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Our Phil is up the Town

Published Date: 06 November 2009
Phil Coulter has few peers and there are fewer songwriters who will match either his overwhelming success or his substantial body of work. That success last week saw the Derry composer awarded the prestigious Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters Composers and Authors (BASCA).

It is an award which in the past has been presented to the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Michael Parkinson and Jools Holland. Describing the award as the ‘ultimate acolade’, Phil told the Journal yesterday: “This is an award that recognises talent rather than fame. It is usually given to people working behind the scenes and that it is awarded by my peers makes it all the more significant.”

The award comes as Coulter prepares to return to stage in his home town. And he’s promising “a completely different change of pace – this is a stripped down intimate one man show.”

It has truly been a remarkable career.

How many people have written a national anthem (in Ireland’s Call), two if you count the Derry anthem of ‘The Town I Love so Well’; been conspired against by General Franco; won the Eurovision song contest; sold out Carnegie Hall, four times no less; written a stage show in Celtic Thunder which has four sold out coast-to-coast US tours; and had a string of hit singles which have been recorded by everyone from Elvis to The Bay City Rollers, Billy Connolly, Joe Dolan and even the English International football team!

“I’ve only written a few songs, I haven’t cured cancer or anything,” he said. “But it is still nice to get an award. I’m just like any Derryman – I’m glad to have a job to go to work to on Monday mornings. This is my job. It is a nice one and one which I am good at, at least in spurts! I still enjoy it every day.”

The latest award takes its place among Coulter’s 23 Platinum Discs, 39 Gold Discs, 52 Silver Discs, two Grand Prix Eurovision awards; five Ivor Novello Awards, which includes Songwriter of the Year; three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards; a Grammy Nomination; a Meteor Award, a National Entertainment Award and a Rose d’or d’Antibes. And the chances are there are more that he’s simply forgotten about!

Three walls of his office are decorated in accolades: “They start in 1967 and finish with last month’s Gold Badge. It’s nice to have that longevity but there is still a blank wall to remind me there is plenty left to accomplish at this advanced stage of my career.”

Not bad for a man who, first and foremost, wanted to be a goalkeeper!
“Long before I put Buddy Holly or Elvis up there the first poster I had was of the Derry City keeper, Charlie Heffernon. I only wanted to be a goalkeeper.” In fact Phil’s son Ryan, 20, studies at San Diego University on a goalkeeper scholarship and has played for the Irish University squad, Bray and Dundalk FC.

Coulter confesses that he came close to abandoning the piano at an early age. Music was central to his Abercorn Terrace family. His father played fiddle and his mother piano.

“I always stayed away from the fiddle, having inflicted enough pain on my family with the piano,” he laughed.

“The truth is I hated the piano at first. I’d love to say I was a natural but I wasn’t. I hated playing it and I hated my music teacher. My father, who was a canny man, told me, ‘We have to scrimp and save to pay for these lessons, you might as well give them up.’

“It wasn’t long before I gravitated back to the piano, trying to play the songs that I was listening to on the radio. I always wondered what my left hand was supposed to be doing though. But after two or three years at St. Columb’s College I began thinking of the piano as an extension of myself.”

From St. Columb’s, it was on to Queen’s University in Belfast to study Music and French.

Not stealing hubcaps!

“My mother didn’t believe for a long time that I could have a career in music,” he recalled. Her mind was changed with the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest winner, ‘Puppet on a String’.

Is he now tired of the ‘Eurovision conversation’?

“Not at all. That competition was very good to me, ‘Puppet’ sold between 7 and 8 million copies. I look back on that with pride. I think it proved to my mother that I wasn’t out stealing hubcaps!”

The success was almost instantly repeated. Cliff Richard seemed poised to win the 1968 title with the Coulter-penned ‘Congratualtions.’ With only one round of voting to go, Cliff was nine points clear. However he received no points in the final voting round. And that result, so many years ago, has been back in the headlines recently when a Spanish documentary claimed General Franco had fixed the votes.

“The story goes that Franco sent Spanish TV executives around Europe with promises of inducements for votes. We already thought we had won before that final round. I thought with that one round of votes my place in music history was gone. It was a hard lesson to learn early in my career. Since then I refuse to count my chickens early.

“Is it true? Who knows but I’m glad the revelations didn’t emerge in the days after the contest.”

The news was softened by the fact that ‘Congratulations’ is still performed and collecting royalties to this day.

“That song went on to clothe and educate a couple of my children, the Spanish winner on the other hand rocketed into obscurity! I still watch the Eurovision but it is more like a car crash these days. You could say I have a fatal fascination with it.”

Heartbreak

It hasn’t always been ‘awards and accolades’ for Ireland’s most accomplished composer. His personal life has provided enough heartbreak and inspiration for several songwriters.

Some of his most personal, famous and indeed most touching songs come from the loss of family members.

“‘The Old Man’ still haunts me when I play it in Derry,” he reflected. “I can still see my father’s face appear when I’m playing it there. These are my roots, my place, so the ghosts and memories come out of the woodwork when I play in Derry.”

Phil’s sister, Cyd, drowned in Lough Swilly. One year later he lost his brother, Brian to the same ‘Lake of Shadows.’

His struggle to come to terms with the loss and resulting emotions are captured in his songs ‘Shores of the Swilly’ and ‘Star of the Sea’. How then does he feel performing these tracks live, particularly in his hometown?

“It is harder to play in front of family and friends. The butterflies are always there. Once you put your head above the parapet you are a target for abuse as much as for accolades but I understand that. I’ve always said I’d rather play a week in Carnegie Hall than a night in Derry!

“Those particular songs were written as much to help me come to terms with those tragedies as anything else. It is about keeping their memory alive for myself. That is the privilege of a songwriter, we can leave songs behind after we fall off the perch ourselves.”

Part of that legacy is ‘Ireland’s Call’, the anthem Phil wrote for the international rugby team. It has since been adopted by several other sporting codes.

“The feeling stood in Croke Park with my sons at my side, listening to Ireland’s Call being sung, transcends the business of music. That feeling can’t be quantified. It is good to know that song will survive long after I do.”

Phil’s music commitments prevent him from returning to Derry ‘as often as I like’. Those committments include a stint in the US working on a TV version of Celtic Thunder. The stage show, in which he has cast two young Derrymen in starring roles, still fills 5, 000 seater venues. Albums from the show have topped the US Billboard charts on three occasions.

“The success of that show heartened me. It was gratifying and heartwarming to get it right but it was a greater feeling for me that my success was able to open doors for other talent such as Damien McGinty and Keith Harkin.

“It is always important to challenge yourself. I think resting on your laurels is dangerous, treading water is lethal. So while I’m delighted with Celtic Thunder I’m really looking forward to getting back on stage myself. It is refreshing.”

So which of his own songs does the multi-award winner return to most often?

“I have a soft spot for countless tunes for different reasons. I’m proud to be the only non-American to write a number one song for Elvis. There’s Puppet on A String for launching my career. But if I had to choose one, that is easy. It is the one I anguished most over, the one which had to earn respect and perhaps the most auto-biographical tune I have ever written, ‘The Town I Loved So Well.’

“The roots of that song go very, very deep, it took time for it to win respect and integrity. That song defines an era and a place that is very dear to my heart.”

Phil Coulter returns to Derry and the Millennium Forum on Friday 20th November. Tickets are now available from the Box Office. Telephone 71 264455 or visit www.millenniumforum.co.uk for online bookings.