Lyrics

Merchant City, Driving Rain

Wild is the wind tonight, the storm has come to stalk our dreams
I brace myself against the gales and think of things that could have been
The taxi cabs are rushing by, they’ve cancelled all the southbound trains
I’m stumbling to I don’t know where, merchant city, driving rain

Cannonballing coffee cups careening down the old main street
I stand marooned and cower beneath facades of buildings incomplete
The hoolie haunts the corners of the dog eared dead end lanes
Umbrellas twisting inside out, merchant city, driving rain

The weather’s set in sure enough
The outlook’s dreich for many days
The clouds are anchored overhead
Mind how you go my old friend
Anyways

The awning’s torn from scaffolding, the road cones scattered all around
The scampering of vermin looking for some refuge underground
Screaming over squinty bridge, swirling round the mighty crane
You left me with no place to hide, merchant city, driving rain

Traffic light poles pummelled by the power of the front’s advance
Street lamps shaking in a twitchy agitated dance
There’s no way out there’s no escape, they’ve cancelled all the outbound planes
Cold cold hail rainy night, merchant city, driving rain

The weather’s set in sure enough
The outlook’s dreich for many days
The clouds are anchored overhead
Mind how you go my old friend
Anyways

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

On Euston Road

With a case and a rucksack and taking a chance
A guitar for a touch of romance
Headed for mysteries to unfold
Would anyone say ‘come in from the cold’?
Told them I invented the Factory sound
Told them I’d be happy just hanging around
Out of my depth where the River Fleet flowed
Through gridlock along Euston Road

Trying to look like some tortured soul
A troubadour, pure rock’n’roll
What was written up there in the stars?
Singleton pints in Fitzrovia bars
Or a Bloomsbury set who knew everything
Fallen far from the tree and cut apron strings
A new land a new post code
And congestion, along Euston Road

Dropped in The Smoke at some far fingerpost
Was there ever a time here before rush hour slowed?
But the traffic was one of the things I loved most
Bumper-to-bumper along Euston Road

I thought I was ‘it’ back then I suppose
A hick from the sticks with all the wrong clothes
Left my Northern Sky for the beautiful south
Doubled the rent, lived hand-to-mouth
Like a hyper kid on Halloween
So young so green
It was time to tune in to the next episode
Freebasing fumes along Euston Road

Dropped in The Smoke at some far fingerpost
Was there ever a time here before rush hour slowed?
But the traffic was one of the things I loved most
Bumper-to-bumper along Euston Road

Underneath the arches and the towers
Burning through hour after kilowatt hour
Like old turnagain starting to think
I may not make my fortune but I won’t sink
Taking a sip of the famous flat ale
True grit I was not going to fail
These shoulders would carry the load
Through standstill along Euston Road

Dropped in The Smoke at some far fingerpost
Was there ever a time here before rush hour slowed?
But the traffic was one of the things I loved most
Bumper-to-bumper-to-bumper along Euston Road

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

Steal the Sea

When I was just a scrawny kid the dockyard cranes and funnel stacks
Led me to think we’d hit the coast. Nobody explained to me
That we were forty miles inland, no ice cream cones, no golden sand
An age has passed since cotton kings set out to steal the sea

This dirty old town, born again, ain’t so dirty anymore
The skyline spiked with shiny towers, first for half a century
Where our LS collected rents of little more than measly pence
An age has passed since cotton kings set out to steal the sea

18 hundred and 82
We’ll harness all the worker bees
Our landlocked town will rule the world
Once we’ve stolen the high seas
18 hundred and 82

The clouds still drift across the moon, the gas works croft a long time gone
Now arc lights set the night on fire, chop down the old dead tree
Ewan are you watching now, times were a’changing anyhow
An age has passed since cotton kings set out to steal the sea

18 hundred and 82
We’ll harness all the worker bees
Our landlocked town will rule the world
Once we’ve stolen the high seas
18 hundred and 82

There’s no reason why the bright young things will sing the songs they used to sing
In Greenwood streets a stone’s throw, a new world on the quays
They’re searching for the heart and soul where once there was love on the dole
An age has passed since cotton kings set out to steal the sea

18 hundred and 82
We’ll harness all the worker bees
Our landlocked town will rule the world
Once we’ve stolen the high seas

18 hundred and 82
We’ll harness all the worker bees
Our landlocked town will rule the world
Once we’ve stolen the high seas
18 hundred and 82
In 18 hundred and 82

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

The Long Ridge

Time to go, when you know, it’s coming round again
Dark clouds descend, you can’t pretend, that counting up to ten
Is all it takes to navigate the pounding in your head
You need to lose the city blues, make tracks instead

This wilderness can best express Mother Nature’s trust
In the grander scheme, sometimes it seems you’re just a speck of dust
The wind, the rain, the joy, the pain, the sun that sears the skin
Out of town, the long way round, new trails begin

Over the bridge, out on the ridge, in a lone star state of mind
Under infinite skies, breakin’ the ties, leave ‘em all behind

Come go with me, break on free, a tobacco box guitar
Strums a chord of ‘My Sweet Lord’ underneath the stars
Let old dogs lie, detoxify, no high or holidays
A parting glass, the longer grass, just breakaway

Over the bridge, out on the ridge, in a lone star state of mind
Under infinite skies, breakin’ the ties, leave ‘em all behind

Over the bridge, out on the ridge, in a lone star state of mind
Under infinite skies, breakin’ the ties, leave ‘em all behind
Over the bridge, out on the ridge, in a lone star state of mind
Under infinite skies, breakin’ the ties, leave ‘em all behind

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

At the Bar San Calisto

It’s a corner, just a corner, full of chatter, full of life
Full of garbage and graffiti, promise and regret
Hearsay, heresy, whispers going round
Fuelled by the strongest coffee and endless cigarettes

It’s a corner, just a corner, full of shadows, full of ghosts
Full of something in the ether that makes you feel alright
The church bell marks the hours and calls the faithful home
Guide me Saint Maria, lead me to the light

I will never know your secrets and you’ll never know mine
But let’s sit a while together and lose all track of time
That’s where you’ll find me, all human life is there
At the Bar San Calisto in the corner of the square

It’s a corner, just a corner, full of laughter, full of soul
Full of beat-up music when the cats make a call
Feel the gypsy rhythm, the Django sound unchained
Twilight catching half torn posters hanging from the wall

It’s a corner, just a corner, full of history, full of dreams
Full of chairs made of plastic, the tables scuffed to hell
There are stories of a hundred years and stories of a thousand tears
And stories for tomorrow somebody’s yet to tell

I will never know your secrets and you’ll never know mine
But let’s sit a while together and lose all track of time
That’s where you’ll find me, all human life is there
At the Bar San Calisto in the corner of the square

There are places you will go to now and evermore
But sometimes it feels like you’ve passed this way before
And when I’m oh so far away and life’s just lacks a spark
I dream of San Calisto and red wine after dark

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

Down the steps

Up Cheapside into Back Pool Fold, a door sits on the corner there
Beneath the pavement a world unfolds, down a flight of wooden stairs
For centuries folk have gathered here, since back in 1868
The fires burning, times a’turning, little debtors on the slate

The rent collector sits alone there in his trusty gabardine
Thinks of what he saw that day, men of morsels, men of means
Sketched the scene inside his head, gently smiled and sipped his beer
And knew his brush would tell the tales down all the days, a hundred years

I’m not crippled by nostalgia
I’m alright Jack as I am
But I love to go back round again
Down the steps to see old Sam

How many feet have descended here? Come to lubricate the blues
To toast the joys and tiny triumphs marinated in the booze
Long afternoons have nodded off here, slumbered on the tabletop
A bit of ballast to soak it up, corned beef hash and Barnsley chop

I’m not crippled by nostalgia
I’m alright Jack as I am
But I love to go back round again
Down the steps to see old Sam

And so we sit and hear clocks ticking, all now well beyond our prime
A sanctuary from all that’s different, specially at Christmastime
Laurence, my, it’s great to see you, off the Cross Street thoroughfare
And though this town forever changes it’s good to know that you’re still there
I’m not crippled by nostalgia

I’m alright Jack as I am
But I love to go back round again
Down the steps to see old Sam

I’m not crippled by nostalgia
I’m alright Jack as I am
But I love to go back round again
Down the steps to good old Sam’s

©️Mark Radcliffe and David Boardman 2025

Never Had the Last Dance

We were kids stuck in a Northern town, barely knew our way around
Suburban streets and lovers’ lanes, market stalls and discount chains
Walking up over the fold, so many stories still untold
Through the rise and then the fall, every word, we knew it all

That journey never ended, that circle never closed
Why some things last forever, no-one really knows
An occasional dream, from times I can’t forget
We never had the last dance, that sun has never set

All the people in my mind, all the people left behind
Little wonder, after all, some of them were bound to fall
Sometimes when I’m looking back, I think about that other track
But when the moment just felt right we took a step towards the brighter lights

We knew we didn’t have it made, we were somewhat slightly dazed
We knew the paths weren’t safely laid and every summer has to fade

Moon Fishermen

Moon fishermen are out tonight, the dark has risen, day is done
They’re trawling for the left behinds who don’t belong to anyone
Moon fishermen are out tonight, to catch the fallen in their nets
To peel away from memory the ones it’s easy to forget

Kiss and tell and hide and seek
Close your eyes and count to ten
The lights go down, the stage is set
It’s showtime for moon fishermen

Moon fishermen are out tonight, waiting on the midnight train
They’re stealing in the shadowland to mount another night campaign
Moon fishermen are out tonight, in the narrow, sallow streets
The alleyways and rotten rows, that reek of something like defeat

Kiss and tell and hide and seek
Close your eyes and count to ten
The lights go down, the stage is set
It’s showtime for moon fishermen

Moon fishermen are out tonight, back on the hunt for hopelessness
Maybe this time your number’s up, goodnight and God Bless

Kiss and tell and hide and seek
Close your eyes and count to ten
The lights go down, the stage is set
It’s showtime for moon fishermen

Right Side of the Tracks

Somewhere over Blackpool sands, someone who now understands
We’re forever side by side, trying to out-run the tide
There’ve been the best and worst of times, it’s so long since we read the lines
‘Up into the cherry tree, who should climb but little me’?

Through it all, the ups and downs, the mis-steps and the long ways round
Through it all, through thick and thin, the holding back, the diving in
Through it all I had your backs no matter how the odds were stacked
We kept things on the right side of the tracks

Somewhere on the downtown streets, on the Northern Quarter beat
Someone off to meet the friends, that they’ve had from way back when
Now grown up and worldly-wise, so long since the first year prize
Through the second city rain, there’ll always be the homebound train

Somewhere in the fairytale, out there on the Thailand trail
Someone headed anywhere, there is so much time to spare
The little grey rabbit books, so long since we had a look
It’s not the end of the affair, when you come home they’ll still be there

The Not So Grand Hotel

Woody be my witness, this land is not my land
All stowed away here, human contraband
Batten down the hatches, is this the last farewell?
Room service is suspended at The Not So Grand Hotel

A sailor went to sea he did, a sailor went to sea
The angry sky, The Life of Pi, across the harbour bar
Send me down the Sendak side, launch me on the highest tide
Over the horizon to where the wild things are

A sailor came ashore he did, a sailor came ashore
Terrified, the other side should come as sweet relief
But no new dawn, a perfect storm is ready to take hold
No kindred spirits here amongst the beggarman and the thief

Woody be my witness, this land is not my land
All stowed away here, human contraband
Batten down the hatches, is this the last farewell?
Room service is suspended at The Not So Grand Hotel

A wave of them they came they did, a wave of them they came
An underclass, the broken glass, the spitting of the bile
We thanked the Lord for bed and board, the pen less mighty than the sword
I’m cured of my affliction, no more the Anglophile

A wrecker came to wreck he did, a wrecker came to wreck
A landlocked hell, no citadel and now the dam is breached
Is this you? Is this who, you are now so proud to be?
I must go down to the sea again, back to ocean’s reach

Woody be my witness, this land is not my land
All stowed away here, human contraband
Batten down the hatches, is this the last farewell?
Room service is suspended at The Not So Grand Hotel