The Last Great Showman

Lyrics

1
On a bright afternoon on the outskirts of Leeds,
We laid him to rest and we sang of his deeds.
The old Ford Zephyr was covered in flowers,
And the drinking didn't stop until well after hours.
In the street corner pub that now stands on its own,
His friends and his family poured in;
He’d left two hundred quid to pay for the drinks,
And Beryl put two hundred more in.
And we drank to his memory till the beer filled the tray,
For the last great showman was buried today.

2
There’s a satellite dish on the old caravan,
And if the books don’t balance, well the coconuts can.
Have faith in the future and pride in the past,
And put all your money in things built to last.
And the word from the family was "On with the show",
He went the way he'd have wanted to go.
He worked 'til the end, then he just slipped away,
For the last great showman was buried today.

3
And in the fifties he'd box on the middleweight bill
And there wasn't a town hall that he couldn't fill,
He knew every café on the old Great North Road,
He was a cash and shake hands man - he lived by that code.
And when Rose was took early he shouldered the load
And gathered his family around him.
And you didn’t know him for long, Bernadette,
But I knew that he liked you the instant you met.
He said things about you I’ll never forget,
And when you left his bedside his eyes were all wet.
Now death cannot diminish us, try as it may,
For the last great showman was buried today.

4
I tell you, God help you if you ever turned up late,
He was a tough old bastard, but he treated you straight.
He once decked me in Ripon when I gave him some lip,
But he bought me a pint at the end of the trip.
He could take down a waltzer in ten minutes flat,
Always kept fivers in the band of his hat,
For the last great showman,
The last great showman was buried today.

5
And you didn’t know him for long, Bernadette,
But I knew that he liked you the instant you met.
He said things about you I’ll never forget,
And when you left his bedside his eyes were all wet.
Death cannot diminish us, try as it may,
For the last great showman,
The last great showman was buried today.

6
Put the wagons in a circle in St Christopher’s Park,
Let the sound of Del Shannon roar out through the dark.
The onions are frying and the generators hum,
And we’ll be here till Sunday if the punters still come.
Though Ataris and videos tempt them indoors,
When the lights in the night sky all the world can be yours.
He knew that life was the best game to play,
For the last great showman, the last great showman,
The last great showman was buried today.

This is a contemporary song about Yorkshire.

Provenance

I wrote The Last Great Showman in 1991 after seeing a travelling fairground preparing to leave Woodhouse Moor in Leeds.

The reference to a "street corner pub that now stands on its own" is The Grove in Leeds, a legendary oasis where I've witnessed many a farewell.

The reference to Ripon is because it's always been a fairground, fighting and garrison town - it also fits the metre of the song! A version of the song was entered for the 1992 BBC Radio Yorkshire and Humberside Song Contest, and came third. It has been re-recorded in 2009 for this Project.

Thanks to Dave Vermond and also Ray Black for the song’s inclusion.
© Wonderproof Music

Recorded at Faun Studios, Orchard St, Otley. Produced by Andy Aitchison