:00:32. > :00:40.One night in 1990 a 24-year-old Salford factory worker left his
:00:40. > :00:43.seat by the bar here in the Railway Inn and sang. The song was a Neil
:00:43. > :00:53.Diamond classic called Love On The Rocks and by the time he'd finished
:00:53. > :01:05.
:01:05. > :01:08.That pub singer was Russell Watson. He's gone on to sell millions of
:01:08. > :01:18.albums and played some of the biggest music venues around the
:01:18. > :01:23.world to thousands of people. has been an astonishing rise from
:01:23. > :01:28.this guy who sang in local pubs. But for his friends there was a
:01:28. > :01:32.time when Russell forgot his roots. I texted him a couple of times and
:01:32. > :01:38.he never replied and that was basically it for two and a half
:01:39. > :01:45.years. And he wasn't the same person.
:01:45. > :01:48.Then at the peak of his fame, Russell's world fell apart. In the
:01:48. > :01:58.last decade, he has faced three serious illnesses - one career
:01:58. > :02:03.
:02:03. > :02:09.threatening and two life He's a fighter. I know at one point
:02:09. > :02:19.he wanted to give up himself. seen myself go to hell and back but
:02:19. > :02:30.
:02:30. > :02:39.I'm fascinated to discover how success, fame and illness have
:02:39. > :02:42.changed Russell Watson. But I'd also like to know what remains of
:02:42. > :02:52.the Salford working class lad and what are the qualities that have
:02:52. > :02:58.
:02:58. > :03:05.So how are you? I am very good, thank you. I am, I am feeling very
:03:06. > :03:08.good. I feel fit I feel strong and the voice is good. Which is amazing
:03:08. > :03:12.coming from someone whose career has been fabulous and then
:03:12. > :03:19.something else has chipped away at you. Its' like a roller coaster
:03:19. > :03:23.it's Isn't it? Yes. It's like, it is, it's like a roller coaster -
:03:23. > :03:26.these amazing highs and then these cataclysmic lows. I feel like, if I
:03:26. > :03:30.was an athlete they'd have to invent a new race. It would have to
:03:30. > :03:38.be like the 1000 metre hurdles because I feel like I've had to
:03:38. > :03:41.clear so many in my life and my career. Do you feel guided? Yes. I
:03:41. > :03:46.feel a connection with something spiritual now every time I walk on
:03:46. > :03:49.stage. I like to think that God isn't just something that is
:03:49. > :03:59.outside of me but something that is very much predominantly inside me
:03:59. > :04:10.
:04:10. > :04:12.as well in my heart and in my soul. Russell Watson was born on 24
:04:12. > :04:22.November 1966 in Salford, Lancashire to mum Nola and father
:04:22. > :04:35.
:04:35. > :04:41.My dad worked his backside off and he would be doing 14 hour shifts
:04:41. > :04:46.you know six, seven days a week. was a crane driver, wasn't he?
:04:46. > :04:49.was, yes, at the steel works but I saw the sweat and toil that went on.
:04:49. > :04:58.I saw my dad working incredibly hard just to afford to buy us
:04:58. > :05:01.birthday presents and Christmas presents and keep food on the table.
:05:01. > :05:05.I'd get home from a 12 hour shift, probably be absolutely knackered
:05:05. > :05:14.and he'd just, I'd walk in and he'd look up at me and I knew he'd done
:05:14. > :05:17.something wrong. He'd been threatened by his mother, of course.
:05:17. > :05:23."Wait till your father gets home, I'll be telling him what you've
:05:23. > :05:29.been doing". And your mum, she was a stay-at-home mum? Yes. My mum was
:05:29. > :05:32.a stay-at-home mum. She wrapped me in this little cotton wool bud
:05:32. > :05:39.called Sunningdale Drive and that's pretty much where I spent the first
:05:39. > :05:43.12, 13 years of my life other than going to school. My parents didn't
:05:43. > :05:49.go out they didn't go out for dinner, my dad didn't go to the pub.
:05:49. > :05:51.And that was it. That was my life. It was a little bubble. Russell
:05:52. > :05:55.attended Irlam Endowed Primary School but instead of concentrating
:05:55. > :06:05.on his studies he put most of his energy into dreaming up out of
:06:05. > :06:11.
:06:11. > :06:14.I would organise football tournaments and subutteo games.
:06:14. > :06:17.We'd have draws for the matches, I'd do all little cards for each
:06:17. > :06:21.person's name. We'd have somebody drawing the numbers out and
:06:21. > :06:26.somebody calling the names out and I would organise all that as a kid.
:06:26. > :06:30.If things didn't go his way the mood was unbelievable. It was just,
:06:30. > :06:35.you were thinking this is only a kick about but for him it was a
:06:35. > :06:38.World Cup so that was. I would say, I won't say it was a bad thing,
:06:38. > :06:41.obviously it's helped him because he is a very driven person but it
:06:41. > :06:45.was quite comical then you thought he's not happy and he'd storm off
:06:45. > :06:48.and he'd have his oranges in the bag and he's not giving them anyone
:06:48. > :06:55.because nobody's performed, you know, and off he'd storm, you know.
:06:55. > :06:59.And football became your life? Football was everything. I wasn't
:06:59. > :07:03.particularly good at it. I thought I was world class, you know. There
:07:03. > :07:05.was that marvellous game - there you are in the goal waiting...
:07:05. > :07:10.Highlight of my football career. The seven-a-side championship at
:07:10. > :07:15.Moorfield School. For me, it was a Roy of the Rover's moment. It went
:07:15. > :07:20.to penalties. The last penalty kick was due to come up and all I had to
:07:20. > :07:23.do was save the ball. I saw the ball sort of skidding across the
:07:23. > :07:33.mud and I somehow managed to hurl my body saving superman fashion,
:07:33. > :07:35.
:07:35. > :07:40.slid what felt like 20 feet across the mud. Tipped the ball round the
:07:40. > :07:43.corner of the post and that was the glory moment. It was amazing. I've
:07:43. > :07:48.just won the seven a side cup single handedly. Has he told you
:07:48. > :07:52.that, yeah? What happened was, when he made it out as though he'd won
:07:52. > :07:58.us the game, we did actually happen to mention that, well wasn't it our
:07:58. > :08:02.goals that won the actual final, Russ? Two goals from me and one
:08:02. > :08:05.from you. 3-2. Yeah, and his comment was he got a bit annoyed
:08:05. > :08:12.and said, well it's all right for you, you won other football things.
:08:12. > :08:16.But it was a good save I'll give him that. Yeah. He weren't bad.
:08:16. > :08:22.champion returned home and told his mum and what did his mum say?
:08:22. > :08:26.God. I think I stood at the door and she went, "Where's Russell?" I
:08:26. > :08:30.was covered from head to toe in mud. My mum went crazy. Ah, mums don't
:08:30. > :08:34.always understand, do they? they don't. They certainly didn't
:08:34. > :08:40.understand a few of the things I got up to. Oh, would you like to
:08:40. > :08:43.expand on that or is that still secret? Well, I was a naughty boy I
:08:43. > :08:46.used to get into scraps and it was always down to the fact that if
:08:46. > :08:51.anybody was bullying my friends, I'd just run straight in and deal
:08:51. > :08:55.with it. That was me, from a very early age. So a strong moral
:08:55. > :09:01.compass. Was that brought on by churchgoing, Sunday school, a
:09:01. > :09:04.belief in God? It was based on what I saw develop inside the household.
:09:04. > :09:11.I learned about respect from my parents and, and honesty and
:09:11. > :09:18.integrity. I mean, I did believe in God I think but in a way that
:09:18. > :09:21.wasn't forcedly pushed on me. It was probably only later on in life
:09:21. > :09:25.towards my sort of early to mid teens that I started to question,
:09:25. > :09:28.what is this God? And while you were thinking about those things,
:09:28. > :09:31.which do start to take a back burner because you were growing
:09:31. > :09:37.into an adult and you're thinking this is what I am going to do with
:09:37. > :09:41.my life? Was what you wanted to do with your life, music at that time?
:09:41. > :09:46.I had no aspirations to do or be anything. My life was so
:09:47. > :09:56.unbelievably flippant at that stage. I very much lived for the day and
:09:56. > :10:00.that's why I think my career is, in my opinion has been so incredibly...
:10:00. > :10:03.Incredibly organic and almost a mistake. It was almost like a
:10:03. > :10:07.mistake it was almost like it shouldn't have happened but it did.
:10:07. > :10:11.What were your musical experiences? Did you have things going on at
:10:11. > :10:14.home? It was a real eclectic mix of styles in the house During the day,
:10:14. > :10:18.mum would be playing Chopin and Tchaikovsky and Abba and then in
:10:18. > :10:21.the evening, Dad would come home and it would be Johnny Cash and
:10:21. > :10:30.Dire Straits and Meatloaf so there was a real mix of different styles
:10:30. > :10:37.constantly being played in the household. I didn't differentiate
:10:37. > :10:43.between the two styles. I just saw classical music and pop music as
:10:43. > :10:48.music that I liked. That's interesting, so there was no line
:10:48. > :10:53.between them at all? No, it was music that I liked, there was no
:10:53. > :10:58.division, there was no cultural division. There was no there was no,
:10:58. > :11:07.what would be the word? Class division? There was no class
:11:07. > :11:10.Having been weaned on a mixed diet of anything from Abba to Ashkenazy,
:11:10. > :11:20.Russell did what many teenage boys do and joined a band - called The
:11:20. > :11:24.
:11:25. > :11:28.Crowd. The Crowd, indeed. You were the singer? At that point, no.
:11:28. > :11:32.was probably a little bit too shy to stand up and get on the
:11:32. > :11:35.microphone and sing but what I did do was I played guitar and a little
:11:35. > :11:39.bit of keyboard because I had had piano lessons from being around
:11:39. > :11:44.about the age of seven. Music was something that I did for fun, apart
:11:44. > :11:49.from anything else. I never had any great aspirations to be the next
:11:49. > :11:53.big band. I wasn't thinking we were going to be the Beatles or the Jam
:11:53. > :11:56.or anything like that or the Rolling Stones. Russ was kind of
:11:56. > :12:00.the director, in a way because he was the one with the musical
:12:00. > :12:05.background and he's also quite a bit of a perfectionist, isn't he?
:12:05. > :12:08.Yeah. Yeah, so things like when you're playing and your guitar is
:12:08. > :12:12.just going slightly out of tune because they've very old strings
:12:12. > :12:16.and we would stop the song and it would be out of tune and if it was
:12:16. > :12:19.a song that he was heavily involved in we used to do Green Onions which
:12:19. > :12:23.I don't know if you know but its very repetitive and the thing is it
:12:23. > :12:29.got mind numbing because Russ would say let's do it again, let's do it
:12:29. > :12:32.again, let's do it again. After Russell left school he got
:12:32. > :12:40.what he called a mind numbingly repetitive job at a local nuts and
:12:40. > :12:45.bolts factory. �25 a week is how much I picked up
:12:45. > :12:50.for doing that. It wasn't very much, but I made a lot of friends there,
:12:50. > :12:58.and that was it was great fun. you got a nickname? I got a
:12:59. > :13:03.nickname. Minty. Oh Good Lord, yeah. Did you know why they called you
:13:03. > :13:08.Minty? No it took me a while to work it out somebody explained to
:13:08. > :13:12.me after a few years why. Which is? Because when we clocked on, you
:13:12. > :13:15.were supposed to get, to get in around about ten to eight or
:13:15. > :13:25.thereabouts. I was always late, so I would always turn up "after
:13:25. > :13:26.
:13:26. > :13:29.eight". Hence the name, Minty. Very clever. It ground you down. You
:13:29. > :13:35.woke up every morning thinking, I can't, I can't do another day of
:13:35. > :13:45.this. Yeah. The job. It was the singular most mind numbing, boring
:13:45. > :13:47.
:13:47. > :13:57.draining job that has ever been Then one night in February 1990,
:13:57. > :13:58.
:13:58. > :14:01.fate presented Russell with a way On a pub-crawl with his mates, he
:14:01. > :14:07.walked into the Railway Inn slap bang in the middle of a radio
:14:07. > :14:17.talent contest. He had no inkling that the next few hours would
:14:17. > :14:19.
:14:19. > :14:24.We were hoping what we would find was a brand new pop singer or a
:14:24. > :14:27.comedian. But what we did find was an opera singer and an opera singer
:14:27. > :14:30.from Salford. And, I mean, opera singers do not come from Salford.
:14:30. > :14:40.They come from Turin or Milan. But there was Russell and he was
:14:40. > :14:59.
:14:59. > :15:03.# love on the rocks... # And that night in the pub, when you got up
:15:03. > :15:07.on stage, you hadn't prepared. You had not thought, this is what I am
:15:07. > :15:11.going to do tonight but you got up on stage and said, OK, what have
:15:11. > :15:14.you got for me to sing? Yeah. I sang this Neil Diamond song, gave
:15:14. > :15:18.it everything I had and the place went mad. There was probably 30, 40
:15:18. > :15:22.people in there that night. It was not busy and they said, well done,
:15:22. > :15:25.Son, you are going through to the next round. Oh. Great. OK. You went
:15:25. > :15:35.all the way through to the final? All the way through to the finals,
:15:35. > :15:36.
:15:36. > :15:41.which was held live on Piccadilly Lovely. I can remember that, on the
:15:41. > :15:44.final day, there were several competitors lined up. We lined them
:15:44. > :15:51.up all on telephone lines and they were waiting actually for the
:15:51. > :15:55.result. And the telephone call came through to me and I thought, oh,
:15:55. > :15:59.they are ringing me up to tell me to get lost and they rang me up and
:15:59. > :16:03.went... We are pleased to tell you, you have won. I was like, yeah. The
:16:03. > :16:06.second thing I have won in my life. I am not sure really whether he was
:16:06. > :16:13.very confident that he would win. But when it came through he was
:16:13. > :16:17.actually the winner, he blew the audience away. And then, did you
:16:17. > :16:23.think, this is it for me then. I'll give up the job and I am going to
:16:23. > :16:26.be a singer? Er, pretty it, pretty much so, yeah. I think I
:16:26. > :16:30.immediately thought, wow, this is fantastic. I mean, there was a
:16:30. > :16:33.little bit of prestige as well with winning the competition. There were
:16:33. > :16:37.a few agents and what have you there, you know, waiting to give me
:16:37. > :16:47.a bit of work. And, literally, I think it was the next day or the
:16:47. > :16:48.
:16:48. > :16:51.day after. I walked into the factory with the proverbial oily
:16:51. > :16:55.rag and threw it on the floor. I think I got in about 8:07am. On
:16:55. > :17:05.purpose. I walked into the office and I said, Robin, I am, leaving.
:17:05. > :17:09.And he went, really? I said, mmm hmm. He says, what are you going to
:17:09. > :17:19.do? I said, I am going to be a singer. And he went, see you next
:17:19. > :17:24.
:17:24. > :17:30.The radio win was the kick-start of Russell's career. He was no longer
:17:30. > :17:40.a young man living for the moment. He was pursuing a dream that would
:17:40. > :17:43.
:17:43. > :17:53.require a thick skin and lots of I spent ten years serving my
:17:53. > :17:56.
:17:56. > :18:00.apprenticeship as an artist and I In the North, they say what they
:18:00. > :18:03.think. They have paid their money and they want to be entertained.
:18:03. > :18:08.And if they do not like it, they will tell you very quickly and very
:18:08. > :18:11.sharply. It was tough and the audiences were tough. They would
:18:11. > :18:15.literally sit back in their chairs, fold their arms as you walked on
:18:15. > :18:23.the stage, and they would almost get this sense of, well, go on then,
:18:23. > :18:26.entertain us, Son. If you can. you can get through wet Sunday
:18:26. > :18:29.afternoons in a working men's club, say in Dukinfield, then I think,
:18:29. > :18:39.you know, you become hardened to the whole business and you can
:18:39. > :18:42.handle it. If you can do that, I As Russell learnt the show business
:18:42. > :18:45.ropes, he became a popular booking in pubs and clubs around the North
:18:45. > :18:52.West. But some venues would have challenged even the most seasoned
:18:52. > :18:57.performers. There was this one particular place that I went into
:18:57. > :19:06.this night. I am halfway through my first song, which I think was an
:19:06. > :19:10.Elton John track, Sacrifice. It is a human sign when things go wrong.
:19:10. > :19:15.Next thing, crash bang wallop. All the side doors, fire exits, the lot,
:19:15. > :19:18.all come crashing open. There are like I don't know, ten, 15 plain
:19:18. > :19:22.clothes detectives. They have got arms up backs and they have got
:19:22. > :19:29.guys pinned to the floor. I am like, what the heck is going on here, you
:19:29. > :19:33.know? This is just unreal. It is like a scene from the OK Corral. I
:19:33. > :19:38.went over to the landlady and I said, well I had best get off,
:19:38. > :19:45.hadn't I?' She went, gerroff, she went. Get on with it, you soft lad,
:19:45. > :19:51.it happens every bloody night in For Russell, the 1990s were not all
:19:51. > :19:56.about his singing ambition. In 1993, he married and became a father and
:19:56. > :20:05.with extra mouths to feed, money was tight. In fact, the Watsons
:20:05. > :20:08.found themselves in a real financial crisis. There is a knock
:20:08. > :20:11.on the door and there is a man standing outside in the pouring
:20:11. > :20:15.rain with a runny nose. Mr Jones, the bailiff. What a lovely man! I
:20:15. > :20:19.know it sounds odd that a bailiff is a lovely man, but he was. He was
:20:19. > :20:25.in a little Mac with a little goatee beard and he stood there and
:20:25. > :20:31.he went, Mr Watson. I say, yes? Mr Watson, we have got to come and
:20:31. > :20:34.seize some of your possessions. I went, mmm, dear. I said, well,
:20:34. > :20:38.first of all, why don't you come in because you are drenched, you are
:20:38. > :20:41.going to catch your death. And I think he was a little bit surprised
:20:41. > :20:44.at the way I responded to him but I genuinely believe that, if you
:20:44. > :20:50.treat people with respect, it does not matter what they are there for,
:20:50. > :20:57.or who they are, they will respond to that. I do genuinely believe
:20:57. > :21:00.that you reap what you sow. And he sat down and he had a cup of tea
:21:00. > :21:04.and we started talking. He said, well, look, I will do you a favour.
:21:04. > :21:09.I can suspend the warrant on the judgment for you but you will have
:21:09. > :21:12.to pay me �10 by Friday. You have to promise and, basically over the
:21:12. > :21:21.sort of next two or three years, well, I ended up digging myself out
:21:21. > :21:23.of a financial quagmire that I was in. It was, at one point, I think I
:21:23. > :21:29.had something like 12 County Court judgments. We could not afford
:21:29. > :21:32.anything. It was unbelievable. You would not believe how it feels to
:21:33. > :21:37.walk down to the local Post Office and everybody knows that you are
:21:37. > :21:43.going in to buy tokens for gas because you cannot afford any.
:21:43. > :21:49.Looking back, what did that do for you? What did you learn? It gave me
:21:49. > :21:52.an appreciation of what I have now like you would not believe. If ever
:21:53. > :21:56.there is a period in my life, where I start to pity myself and feel
:21:56. > :21:59.sorry for myself, there are periods in my life, which I reflect on -
:22:00. > :22:09.the illness being one of them and the struggle that I had during that
:22:10. > :22:11.
:22:11. > :22:21.period of time financially being the other. As the 1990s drew to a
:22:21. > :22:21.
:22:21. > :22:24.close, Russell's fortunes changed It was the break he needed in his
:22:24. > :22:34.singing career and not only that, it brought together the two
:22:34. > :22:38.
:22:38. > :22:42.greatest passions of his life: So, when you get the phone call
:22:42. > :22:45.saying, Russell, would you like to come and sing at the last match of
:22:46. > :22:51.the season at Old Trafford? Your team, Manchester United, the
:22:51. > :23:01.biggest audience you had ever played. Like by far. I was used to
:23:01. > :23:04.performing in front of 57. thousands? No. 57. I turned up and
:23:04. > :23:08.there was the usual buzz, the anticipation before the start of a
:23:08. > :23:11.football match. I was stood at the side of the pitch with my dad. The
:23:11. > :23:15.guy who was doing the announcing at the time, who calls out the teams,
:23:15. > :23:18.is a friend of mine, called Keith Fame. I remember he leant over he
:23:19. > :23:22.says, how you doing Russ? You all right, Son? I said, yeah, I am all
:23:22. > :23:25.right, Keith. He says, you are a bit nervous. I went, I've got to be
:23:26. > :23:29.honest, I said, I don't normally get nervous, as you know, Keith, I
:23:29. > :23:33.said. But I am feeling a little bit tentative today about this because
:23:33. > :23:38.it is so many people. He went, Russ, you will hammer them, kid. You will
:23:38. > :23:42.knock them dead. This young man walked out. The United fans were
:23:42. > :23:45.having a go at the Spurs fans. The Spurs fans were having a go at the
:23:45. > :23:55.United fans, as you would expect. And then Russell started to sing
:23:55. > :23:59.
:23:59. > :24:08.And the buzz, the chit chat slowly, as the aria went on, started to
:24:09. > :24:18.gradually die down. The crowd was absolutely silent. 70,000 people.
:24:19. > :24:19.
:24:19. > :24:23.Not a sound from any of them. And it was eerie. And I remember going
:24:23. > :24:33.up for the top note and I held the last vincere, and I just held it
:24:33. > :24:37.
:24:37. > :24:45.As I was holding the note, I could hear the applause and the roar
:24:45. > :24:50.starting to build. There were 60 or 70 cynical old hacks there and they
:24:50. > :24:56.stood up and applauded. I have been all over the world and seen some of
:24:56. > :24:59.the biggest matches and I have never seen that, like in 40 years.
:24:59. > :25:05.And I remember I looked up to the heavens and I just thought, oh,
:25:05. > :25:08.does it get any better than this? I walked off to the side of the pitch
:25:08. > :25:13.and my dad, who is not the most emotional human being in the world,
:25:13. > :25:17.was stood at the side, eyes all misted up. I said to him, are you
:25:17. > :25:27.all right, Dad? And he said, aye, I think I have got something in my
:25:27. > :25:31.
:25:31. > :25:34.eye, Son. Wow! It was an incredible day. I do not know whether you said
:25:34. > :25:37.it unconsciously, as you looked up to the heavens, but was there an
:25:37. > :25:43.acceptance that somehow God and fate had brought you to that place
:25:43. > :25:46.at that moment? Yes. Very much so, because I mean, if I look back at
:25:46. > :25:56.my career now, retrospectively, I genuinely believe that my career
:25:56. > :25:58.
:25:58. > :26:01.was not an accident now and that I am here for a reason. And I look
:26:01. > :26:11.back at that point and I think that maybe the essence was starting to
:26:11. > :26:21.
:26:21. > :26:31.Following his performance at Old Trafford, Russell's popularity
:26:31. > :26:39.
:26:39. > :26:42.skyrocketed. There was a record Suddenly, he was appearing
:26:42. > :26:52.alongside some of the country's best-loved stars including his
:26:52. > :26:52.
:26:53. > :26:56.mother's favourite, Cliff Richard. I remember we were at rehearsals
:26:56. > :27:01.one day and he said, Russell, I was out with some friends last night
:27:01. > :27:11.and we were having a little chat about you. We thought that it might
:27:11. > :27:11.
:27:12. > :27:14.be a good idea if you changed your name. And I went, oh, really? Well,
:27:15. > :27:17.we like Watson, we think that is great, but we were thinking
:27:17. > :27:25.something Mediterranean like Russo. I went, really? Like Russo Watson?
:27:25. > :27:35.He went, no, we were thinking more And it is Sir Cliff Richard. OK, I
:27:35. > :27:37.
:27:37. > :27:40.mean this guy... Whom we love. We love. He is a legend. So, when he
:27:40. > :27:43.suggested the name Watson Russo, I think I said something like, mmm,
:27:43. > :27:46.yeah, Cliff, that is a really good idea. And off I toddled the next
:27:46. > :27:49.day. At rehearsals, I remember he was swinging around on some orb
:27:49. > :27:59.type thing in mid air, doing Wired For Sound, lights flashing, and
:27:59. > :28:05.
:28:05. > :28:12.stopped. He looked over and he went, By the way, who would know what a
:28:12. > :28:20.very good impersonator you are? used to be able to do a really good
:28:20. > :28:23.Paul O'Grady as well. That is good. Lily Savage. And that again the
:28:23. > :28:26.Paul O'Grady, the work that I did with Paul O'Grady, we worked in
:28:26. > :28:36.Blackpool at the North Pier Theatre for three months together and that
:28:36. > :28:42.
:28:42. > :28:49.was a big help to the start of my But Russell's newfound celebrity
:28:49. > :28:53.had its downside. With the fame came the press attention and gossip.
:28:53. > :28:58.I did mention to him once that he was going to get calls from
:28:58. > :29:03.newspapers that he would not welcome. I mean that is just the
:29:03. > :29:07.way it goes. I think that it is unfortunate the bigger the star you
:29:07. > :29:10.are the more intrusive newspapers will be. That is just the way it
:29:10. > :29:20.goes. Sadly your marriage broke up. Yes. Difficult when papers start to
:29:20. > :29:25.
:29:25. > :29:29.attack you and your character and your personality. All that negative
:29:29. > :29:32.stuff. If I look back on that period of time, now, then I think,
:29:32. > :29:35.well yeah, it was a tough time but compared with some of the other
:29:35. > :29:39.things that I have been through, not really. I got slated for a
:29:39. > :29:42.period of time but as my dear old Gran used to say, she used to say,
:29:42. > :29:52.Russ, today's newspaper is tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping,
:29:52. > :29:56.
:29:56. > :29:59.Nevertheless, Russell had to face a further onslaught of negative press.
:29:59. > :30:09.This time it was not about his private life. It was about his
:30:09. > :30:15.
:30:15. > :30:19.voice.All these records are not made in a classical way, they are
:30:19. > :30:21.made in a pop way. He became one of the targets of a growing debate
:30:22. > :30:25.within classical music about dumbing down. The classical buffs
:30:26. > :30:35.start to pick you apart. They did. You are just a man in a working
:30:36. > :30:41.
:30:41. > :30:48.men's club and all that stuff. If it hadn't have been for those
:30:48. > :30:54.remarks, and those people I wouldn't have been the success.
:30:54. > :30:59.Because it makes you go, you watch me. No, it wasn't that. It wasn't
:30:59. > :31:04.necessarily that. There wasn't really much I could do about it. It
:31:04. > :31:07.was the public. It was the them and us and all the people, the working
:31:07. > :31:10.class people, the people that are the life and soul and the energy of
:31:10. > :31:14.this country, those people came to my rescue because the classical
:31:14. > :31:18.elitists and the purists were attacking their boy. And they, they
:31:18. > :31:21.didn't like that and they stood right behind me like an army. And
:31:21. > :31:24.they went out and they bought a million of my records because I was
:31:24. > :31:27.being attacked by people who didn't have names or faces that basically
:31:27. > :31:30.sit in their little ivory towers, you know, criticising and pointing
:31:30. > :31:36.their finger and, and downgrading everybody who hasn't had the right
:31:36. > :31:41.upbringing in life, hasn't had the, what is the word? Education, the
:31:41. > :31:49.Royal Academy. Yes exactly. I worked so incredibly hard with
:31:49. > :31:51.limited budget to work and train my voice.
:31:51. > :31:59.Despite criticism from the classical elite in his own country,
:31:59. > :32:02.Russell was now enjoying success on the world stage. And in 2001 he
:32:02. > :32:11.received his greatest accolade yet - an invitation to sing at the
:32:11. > :32:14.Vatican in the presence of Pope John Paul II. I remember standing
:32:14. > :32:21.on the stage just before I was about to sing and thinking, "How on
:32:21. > :32:31.earth did I get here?" Three years ago this was Wigan Road Working
:32:31. > :32:31.
:32:31. > :33:17.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 46 seconds
:33:17. > :33:20.Men's Club, you know. It's just a #Ave Maria. #. Unbelievable. There
:33:20. > :33:23.was a 110-piece orchestra behind me, 200-piece choir, there were 40 red-
:33:23. > :33:26.robed cardinals and the Pope in his own private box and an audience
:33:26. > :33:36.3,500, and a European audience of half a billion I think or something
:33:36. > :33:53.
:33:53. > :34:02.ridiculous like that watching the I was blessed by the Pope. And I
:34:02. > :34:05.gave him one of my CDs. And about two or three weeks later, a letter
:34:05. > :34:15.popped through the front door of my home and it basically said that the
:34:15. > :34:15.
:34:15. > :34:25.pope invokes God's blessing upon Russell's star was in the
:34:25. > :34:32.In 2002 he performed at the opening of the Commonwealth Games watched
:34:32. > :34:42.by an audience of 1 billion. He sang at the White House and in some
:34:42. > :34:58.
:34:58. > :35:04.of Britain's most prestigious But while the concerts and the
:35:04. > :35:12.occasions got grander, some things didn't change. Russell's pre-show
:35:12. > :35:15.preparations are the same today as they've always been. I hear until
:35:15. > :35:25.the last second, you are still in your pants before you walk out on
:35:25. > :35:26.
:35:26. > :35:29.the stage? Yes, I am. For me, it's a bit like a Formula One driver,
:35:29. > :35:33.you know, once you have put the helmet on and you are sat in the
:35:33. > :35:37.cockpit the focus is then on the race and winning the race and for
:35:37. > :35:41.me, as soon as I put my suit on the focus then was immediately on the
:35:41. > :35:51.performance. So I can't stand around back stage for 30, 40
:35:51. > :35:53.
:35:53. > :35:57.minutes. If I do I burn out and I genuinely do. Again people say it's
:35:57. > :36:01.a ridiculous demand why does he have to, why can't he just wait 20
:36:01. > :36:04.minutes by the side of the stage? I can't because I am ready for the
:36:04. > :36:07.fight and the adrenaline is running through my veins. Adrenaline can
:36:07. > :36:14.work two ways with people either revs you up or gets you incredibly
:36:14. > :36:18.nervous. No. Oh revs me up. I am like a hundred meter sprinter
:36:18. > :36:28.waiting in the traps. Just ring that bell and I am off. I can't
:36:28. > :36:32.
:36:32. > :36:35.wait. No nerves? No. No nerves. I love it. The young working class
:36:36. > :36:38.lad from Salford was enjoying success beyond his wildest dreams.
:36:38. > :36:48.But, like so many before him, Russell discovered that all the
:36:48. > :36:49.
:36:49. > :36:52.fame and adulation can change you - and not always for the better.
:36:52. > :36:56.mean, I knew Russell just when he was making his way and I have to
:36:56. > :37:00.say if I'm being totally honest, there was a time when we feared for
:37:00. > :37:04.him that he might be going off the rails that it was going to his head
:37:04. > :37:08.a bit. There's a great old expression especially where I come
:37:08. > :37:16.from in Northern Ireland about that you get too big for your boots.
:37:16. > :37:21.It's possible to get a bit big for your boots? Did you? Oh God, yeah.
:37:21. > :37:26.It all went wrong around 2003. In fact, if you, you can see if you
:37:26. > :37:29.look at the covers of my records. You look at the first record which
:37:29. > :37:34.was The Voice and there is this kind of, "Hey I'm here its
:37:34. > :37:38.brilliant, I don't deserve to be here". And then the second record
:37:38. > :37:42.you can see a man, I was walking, I think I was walking in a travelator
:37:42. > :37:45.in an airport that was the cover of the second record and then I was
:37:45. > :37:49.swinging my arms. The coat was swathing around and it looked like
:37:49. > :37:53.a man who was going somewhere who had intent and who was travelling
:37:53. > :37:57.and who was going somewhere and knew what he wanted. On the third
:37:57. > :38:00.record there was a guy in a blue pinstripe suit with a very sharp
:38:01. > :38:08.tie on and all the make up and the hair immaculate and I remember I
:38:08. > :38:13.was stood like this. I'm number one. Me, me, me, all for himself
:38:13. > :38:17.basically I think. He invited me to his house and he said "I'll put
:38:17. > :38:22.some music on." and so we said to him, "Yeah, so long as it's not
:38:22. > :38:26.your rubbish". He wouldn't have it and in the past he would have
:38:26. > :38:30.laughed. He would have come back with you and he would have a go at
:38:30. > :38:34.yourself but he didn't. And at the end of it I texted him a couple of
:38:34. > :38:39.times and no reply and that was basically it for two and a half
:38:39. > :38:45.years. And he wasn't the same person. I remember that time
:38:45. > :38:50.specifically. It was almost like I had lost myself and what it was all
:38:50. > :38:55.about and where I had come from. I was walking round with you know,
:38:55. > :39:05.three or four bodyguards and all that malarkey. Did you? Why?
:39:05. > :39:06.
:39:06. > :39:16.don't know. I think I thought I was But Russell was about to get a wake
:39:16. > :39:19.
:39:19. > :39:23.up call. By 2003, his most precious asset - his voice - was failing him.
:39:23. > :39:26.My falsetto range of my voice had gone. It's like the light heady
:39:26. > :39:32.sound of my voice. When I was trying to go ooh, all that was
:39:32. > :39:36.happening was oh. The time was very difficult for me because I thought
:39:36. > :39:39.I was going to lose my voice and I thought I was going to lose my
:39:39. > :39:44.means of income and wouldn't be able to sing again which was you
:39:44. > :39:47.know it was career threatening not life threatening career threatening.
:39:47. > :39:50.Russell needed a relatively simple operation to remove a vocal polyp
:39:50. > :39:58.but there was a danger that it could affect the range and quality
:39:58. > :40:05.of his singing. How long was it before you could test your voice
:40:05. > :40:12.out after the operation? Well, I was told not to speak for I think,
:40:12. > :40:21.it was 14 days. Well, like a naughty little boy I went down into
:40:21. > :40:25.my studio this day and very quietly hid in a corner and I went ooh. And
:40:25. > :40:35.it felt like it was amazing and again I looked up and I cried my
:40:35. > :40:36.
:40:36. > :40:40.eyes out because I thought, it's a success. I think we all tend to
:40:40. > :40:45.look for God when we are down or when we are up against the odds. We
:40:45. > :40:50.tend to go searching for God more at those particular points in life.
:40:50. > :41:00.You know, why are we going down this route? You know, why is this
:41:00. > :41:05.
:41:05. > :41:08.happening you know, particularly After the throat operation Russell
:41:08. > :41:18.believed his health worries were behind him and resumed his singing
:41:18. > :41:23.
:41:23. > :41:33.In 2006 he took part in a BBC celebrity show - Just The Two of Us.
:41:33. > :41:39.
:41:39. > :41:46.But, despite appearances, all was I had terrible headaches. And they
:41:46. > :41:49.were headaches from hell, they were. It felt like my head was exploding
:41:49. > :41:53.and the pain that I got in this area here, was so excruciating it
:41:53. > :42:02.would make me cry and I'd have to go and lie in my bedroom close the
:42:02. > :42:06.curtains and wait for the pain to stop. I went to see a specialist
:42:06. > :42:11.and the specialist told me that it was nothing to worry about it was
:42:11. > :42:15.just stress and I needed to take a holiday. And I remember walking out
:42:15. > :42:21.of that that hospital and thinking this isn't stress, there has got to
:42:21. > :42:24.be and there is something more serious. And then I have these
:42:24. > :42:31.internal conversations with myself, oh come on, Russ you're alright.
:42:31. > :42:34.There is nothing wrong with you, get on with it. It's that Salford,
:42:34. > :42:37.that again, what was instilled into me by my, predominantly by my
:42:37. > :42:44.father, you know, just get on with it, son. What's the matter with
:42:44. > :42:52.you? Get on with it, lad. And Russell did just that. In
:42:52. > :43:02.September 2006 he flew out to LA to record a new album. But he ended up
:43:02. > :43:03.
:43:03. > :43:10.in a Los Angeles Hospital I remember, awful experience. The
:43:10. > :43:20.doctor looked at me. He sat back in his chair and went, "Mr Watson, you
:43:20. > :43:26.
:43:26. > :43:30.have a brain tumour". Right. OK. 'What does this mean?' The first
:43:30. > :43:35.question I asked was, am I going to die? That was the first question
:43:35. > :43:38.that came into my head. Well, we need to do tests and find out
:43:39. > :43:48.whether its benign or malignant, we have to do MRIs and blah, blah,
:43:49. > :43:49.
:43:49. > :43:53.blah. I was like well, I am making a record. I was told I was stressed.
:43:53. > :43:56.I have got to America and I have now been told I have got a giant
:43:56. > :44:00.tumour growing in my head. And my family are thousands of miles away
:44:00. > :44:04.from me and what did I do? I went in the studio and made the record
:44:04. > :44:07.and didn't tell anybody. I thought I was going to die and I thought
:44:07. > :44:13.when I was leaving the recording I was making was my legacy. It was
:44:13. > :44:16.very scary. And I remember one night I was stood on the balcony of
:44:16. > :44:20.my hotel in Beverly Hills and I was so angry and I remember thinking I
:44:20. > :44:30.just want to throw myself off this balcony and just stop this pain.
:44:30. > :44:31.
:44:31. > :44:41.I've had enough of the ups and the downs and everything just came
:44:41. > :44:41.
:44:41. > :44:51.crushing in on me and I felt What stopped you? The kids. I said
:44:51. > :44:54.
:44:54. > :45:02.I wasn't going to cry today. You're not going to. No, I am not. That is
:45:02. > :45:06.just an illusion. You got something in your eye. But it was, it was
:45:06. > :45:10.pure despair. Your girls. Yeah. Yeah. My kids I thought of my kids
:45:10. > :45:15.how are my kids going to manage without me I have got to get back
:45:15. > :45:18.home and give this a go. And you did. I did. I went in the bathroom
:45:18. > :45:22.and did what I normally do when I'm faced with that type of situation -
:45:22. > :45:29.rinse my face off with cold water, look at myself in the mirror and go
:45:29. > :45:39.come on Watson. We went straight down there and luckily he'd pulled
:45:39. > :45:40.
:45:40. > :45:45.through his operation. But it was hard. When you came round, did they
:45:45. > :45:51.say it was a success? Yes. It wasn't. I couldn't see.
:45:51. > :46:00.couldn't see. No. It was like a mist in front of my face. And the
:46:00. > :46:05.first thing I thought was, well at least I am alive. And you never
:46:05. > :46:08.felt quite right, did you? No. Even then. Still felt like there was
:46:08. > :46:18.something wrong. Even though I was being told that everything was
:46:18. > :46:29.
:46:29. > :46:32.Once again, Russell picked himself up and resumed his singing career.
:46:32. > :46:35.His television comeback appearance was as a guest on the second series
:46:35. > :46:38.of Just the Two of Us. Just nine months later Russell found himself
:46:38. > :46:42.back in hospital being told that the tumour had returned. He was
:46:42. > :46:50.booked in to see a surgeon. But it was an appointment Russell was
:46:50. > :46:54.never going to make. I went to bed one night and I felt sick and
:46:54. > :47:04.during the night. I started vomiting and the pressure of the
:47:04. > :47:11.
:47:11. > :47:14.vomiting caused the tumour to haemorrhage. I thought I was gone,
:47:14. > :47:17.I genuinely thought I was finished and I remember the paramedics
:47:17. > :47:20.coming bursting through the bedroom door and they were carrying me down
:47:20. > :47:25.the stairs in like a stretcher thing and I remember the one thing
:47:25. > :47:34.that I said to this guy was - ha ha I can't believe I said this - 'I am
:47:34. > :47:38.not too heavy for you am I, mate. He said, I think that is the least
:47:38. > :47:41.of your worries, Russ. And then they got me in the back of the
:47:41. > :47:44.ambulance and they were saying I knew because of you know all the
:47:44. > :47:48.things you watch on the Hollywood movies and the, you know, E R and
:47:48. > :47:58.all the rest of it I, you know, that when somebody is saying to you,
:47:58. > :48:04.
:48:04. > :48:08.'Stay with us mate, stay with us pal', that you are in trouble. When
:48:08. > :48:12.they got me to hospital I could hear, I think he's hemorrhaging. We
:48:12. > :48:21.need to get his temperature down. Get him in the MRI scanner. We need
:48:21. > :48:24.to get him to theatre. And there was this bustling and jostling and
:48:24. > :48:28.I was just lying there like I couldn't move. It was like my brain
:48:28. > :48:30.was switched on but my body was switched off. So I could hear what
:48:30. > :48:34.was going on, couldn't see it because my vision had completely
:48:34. > :48:37.gone again, and I remember as they slid me into the MRI and they click,
:48:37. > :48:40.click, clack, clack, bang, bang, bang, bang that the MRI, I remember
:48:40. > :48:43.this moment, this sedate serene moment where everything just shut
:48:43. > :48:53.down and there was this inner peace and there was this calm in my body
:48:53. > :49:10.
:49:10. > :49:14.Come and get me. And there was, I visualised in my head a room. The
:49:14. > :49:18.room that I was in was black and the door that I saw was white. I
:49:18. > :49:22.felt like I had a choice to stay in the room or walk through the door
:49:22. > :49:25.and I knew that if I walked through the door I wouldn't be going back
:49:25. > :49:33.and listening to the MRI scanner and again, it was that, that moment
:49:34. > :49:36.where I thought I need to stay and carry on fighting. I am here for a
:49:36. > :49:43.reason and gradually the clack, clack, clack of the MRI scanner
:49:43. > :49:47.started getting louder. And the buzz of the room came back and the
:49:47. > :49:57.next thing I knew I had come round and I was in a hospital bed with a
:49:57. > :49:59.
:49:59. > :50:01.surgeon at the end of the bed. Mr Leggate. The man who saved my life.
:50:02. > :50:04.I was confronted with this chap with a tumour, with haemorrhage,
:50:05. > :50:12.bleeding and needing to consider surgery to put him back on the
:50:12. > :50:22.straight and narrow, to save his vision and to save his life. We've
:50:22. > :50:25.
:50:25. > :50:35.got to get you to surgery now, he said. I don't want an operation.
:50:35. > :50:39.
:50:39. > :50:45.'You need one.' I'll die if you give me an operation. No, you won't.
:50:45. > :50:50.I will. I know it. I know it. I have been through all this. I'll
:50:50. > :50:53.die. Stupid. He was very ill and you only have a limited amount of
:50:53. > :50:56.time to convince the patient that actually they need to have
:50:56. > :50:59.something done to bring them back into the real world and back from
:50:59. > :51:03.that one foot in the grave situation. He said, I have to walk
:51:03. > :51:07.in this room on many occasions, Mr. Watson and tell people that there
:51:07. > :51:10.is nothing that we can do for them and they have to go home and I am
:51:10. > :51:14.telling you that I can do something so why don't you have think about
:51:14. > :51:17.it and when you have thought give me a buzz. There's a thing by the
:51:17. > :51:21.bed. And then I think just events overtook the situation and then he
:51:21. > :51:24.was confronted with something that he had to deal with there and then.
:51:24. > :51:29.Buzz. The public says, yes. before you have seen the girls?
:51:29. > :51:38.that was the proviso. Yeah. I want to see the kids because if I don't
:51:38. > :51:42.make it at least they get to say goodbye. In some ways I think it
:51:42. > :51:46.was a bit selfish to want to see the kids and to see them when I was
:51:46. > :51:48.in that state but... I think they'd be very angry with you if you
:51:48. > :51:52.popped off without seeing them personally. I think you are
:51:52. > :51:54.probably right. I think you are probably right. The emergency
:51:54. > :52:04.operation, carried out by James Leggate, lasted four hours, longer
:52:04. > :52:10.
:52:10. > :52:16.than normal for someone with Rusol Watson is in a critical
:52:16. > :52:22.condition tonight after emergency surgery on a brain tumour. Rusol is
:52:22. > :52:29.in our intensive care unit. He is critical. He is still in a very
:52:29. > :52:32.critical condition. I have more than my fingers crossed. This was
:52:32. > :52:42.quite something because when we saw him go in there, we wondered
:52:42. > :52:46.
:52:47. > :52:49.whether that would be the last time we saw Russell Watson. As I opened
:52:50. > :52:56.my eyes and they flickered I could see two outlines, white, shaded
:52:56. > :53:02.outlines and I thought,Oh I've made it to heaven. I must have done
:53:02. > :53:12.something right. And they were my kids at the end of the bed.
:53:12. > :53:17.
:53:17. > :53:27.your two angels. Yes. And they are just stood like looking at me,
:53:27. > :53:28.
:53:28. > :53:31.staring at me. Like, hi, daddy and the tears came down my face again.
:53:31. > :53:35.You couldn't get up and go and wash your face could you? No, not this
:53:35. > :53:38.time. He's a fighter. He's a fighter. And I know he did feel
:53:38. > :53:41.like giving up himself. But he thought of his family and his girls.
:53:41. > :53:48.He has been through so much and I'm very proud of him for getting
:53:48. > :53:51.through it. And it's changed him for the better. It was an
:53:51. > :53:55.absolutely magnificent recovery, the doctors did a fantastic job and
:53:55. > :54:05.I think it has made him a better person for it and I think he'd be
:54:05. > :54:12.
:54:12. > :54:16.the first to admit that. I rang and he answered. It was a big relief
:54:16. > :54:19.because he became what he used to be and that was the nice thing. He
:54:19. > :54:29.still looked quite fragile but it was the same Russ that we'd known
:54:29. > :54:37.
:54:37. > :54:40.you know since we were 8 kind of You've got to have been through the
:54:40. > :54:44.bad, you've got to have been through the good, you've got to
:54:44. > :54:54.have had the fortune, you have to have the story, the romance has to
:54:54. > :54:55.
:54:55. > :54:58.be there. It's what makes an artist Now The Voice is back. And this
:54:58. > :55:07.year Russell has fulfilled a promise he made to himself when he
:55:07. > :55:11.was ill - to perform in front of his fans at the Royal Albert Hall.
:55:11. > :55:17.For an artist, a singer, it is a bit like walking through the tunnel
:55:17. > :55:20.at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup final. He has come a long way from
:55:20. > :55:26.his humble beginnings singing to an audience of 30 in the Railway Inn.
:55:26. > :55:31.So, the future for Russell Watson. Is what? Key for me with life is
:55:31. > :55:36.happiness, happiness just to be happy. That's it. I don't want
:55:36. > :55:46.anything else. I just want to be happy. Happy and healthy. And what
:55:46. > :55:53.
:55:53. > :55:58.does Christmas mean to you? Probably the first thing that most
:55:58. > :56:03.people say every Christmas,Oh My God, where did this year go? And
:56:03. > :56:07.there is a real sense of 'Where did this year go?' for me this year. It
:56:07. > :56:11.feels like it just, it feels like it was only a blink away and that's
:56:11. > :56:14.what I think I tend to focus on at Christmas is - sounds a bit odd
:56:14. > :56:17.this - but how short life is. Christmas makes you think about
:56:17. > :56:22.life, Christmas makes you reflect and I have seen myself go to hell
:56:22. > :56:25.and back but I am back and I am alive and my value of what I have
:56:25. > :56:31.now, the people around me and my life and what I do has been
:56:31. > :56:40.quadrupled, it is unbelievable. And when I walk on stage and I sing now
:56:40. > :56:43.it's... I used to sing before, now I sing. And I sing from the soul
:56:43. > :56:53.and it's completely different to singing music on a piece of paper
:56:53. > :57:12.
:57:12. > :57:22.and you can't teach that at the # 0, Holy Night, the stars of
:57:22. > :57:24.
:57:24. > :57:27.Well, I started the day seeing if I could find out whether fame,
:57:27. > :57:30.fortune and illness had changed Russell at all and they clearly
:57:30. > :57:34.have, haven't they? He's certainly a very thoughtful, grounded man now.
:57:34. > :57:40.But how much of the Salford lad is still in there? Quite a lot I would
:57:40. > :57:50.say. He's still got that naughty, cheeky schoolboy about him, hasn't
:57:50. > :57:52.
:57:52. > :58:02.he? And yet, Russell, no matter what has happened to him, all the
:58:02. > :58:14.
:58:14. > :58:24.ups and downs, he's never going to Next week my guest is the actor
:58:24. > :58:30.
:58:30. > :58:39.Brian Blessed. His life is one big adventure on screen. And on