The Town I Loved So Well Those Were the Days

For more than half a century, the BBC has captured

the changing face of everyday life in Londonderry and the NorthWest.

In good times and bad times,

this vibrant region has given us

some of our finest singers and writers.

These are the archives and those were the days.

I think it's absolutely crucial,

that we hold onto, um,

really unique moments in time.

I think that archive serves a very useful purpose

in showing people how it was.

It's good to be reminded of where things were.

We all grab inspiration and influence from somewhere.

And that happens to be, really,

in most cases, our past and our present.

That's how we get into the future.

MUSIC: "The Town I Loved So Well" by Phil Coulter

As BBC cameras swept across Derry's rural and urban landscape,

one familiar melody underscored each scene.

# In my memory

# I will always see... #

Composer Phil Coulter's homage to his childhood home,

and the turbulent events that were to follow,

has become the city's adopted anthem.

Written in the '70s, the lyrics still resonate to this day.

# ..By the gas yard wall... #

The Town I Loved So Well is the kind of song

that, if you're sitting in the middle of Africa or Australia,

you will weep your heart out for home.

# ..Going home in the rain Running up the dark lane... #

On a big night out,

particularly when there are visitors from abroad,

what do they want to hear at the end of the night?

And it would be one brave Derry man or woman who would say,

when asked to sing,

"Well, I don't actually know the words of The Town I Loved So Well."

That would be social death.

# ..In the early morning

# The shirt factory horn... #

In my continuing visits back home and seeing this pall of gloom

descending on my town, and I thought, "This is a whole era

"that should be captured in a song."

# ..And a man on the dole.. #

"And if anybody... If anybody

"is going to do it, it should be you,"

I said to myself because, you know, this is a song about Derry

but it's about... Derry is the microcosm of what's happening in, er,

in the rest of the North of Ireland.

# ..While the men on the dole... #

I think I wrote the melody

maybe in a couple of weeks.

Then the hard part came -

to write the lyric.

# ..In the town I loved so well... #

I think I worked at the lyric for most of a year.

The one thing I did not want it to be

was a rebel song. I didn't want...

This was to be a love song about my town

that other people could relate to about their towns.

# ..I remember the day... #

I was due to record with The Dubliners in London,

and I was in Sheffield, believe it or not.

On a wet weekday in Sheffield in like a pretty grimy hotel in Sheffield.

I'd said to Luke Kelly the night before,

"Luke, um, hop over to my room tomorrow.

"Um, I've a new song I want to play for you

"because I think we might put it on the session, if you like it."

# ..For what's done is done... #

I was so protective of the song

and aware of the fact that Kelly would not take prisoners.

If he thought the song didn't cut it,

or had fallen short of my expectations,

my aspirations for the song,

he would have been the first one to say, "No, this doesn't work."

So I sang the whole song with my eyes closed.

# ..I can only pray

# For a bright, brand-new day... #

When I finished,

"I can only pray for a bright, brand-new day

"in the town I loved so well,"

then I opened my eyes and I looked across at Kelly.

And there were tears in his eyes.

At that moment in time, right specifically right then,

I knew that this song was something special.

MUSIC: " Life Would Be A Dream" by The Crew Cuts

Rewind to 1954,

and the BBC witnessed what surely must have been

Derry's first venture into tourism.

As a pioneering group of globetrotters

explored the city's historic walls.

# Hello, hello again, shaboom and hoping to meet again... #

1954, you see this group of tourists come to Derry,

and I'm sitting watching. And you're saying,

"What are they here for?"

We didn't have

a tourist industry active in the 1950s.

And insofar as there was a tourist industry,

Derry certainly wasn't part of it.

So the sight of foreigners was a truly strange and exotic thing.

You wouldn't have seen any Black people.

So in 1954, I'm sure a lot of heads were turning in Derry,

you know what I mean?

"Who are they?" "What Doherty are they?"

"Who are they related to." You know?

The city walls were very intimate to us.

We used to walk the city walls

and when others came and looked upon the walls

with a sort of reverential eye,

that seemed to us to be very strange,

and, in a vague way, it made us very proud.

Whoever sold them that deal,

that package deal, fair play to them

because they walked round the walls,

which takes about 15 minutes, you know what I mean?

And they visit some... I think it's maybe Magee College,

and they bring on some dancers out in the field.

And you can see them looking at one another

and saying, "What's this about?

"What's this about?" Do you know what I mean? But fair play

to the person who sold the package.

Wow! What a bargain(!)

MUSIC: "You Should Be Dancing" by the Bee Gees

Today, tourism is embedded in Derry's DNA.

But back in the '70s, festivals and events were thin on the ground.

So the arrival in 1976 of the City of Song

brought the BBC cameras

and the culture-hungry crowd to Guildhall Square,

to enjoy the best of the region's talent.

# You should be dancing, yeah

# Dancing, yeah... #

Derry, mid-1970s, very, very difficult time.

And this civic week was an attempt, I think,

for people to escape into some other world.

Albeit for a temporary reprieve. But nonetheless it really empowered.

The city had been in the doldrums for a number of years.

Community activity had virtually stopped and, er,

it was about getting things going again.

# ..Get up off your back

# Ah

# You should be dancing, yeah... #

Dancing has a strong tradition in the city, and that was

an excellent example of it, you know, really.

And getting the setting in front of the Guildhall

and the Guildhall being closed up, but that activity and that energy

was still happening in the square. It was a beautiful scene.

The Guildhall Square

looked curiously old-fashioned in that archive film.

But what was also curiously old-fashioned

was the way the dancers were dressed.

Simple green dresses, a bit of Celtic embroidery,

the lace doily kind of collars

and their own hair bouncing in natural ringlets.

And something that has never changed,

and it's a terrible pity, cos even

the young girls with the most elegant legs,

with those big, thick, turned-down ankle socks

they've all got cankles!

MUSIC: "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy

Apparently Shipquay Street is one of the steepest streets in Europe.

Going up it is tough enough, but coming down it

behind two shire horses in an open carriage

is something that deserves a leather medal for absolute bravery.

-NEWSREEL:

-'For these greys were no pair.

'One came from Falcarragh in Donegal and the other from Carrickfergus,

'which had led to speculation as to their power-sharing capabilities.'

But you could see, they were PULLING together.

Or rather SKIDDING together.

Literally digging their heels in halfway down

as they gathered a terrible momentum coming down the street.

I do remember actually seeing that.

'In the parade, Derry's son and daughter of song -

'Josef Locke and Dana.'

It was a lovely day and I was with Josef Locke. We were on,

I think, a vintage car.

And coming through the streets and seeing the happy faces

on the children. There was always a little...

a little feeling of, "I hope nothing happens.

"I hope nothing happens to ruin this."

# The boys are back in town The boys are back in town... #

Though big name visitors were few and far between,

Dana and Josef Locke had no problem

coming to a city in the grip of the Troubles.

In those dark days,

when few entertainers would dare to come here,

we made our own fun. We called in favours,

and we knew enough famous people who could invite their friends.

And by and large, I think we put on a magnificent show

for the times that we were in then.

# ..The boys are back in town The boys are back in town... #

Determined that the Troubles wouldn't stop the show,

a bold and brash Billy Connolly arrived at

the City of Song with his steely determination

to have the last laugh.

You weren't at all nervous about coming to Derry?

I was nervous of coming. But decisions like that,

you have to come to your conclusions rapidly.

If you say, "Well, give me a week to think about it,"

you won't come at all.

You'll start to think about all the news broadcasts you've seen

and the sort of evil bits and you won't bother coming.

But if you're going to come,

you need to say, "Yeah," and prepare yourself to come.

There's no other way, I think.

'At that stage, very few major acts would have done that'

because of the security risk.

Jim Aiken, the late promoter, I remember him talking about

travelling out to America to meet acts,

you know, face-to-face,

to make a strong plea, to petition to them,

"Please? I guarantee your safety. Come over.

"You know, I'm going to look after you. It's going to be fine.

"We could do with you in Belfast."

And it would've been very much the same up in Derry.

MUSIC: "Shang-A-Lang" by Bay City Rollers

Meanwhile, the 1974 documentary, Getting It Together

followed Phil Coulter in London

and at home in Ireland,

as he rolled with a starry cast of contemporaries and collaborators.

With his sharp gear and well-tuned ear,

this Derry legend had hit the big time.

# We were breaking it

# We were rocking to the shang-a-lang sound of the music... #

'Getting It Together is a real insight'

into the life and times of Phil Coulter.

It's like a little, historical capsule.

It just captures Phil probably at the very peak of his powers.

# ..We sang shang-a-lang and we ran with the gang... #

It was 1974.

I was approached by the BBC about making a documentary.

Morning, campers.

Got a pink day.

'I seemed to have a great confidence'

about, you know, not only what was happening right then,

but that this was going to, like, keep continuing and why would it not?

'I didn't really have any idea what I was letting myself in for

'because they followed me about for weeks.

'It happened to be at a time in my career'

when I was particularly busy.

Which I suppose was good for the documentary

but maybe not necessarily terribly good for me.

Working with Bill Martin. He was clocking up hit after hit.

He was a Eurovision winner.

He'd written a song with Bill

that had been performed by Elvis Presley.

Now, that alone is reason why we should hold

Phil Coulter up as a legend, I think.

So the man was at the absolute peak of his powers, I think.

The documentary sort of captures that.

# ..Rocking every night and day Hey! Hey!

# We sang shang-a-lang... #

'That's the kind of life it was.

'Phil was making great pop singles.'

He had a totally open mind about music,

which I think is really refreshing.

And he would work with folk acts, he would work with pop acts

in the same breath.

And you see that in the documentary.

IRISH FOLK MUSIC PLAYS

'There was a terrific band called Pumpkinhead.

'They were intriguing - two couples from the west coast

'who had a passion for Irish music'

and they were BRILLIANT players - absolutely brilliant players.

'So I produced an album with them and really enjoyed the band Pumpkinhead.'

'I always had this parallel interest

'and passion for Irish music. So with the Bay City Rollers,

'um, you knew that the object was to get records in the charts.'

Working with The Dubliners, or Pumpkinhead, or Planxty,

or the Furey Brothers, or whatever,

that was more kind of me keeping faith with myself

and my own passion for Irish music.

And, um, I think I've said in the past

that the commercial stuff was, um,

was for the bank balance, but the other stuff was really for my soul.

-LAUGHTER

-No!

# Ring a-ring a rosie... #

'Some of the most powerful footage is when you see Phil

backstage in the Royal Albert Hall'

with The Dubliners.

Now, Phil had long-term relationship with The Dubliners

and you see that they're pals.

I might get my big break into show business

if I keep hanging about you stars.

'So you can see that there's a real sense of camaraderie'

as he's messing about with the guys backstage

and joshing and joking with the various members of the band.

-Is there room for another Dubliner, Ronnie?

-Take over from me.

I have... I have...

'I think it must've been quite a contrast for Phil Coulter,

'who had done Bay City Rollers at that stage

'and was, you know, had done Eurovision,'

then to meet this kind of

force field called The Dubliners.

And I would say it was a terrific learning curve for him.

Just to learn to speak in different ways and to, you know...

Cos those guys were completely a law unto themselves.

IRISH FOLK MUSIC PLAYS

MAN SHOUTS

Come on. We can't be sitting around like this. Will you get up?

We've got to go on stage in two minutes.

'You could never predict with The Dubliners.

'When I started producing with The Dubliners,'

it was a nightmare to try and get them to start work in the morning,

you know, for a start.

And to try and get them to stay there through lunchtime

when the pub was like three doors away.

But for all of that, there were moments with The Dubliners

that were just unforgettable

and I wouldn't swap them for all the tea in China.

# In the early morning the shirt factory horn... #

'There's an incredible piece of footage,'

where you see Phil and you see the late, great Luke Kelly

singing The Town I Loved So Well.

# Tended the children and then trained the dog. #

'In the middle of the chaos is Kelly, the eyes half-closed,

'singing a song that has a bit of substance,

'and a lyric and has a bit of weight.

'And then, when the camera pans down,

'you see that Kelly has no trousers on.

'That's just... That is... That's absolute, pure,'

classic Dubliners.

He's singing The Town I Loved So Well,

in his underpants, to Phil Coulter.

It's something I never thought I'd see.

It's something I'll probably never be able to erase from my memory,

but it's an incredible moment in a great documentary.

# North is north and south is south

# And the right one I have chose

# Take me where... #

As BBC cameras scanned the banks of the Foyle and its city surroundings

in search of new stories,

a fledgling television presenter

was inviting viewers

to take a sideways view

of his native/city.

# ..Let me see the menfolk walking those animals at the break of dawn

# With heavy coats and water boots on

# I love Derry City with its baps and Paris buns

# But I'd love it longer, stronger if the men weren't toting guns... #

'My Derry was the first thing I ever did on television.'

Funnily enough, I look back on it and I say to myself,

"That's not bad."

But it was kind of weird at the same time.

But the idea was OK.

'The idea was that I... You see I'm kind of ambivalent

'about Derry in many ways.'

I love Derry, but sometimes I don't, that kind of thing.

And sometimes I look at it with an eye

that other people maybe think is a wee bit kind of odd.

So I thought it'd be a good idea to just kind of look at Derry

in a way - my Derry - and look at it

in such a way that wouldn't be the normal look.

MEN CHANT

But Gerry and his trusty sidekick, Sean Coyle,

spun a yarn that the city's diehard soccer fans

enjoyed nothing better than a bout of table football between seasons.

'Gerry made out that everyone in Derry is playing Subbuteo.'

When the football season ends, everyone turns to Subbuteo.

What a lie! What a lie!

It was four guys in a garage somewhere playing it,

and they brought me along to make up the crowd.

It was Sean Coyle's idea.

I know you've talked to him, and he'll probably deny it

but it was his idea. I fought it tooth and nail

but it got in. I didn't, um... I didn't fight hard enough.

I didn't want it because it was stupid.

Does it require a high degree of fitness?

Well, from the waist up, yes.

Most of them are dead from the neck up.

'It's so boring, that when I went into that garage,'

I was clean-shaven. And if you look, there's a shot of me,

and I have a full-grown beard.

Subbuteo?!

Jeepers!

I must say I'm impressed by the state of the ground.

Can you explain how you keep it in such pristine nick?

That pitch is in such good condition because of the very kind attentions

of our ground ladies. We don't have groundsmen, we have ground ladies.

What is their function?

Their function is actually to iron the pitch whenever we need it.

'It's not funny'

and it's Sean Coyle's idea.

Some Derry people are normal and lead ordinary lives,

like me.

Others are, well, a bit special.

PLAYS CLASSICAL PIANO

'Ruth McGinley, major star.

'Great, talented, brilliant, brilliant pianist.

'And I sort of had a chuckle when they put up

'on the caption, on the screen,'

"Ruth McGinley aged eight and three-quarters."

Now, wouldn't it have been much simpler to put up

"Ruth McGinley, nearly nine"?

'Ruth McGinley, somebody had told me about her, and I heard her playing'

and I just went, "Oh, my God, listen to THAT!"

There is a tradition here in Derry/Londonderry

of young people becoming very, very good very, very quickly.

And it's a lot to do with the finish, the Derry finish.

A lot of people say that people from Derry

are more musically talented than those from other places.

It's not true.

They are just found earlier.

'I was quite shocked at how small I look beside the piano. I was quite'

self-critical. And then I thought,

"No, take a look at it." And I thought, "God bless."

'I remember just the importance of getting my puffy, pink dress,'

which was part of the uniform whenever I did concerts

in those days. And the pink bow in my hair being placed -

I think it was slightly lopsided.

'The difficult part for me was not playing the piano,'

but at the end where I had to stand up and try and take a curtsey.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

'I remember back to the day

'in which they were teaching me how to curtsey,

'which was not the most natural thing in the world to me, at all.

'And the smile is very unnatural.'

I remember just wanting that part to be over.

But, um, yeah, it was...it was nice to see it again.

George, you're a very famous man, not only in Ulster

but all over the world. How did this start?

It all started when I was going to school

and I used to speak very fast.

The teacher said, "Slow down, you're too fast."

'George's claim to fame was that Peter Sellers thought he was'

wonderful, and I know that for a fact.

Peter Sellers used to follow him around

and just listen to him.

Of course Peter Sellers was an expert in dialects, accents,

and he thought George was the greatest guy.

George believed he was the fastest talker in the world.

-Is this the way you normally speak?

-Yes, I always have.

The teacher told me. She said,

"George, you have to slow down, you're speaking very fast."

I said, "I can't..."

'As you know, I would do the odd impersonation,'

but you could NEVER impersonate that guy. It's a one-off thing.

SPEAKS SO FAST AS TO BE UNINTELLIGIBLE

He's unique, and sadly missed.

MUSIC: "The Hustler Theme: Stop & Go" by Kenyon Hopkins

That's about it, folks. I've showed you my neck of the woods

and some of the people who live there.

I'm going back to radio.

'The end part of my journey -

'I have no idea how that happened, or why it happened.

'I do believe it was Sean Coyle's fault. I do believe'

that he suggested to the director, who said, "What are we going to do?

"How are we going to end this?" He said,

"Why don't we get him to jump in the pool." I went, "What?"

"Gerry, will you do that?" I said, "OK." So I jumped in the pool.

'Whoever came up with this idea of getting Gerry Anderson'

up onto a slide and a swimming pool,

although it did prove one thing - that he is miserable - because you do

hear him squeaking when he's trying to move, you know?

'I didn't know anything about television at the time.

'And I didn't know how to do it.

'So that's my very amateur stab at it.

'And when I look at it now, first of all'

I say, "How dare you show me that!"

And secondly I say, "That wasn't too bad for a first crack."

In 1995, BBC News crews captured Derry's first ever visit

by a serving president of the United States of America.

When Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, touched down,

they brought with them an undeniable touch of stardust

and a sense of hope to a city emerging from darker days.

When President Clinton came in 1995, it was, I think,

the best day I've ever had in this city because he was so glamorous.

Nobody had ever even got near a president of the United States,

never mind that he looked like a movie star, for God's sake!

The security guys came over weeks in advance,

there was a team,

and they were for ever talking down their sleeves

or, you know, down the manholes and outside the Guildhall,

everywhere! Everywhere had to be hermetically sealed.

Derry ones were just so loving the... the madness of it.

And I just loved the fact that it was

just like a world-famous pop star

coming to town. And, you know,

there was a huge sense of freedom and peace, you know,

amongst people, and hope.

Let us show the world how this city welcomes its guests,

as we invite to the platform,

the President of the United Sates of America -

Bill and Hillary Clinton.

President Clinton coming to Derry

just gave people that hope that there was a future for

peace in Derry and that, you know,

the youth didn't have to grow up with the same troubles, I suppose,

that we grew up with.

CHEERING AND CHANTING

Well, my father was the Mayor of Derry, so for me when Clinton came,

it was such pride.

WELCOMES THE PRESIDENT IN GAELIC

My dad's no longer with us but he got them all to quieten down,

and he said, um, "Welcome, Bill Clinton.

"Welcome, the President of the United States."

And I remember feeling such pride for him because there he was,

in his home city, um... welcoming this guy, you know.

So it was... It's a very happy memory

but a very bittersweet memory, as well,

because of everything that was going on.

Um, but I was so proud of him that day.

# In my memory

# I will always see

# The town that I have loved so well... #

PHIL COULTER: 'Looking back on a career of 45 years,

'I've had so many wonderful moments.

'But the one that stands out in my mind'

was singing The Town I Loved So Well

in the town I love so well

for the President of the United States.

# ..While the men on the dole

# Played a mother's role... #

'I would never, ever have thought

'when I was a kid growing up in a terraced house in Derry,

'I never thought that I would meet

'the President of the United States, number one.'

I never thought that he would be calling me "Phil", number two.

And I certainly never thought that it'd be in Derry, number three.

And most definitely never thought that, um, at his request -

it was his specific request -

that I'd be there in the Guildhall to do The Town I Loved So Well.

That was President Clinton's specific request.

Sing it with me.

# For what's done is done

PEOPLE JOIN IN # And what's won is won

# And what's lost is lost and gone for ever

PHIL'S VOICE DOMINATES # I can only pray

# For a bright, brand-new day

# In the town I love so well. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Once upon a time there was a tavern... #

From Coulter to Clinton, and some surprises along the way,

the story of the North-West's music and culture

is the story of how we used to live.

And thanks to a rich archive and the magic of film,

we can bring those bygone days back to life.

# ..Those were the days, my friend

# We thought they'd never end

# We'd sing and dance for ever and a day

# We'd live the life we choose

# We'd fight and never lose

# For we were young and sure to have our way

# La-la la-la la-la

# La-la la-la la

# La-la la la la-la... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd