a living

# My life is waiting further down the road

# Further down the road

# I can see the light

# Further down the road

# Everything'll be all right

# Further down the road

# I will be free

# Further down the road

# Heaven waits for me

# All of the years chasing smoke rings and rumour

# Looking for a seed that had never been sown

# Old Father Time has a strange sense of humour

# He'll hear me laughing further down the road

# Further down the road

# I can see the light

# Further down the road

# Everything'll be all right

# Further down the road

# I will be free

# Further down the road

# Heaven waits for me

# No looking back

# I'm moving on

# I'm having no regrets

# What's gone is gone

# Further down the road

# I can see the light

# Further down the road

# Everything'll be all right

# Further down the road

# I will be free

# Further down the road

# Heaven waits for me

# Further down the road

# I can see the light... # AUDIENCE CLAPS ALONG

# Further down the road

# Everything'll be all right

# Further down the road

# I will be free

# Further down the road

# Heaven waits for me

# Further down the road

# I can see the light

# Further down the road

# Everything'll be all right

# Further down the road

# I will be free

# Further down the road

# Heaven waits for me. #

APPLAUSE

Thank you very much.

That's lovely.

This next song was written by somebody

I admire very much, the wonderful John Prine,

who spends part of his year in Ireland, actually,

and he wrote this lovely song called Blue Umbrella.

# Feelings are strange

# Especially when they come true

# And I got a feeling

# That you'll be leaving soon

# So I tried to rearrange

# All my emotions

# But it seems the same

# No matter what I do

# Blue umbrella

# Rests upon my shoulder

# Hides the pain

# While the rain makes up my mind

# My feet are wet

# From thinking this thing over

# And it's been so long

# Since I felt the warm sunshine

# Just give me one good reason

# And I promise I won't ask for any more

# Just give me one extra season

# So I can figure out the other four

# Daytime makes me wonder why you left me

# Night-time makes me wonder what I said

# "Next time" are the words I'd like to plan on

# "Last time" was the only thing she said

# Blue umbrella

# Rests upon my shoulder

# Hides the pain

# While the rain makes up my mind

# My feet are wet

# From thinking this thing over

# And it's been so long

# Since I felt the warm sunshine

# Just give me one good reason

# And I promise I won't ask for any more

# Just give me one extra season

# So I can figure out the other four

# Just give me one good reason

# And I promise I won't ask for any more

# Just give me one extra season

# So I can figure out the other four

# So I can figure out the other four. #

-APPLAUSE

-Davy Rowland.

CHEERING

Charlie Landsborough, ladies and gentlemen.

-Fantastic, Charlie.

-Thank you, Daniel.

-Just wonderful.

You're a good lad.

Everybody knows Liverpool and nobody knows Birkenhead,

so I will forever be associated with this area,

as rough as it's become, and as abandoned as it's become.

I've become a bit abandoned myself, you know?

I finished up playing in this pub for 22 years and it doesn't look

much now but it was a real hub of music, comedy and excitement.

Wherever you go, and I've been to a number of different places,

they leave some sort of fingerprint upon your soul, you know?

And it comes out inevitably in songs.

# Sometimes I feel that I might break. #

You get so deflated and rejected and you think,

"Ah, it's not going to happen."

Especially when you start to get a bit older like I was, you know,

and the music business is full of young, good-looking people

and I'm neither of them, you know.

# Suddenly I'm equal... #

I remember sitting there singing in the Bogside in Derry

and the people were singing along with me and I got the sympathy vote

because they were saying, "This fella here, he wrote the songs.

"You know, and they're getting the credit for it."

The last time my next guest was on the show,

the phones never stopped ringing for weeks.

Will you welcome, please, Mr Charlie Landsborough?

# Everybody needs a little help sometimes. #

Suddenly I was thrust into these arenas

where people expect something of you.

So there was a mixture of sort of euphoria and trepidation, you know?

It was wonderful to have other people think something

of something that you love so much yourself, you know?

And to create something, whatever it is, and find that

it has an effect upon people is as good as it gets, I think.

Charlie, you're the youngest of a family of 11 children.

That must have been a lively house.

It seems hard to believe I was ever the youngest of anything,

doesn't it, Daniel? But there you go. It was a fantastic house.

I grew up in a house full of people, full of music and full of animals.

-We even had a monkey at one stage.

-My goodness.

Chickens and ducks,

which is very unusual for a dockside house in Merseyside, you know.

But it was wonderful. I had a very blessed childhood, I did.

And you were, I suppose you could say,

an overnight success after years of perseverance in the music business.

What was it like when the big break came?

Well, you only have to look at me

to realise that it was a very long overnight, Daniel, you know?

LAUGHTER

But when it happened, it was fantastic.

It was terrifying, actually, because I went from playing dockside pubs,

where I played for most of my life, and suddenly I was

thrown into these wonderful places like this with great expectations.

I was terrified but it was sort of...

It was wonderful at the same time.

Now, to date, you've written over 150 songs.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Well, I listen to people.

I'm not a eavesdropper or anything like that...and people have

a happy knack of saying wonderful little things, you know.

And things happen. I always remember we were repairing an old car,

one of many that I had, and my brother-in-law was helping me

and we finally achieved what we were attempting to do

and I said, "Johnny, how do you do those things?"

And he said, "Charlie, that's a great title for a song."

So I wrote this romantic ballad, which has got nothing to do

with our old bangers, you know.

So I'm always listening. I work very hard.

I'm not that successful because I must have written thousands

and there's only a tiny percentage that's worth anything

but it's wonderful for the odd occasion

when you do sort of strike it and you think,

"Yeah, that's a proper song."

It's lovely to see you. And a lovely surprise, I have to say.

Yeah, I know, great to be here and great be back again in Newry.

And what brings you to Newry tonight,

to this particular Opry An Iuir?

Well, I came along, I must say, just to see a good friend of mine,

Charlie Landsborough, who I've known since I was about five years old.

My nan used to bring me to the Philharmonic in Liverpool,

when he played there once a year, to come and see him,

and he's been a good friend to me and...

a guy who's offered me a lot of advice and someone who's sang

a duet with me when I started out, you know, so he's a great fella.

This song is a little bit rocky for an auld fella like me

but it's sort of me when I was a lad and is called Counterfeit Man.

# I can't afford a night on the town

# Don't have no money to burn

# Life in the shadows is getting me down

# Seems everywhere that I turn

# I meet a brick wall

# I'm gonna knock 'em down some day

# I'm gonna walk tall

# Get off the wrong road

# I'm gonna find myself a better way

# That's for sure

# Ain't gonna be a counterfeit man no more

# I see them castin' glances at me

# With disapprovin' eyes

# If they keep looking

# They're gonna see

# Out of the ashes I'll rise

# There'll be a new dawn

# I'll put an end to all their mockin'

# Cos I'll be reborn

# I'll start a new life

# Never hear those hard times knockin'

# At my door

# Ain't gonna be a counterfeit man no more

# I'm gonna be the man that God made

# Ain't gonna settle for less

# From now on you'll get the real thing

# I'm being me

# I'm gonna be a success

# Yeah, yeah

# I can't afford a night on the town

# Ain't got no money to burn

# Life in the shadows is getting me down

# Seems everywhere that I turn

# I meet a brick wall

# I'm gonna knock 'em down some day

# I'm gonna walk tall

# Get off the wrong road

# I'm gonna find myself a better way

# That's for sure

# Ain't gonna be a counterfeit man no more

# Ain't gonna be a counterfeit man no more

# Ain't gonna be a counterfeit man no more. #

CHEERING

-Tony, lovely to see you.

-Great to see you.

Charlie's songs are legendary

and that's why there's a packed house here at Opry An Iuir tonight.

-How do you think the night's going down so far?

-It's great.

It's great to see all his fans here tonight.

The minute he came out, he got a huge round of applause

and they're just sitting there listening to every word he says.

But he's that kind of a guy, isn't he?

# No better, no better

# I never shall be. #

-How are you?

-I'm all right.

-You're very welcome to Newry.

-It's great to see you.

-Lovely to see you.

-I'm delighted to be doing this.

-This is such a lovely song.

-You wrote this song?

-I did, yeah, a long, long time ago.

-It's gorgeous.

'And I was thinking along the lines of, like,

'regrets which we all have, you know

'and I think of things like, you know,

'I wish I'd have told me dad I loved him, you know.

'And I wish I hadn't done that.

'And out of that came this song, which is a love song, really,

'just called If Only and I'm delighted

'that you've agreed to do it and you like it.'

That sounds lovely. It does, honestly.

APPLAUSE

Will you please welcome up on stage with me

the wonderful Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh?

CHEERING

# All I own

# Everything I do

# I would surrender

# For one more tender night

# With you... #

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

# I live and breathe your memory every day

# I'm so afraid in time you'll slip away... #

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

# I'd give up each pleasure

# And all that I treasure

# If I could have you back again

# I've dreamed of ways

# That could erase

# The wrong I've done... #

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

# My heart sings

# His old refrain

# I could recapture

# The joy and the rapture

# If I could have you back again

# I could recapture

# The joy and the rapture

# If I could have you back again

# If only I could have you back

# Again. #

APPLAUSE

CHEERING

-Thank you very much. That was lovely.

-Thank you, thank you.

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

CHEERING

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

SHE SINGS IN IRISH

CHEERING

CHEERING

HE SINGS IN IRISH

Everyone!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Who was I when I thought I was someone?

# Where was I when I thought I'd arrived?

# All the prizes I have gained

# Count for nothing cos I still remain

# Looking for a destination

# Some lessons I was never good at learning

# Looking back I see I haven't travelled far

# Nothing ever satisfies

# The hunger deep inside

# Looking for a destination

# Where am I going

# Where am I going

# Where am I going

# Wrong?

# Where am I going

# Where am I going

# Where am I going

# Wrong?

# Who was I when I thought I was someone?

# Where was I when I thought I'd arrived?

# All the prizes I have gained

# Count for nothing cos I still remain

# Looking for a destination

# Looking for a destination

# Still looking for a destination

# Looking for a destination

# Still looking for a destination. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thanks very much.

# How hard I try... #

# Jesus is my best... #

-APPLAUSE

-Thank you.

# If my eyes should ever fail me... #

# And my heart would know... #

# Fear is a mountain

# Love has scaled... #

-Oh, Charlie, my God.

-It's lovely to see you. You're looking great.

It is fantastic. You never change.

-Liar, but I love you.

-I know, I know, but I practise.

I've just realised this thing's in front of me.

-Isn't that incredible?

-Well, we made that over the weekend.

-Fantastic.

I tell you what, I'll do something for you, Nance.

-I'll save this especially for...

-Any song!

..especially for our Nance. We could have been here all day.

-But it's lovely to see you anyway.

-It's so good to see you.

-God bless you, Nancy.

-Really good.

Thankfully, I've got a lot of friends in here tonight

and I've got the wonderful... She's come all the way from Achill Island.

I've known these folk, the family, for a long, long time.

The wonderful Nancy Flynn, she's down there. I can see you.

So I'm going to play this for you.

WHOOPING AND APPLAUSE

# All those years I stumbled through

# Getting most things badly wrong

# God knows what I did to you

# Through my weakness

# You were strong

# I chose the words

# That hurt you most

# And I'm ashamed to say

# That often when you needed me

# I chose instead to walk away

# I must have caused such pain

# How wrong can one fool be?

# And yet for all I did to you

# I could never stop you loving me

# Now in all humility

# I lay my heart down at your feet

# And I surrender to the love

# That turned my bitter

# Into sweet

# I must have caused such pain

# How wrong can one fool be?

# And yet for all I did to you

# I could never stop you loving me

# I must have caused such pain

# How wrong can one fool be?

# And yet for all I did to you

# I could never stop you loving me

# And yet for all I did to you

# I could never stop you loving me. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Thanks very much.

Well done, Charlie.

Fantastic.

-Will we try one, Charlie?

-Why not?

I think we should.

You know, I feel very privileged that Charlie chose this

to be the song we sing together.

Ah, good man.

APPLAUSE

# Everybody needs a little help sometimes

# No-one stands alone

# Makes no difference if you're just a child like me

# Or a king upon a throne

# For there are no exceptions

# We all stand in the line

# Everybody needs a friend

# Let me tell you of mine

BOTH: # He's my forever friend

# My leave-me-never friend

# From darkest night

# To rainbow's end

# He's my forever friend

# Even when I turn away He cares for me

# His love, no-one can shake

# Even as I walk away He's by my side

# With every breath I take

# And sometimes I forget Him

# My halo fails to shine

# Sometimes I'm not His friend

# But He is always mine

BOTH: # He's my forever friend

# My leave-me-never friend

# From darkest night

# To rainbow's end

# He's my forever friend

# If you still don't know the one I'm talking of

# I think it's time you knew

# Long ago and far away upon a cross

# My friend died for you

# So if you'd like to meet Him

# And don't know what to do

BOTH: # Ask my friend into your heart

# And He'll be your friend too

# He's my forever friend... #

Everyone.

# My leave-me-never friend

# From darkest night

# To rainbow's end

# He's my forever friend

# Jesus is my best friend. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

AUDIENCE CLAPS TO THE BEAT

# Shine your light against the dark

# Stand upright and make your mark

# Do your best wherever you may be

# And shine your light for me

# Long ago when I was just

# A boy of tender years

# My father told me life's a road

# Paved with joy and tears

# And as you travel, you must choose

# Between what's right and wrong

# Remember sin is giving in

# For heaven's sake, be strong

# Shine your light against the dark

# Stand upright and make your mark

# Do your best wherever you may be

# And shine your light for me

# As I grew beyond my teens

# The world began to press

# My father's words began to fade

# Lost to selfishness

# And after years of walking down

# The wrong side of the track

# One night I cried and deep inside

# My father's words came back

# Shine your light against the dark

# Stand upright and make your mark

# Do your best wherever you may be

# And shine your light for me

# My father said that kindness is

-# The light of God in man

-The light of God in every man

# So I was told to shine like gold

# On everyone I can

# I saw the light, I saw the light

# No more darkness, no more night

# Now I'm so happy No sorrow in sight

# Praise the Lord, I saw the light

# Once I was wandering alone in my sin

# I wouldn't let my dear saviour in

# Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night

# Praise the Lord, I saw the light

# I saw the light, I saw the light

# No more darkness, no more night

# Now I'm so happy No sorrow in sight

# Praise the Lord, I saw the light

# Shine your light against the dark

# Stand upright and make your mark

# Do your best wherever you may be

# And shine your light Shine your light

# Do your best wherever you may be

# And shine your light for me. #

Oh, you were fantastic. God bless you. Thank you so much.

-CHEERING

-Thank you.