Finding My Voice - Russell Watson

Russell Watson first came to my attention when I heard him sing at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He sang 'Where my Heart Will Take me' (one of mine and my hubbies all time favourite songs) and I suddenly realised what an amazing voice he had. When I knew he was writing his biography I could not wait to get a copy and read it.

Russell starts the book in October 2007 at the time of his collapsed and when he was ...
...tumour.

We are then taken back to his childhood where he tells about how he grew up in Sunningdale Drive in Irlam, Manchester. He lived there with his mother and father and his younger sister Hayley. He openly talks about how he had a happy childhood due to the fact that his father always worked his hardest and his Mother always had her radiogram playing, he believes this is where his love for classical music came from. He tells us ... more

Russell Watson first came to my attention when I heard him sing at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He sang 'Where my Heart Will Take me' (one of mine and my hubbies all time favourite songs) and I suddenly realised what an amazing voice he had. When I knew he was writing his biography I could not wait to get a copy and read it.

Russell starts the book in October 2007 at the time of his collapsed and when he was told he needed emergency surgery to remove his second brain tumour.

We are then taken back to his childhood where he tells about how he grew up in Sunningdale Drive in Irlam, Manchester. He lived there with his mother and father and his younger sister Hayley. He openly talks about how he had a happy childhood due to the fact that his father always worked his hardest and his Mother always had her radiogram playing, he believes this is where his love for classical music came from. He tells us about the group of friends he always played with out in the street and how he was the ring leader and was always organising his friends and arranging toy football games and tournaments for them to play.

As he grows up he had a quite normal school time and was always the joker of the class and when it came to leave he ended up taking a factory job, like his father, which he hated from day one. He would spend his days taking the mickey out of people and doing impressions of them just to pass the time. As the time went on he was still working in the factory when he met Helen who soon became his wife, they set up home together and were very happy. Russell was out one night with a group of his friends when they saw a talent completion advertised in the pup they were in, his friends encouraged him to enter and soon he was getting through the heats and eventually he won when his song was played on the local radio station and the listeners voted him the winner. This led to a big decision for Russell and one day he walked into work and told his boss that he was leaving and he was going to pursue a singing career.

Russell found it hard and was struggling to make ends meet and support his wife and now two daughters, the recession in the 90s did not help the situation and he soon found he had the bailiffs at his door, fortunately he did not loose his house and he became good friends with the guy who would come and collect £10 a week in payment of his debts. Russell's determination led him to meet 'the colonel and his wife Lynne. The Colonel would help Russell make tapes of his set to sell at his gigs and also he would send them off to people in the business.

Russell was asked to sing at Old Trafford and he received a massive welcome and was surprised at the popularity he received from his voice, from, this Russell managed to get a season working in Blackpool with Lilly Savage but he realised that he still had to work hard if he was going to make it. The Colonel had sent one of his tapes of to Cliff Richard and it would soon turn out to be the break he needed and he soon found he had a record contract.

This is when his hard work began and he would be on a roller coaster for the next few years, not only in the UK but in America also. The rollercoaster and the income he was getting enabled Russell to get himself out of debt and finally be in a situation where he could live comfortably. Unfortunately all the hard work paid its toll on his marriage and it ended.

As he continued his heavy workload he started to suffer from sever headaches and after months of suffering with them he went to see a Doctor as he was getting worried it was a brain tumour. The doctor assured him the headaches were down to stress and nothing more and told Russell that he needed to take thing easy. As Russell tried to get on with things the severity of the headaches became worse and he soon started to loose his vision. He was in America at the time and he went to hospital where he was told that he did in fact have a brain tumour and need to have it operated on immediately. Russell flew home and had the surgery back here. He spend months trying to recover from the major surgery and he found it very hard. Eventually he recovered and started working again but he always felt that something was not right.

He talks about the time when he was on the reality show, Just the Two of Us and about how he a Sian did not get on well and first and were always arguing but they soon overcome this and became very good friends and in the end they were the show winners. During the show his headaches had returned and this would see Russell suffer his second tumour. He had emergency surgery again but he thought that he was going to dye so he refused to have it removed until he had seen his daughters. After the surgery he immediately felt better and now he is back to his normal self and he feels completely different to how he was after the first surgery.

He ends the book after he has finished his radiotherapy and has been given steroids to take, he is hoping to be off them soon and back to working hard.

The book is a very honest account about his life and he does not hold anything back. The way he talks about the effects of the surgery and how he thought it was the end of him was at times quite moving. I enjoyed reading about his childhood and understanding where he came from.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable book to read and I like the way he goes from talking in the present about his treatment to reverting back to his childhood and the times he was trailing the pubs and clubs trying to make it, or at least make some money to pay off his bills. I hope you don't feel I have given too much of the book away in my review as there is so much more which he talks about, from boozy nights out where he ends up crashing Bill Clintons party in American to the 'nice little pub's' he sang in.

The photos which are in the book show Russell in a variety of stages of his life and they help add to the book as you can visualise some of the times he is talking about.
INFO

The book is a hard back edition and has been published by Ebury Press Limited. The retail price is £18.99 but I got my copy for £10 in Tesco.

There are a total of 342 pages to the book.

Recommended to all fans of the VOICE. 

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