Hero

Albums / Lyrics

Liam Campbell: Vocals, acoustic guitar, Keyboards.

Michael Gallagher: All drums and percussion.

Wilson Graham: Electric and fretless basses.

Gerry McGerigal: Electric and acoustic guitars.

Chris Norby: Keyboards, synths and piano.Album recorded between 2016 and 2021 at The Soup Kitchen Derry City.

Mixing by Liam Campbell and Chris Norby.

All songs by Dead Heroes Club.

All lyrics by Liam Campbell.

Mastering by Henry Smithson – henry@cdmasteringbyhenry.com

Cover design and booklet layout by Kate Adamson and Carl Campbell Jr. – hello@grinninggraphics.co.uk

Photography by Carl Campbell Sr.

This album has been a long time in the making and the band would like to dedicate it to our much loved and much missed friend and musical ‘Hero’ Dr. Liam Campbell who we lost in December 2021.

Liam left us before the album could be completed, but we think he would give a learned nod of approval at the results of the sterling efforts put in by everyone involved in getting it to the finish line.

We would also like to dedicate the album to Liam’s beloved granddaughter Casey Campbell, who Liam and Lizzy cared for unfailingly throughout her cruelly short life.

Dead Heroes Club give their heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped in any way, shape or form, in the completion of this album. At times it seemed like it was an impossible task to rescue some of the bare unmixed tracks we had to work with. The sterling work of our bandmate Chris Norby deserves special mention in this regard.

Special thanks go to Lizzy Campbell, Carl Campbell Sr., Kate Adamson, Carl Campbell Jr., Henry Smithson. You are all ‘Heroes’.

The band sends our love and thanks to all our families, and significant others, without whose patience, encouragement and support, we may not have had the determination to see this project through to the end.

To all Dead Heroes Club fans. We hope the album meets with your approval and has been worth the wait. It is the end of, what has been for us, a wonderful twenty years.

NOTHING GOOD EVER LASTS

Love will find the memory untold

All you dreamed and hoped for bought and sold

The motherlode’s run dry

You’re not the apple now of her eye

But you still hold on tonight

�

The passing days now roll right into one

Waiting for the next big ship to come

You have lost yourself

Somewhere close to the light

And you have lost tonight

�

It’s just a memory

There’s nothing left for me

Just hold on to forgiveness

It’s all you’ve got right now

�

And as the days run out

You dream of another doubt

You feel it come right through now

To take your dreams away

�

You look for an answer

It’s not going to come

Don’t look for an answer

But the path’s long gone

And that’s some other song

�

Days will run, one into one

Waiting for a new storm lord to come

You see no way out now

You see no love that you found

You just believe somehow

�

It’s just a memory

Cut down and you left me

You hold on for a reason

No way out is going to come

�

It’s just a chance you take

It’s just another mistake

Don’t believe there’s a way out

Because only truth runs through

�

Don’t look for an answer

It’s not going to come.

Don’t look for a way out:

It’s just a closing door,

It’s what you’ve been waiting for.

�

Wait for a moment

The moment’s gone.

You try to lift spirits

Singing old songs.

But too much time has passed

Nothing good ever lasts.

Story of what happens next

Once upon a heartbeat,

We were born into our days.

We had to find our own way

Through the back streets of the maze.

And in our days of waking

Our innocence stripped away.

We had to find new meaning

From the turning of each page.

We are a Bildungsroman, Picaresque, Gothic tale,

Caught between the Demons and the Angels.

�

This is the story of what happens next

We could be damned, broken or blessed.

This is the story of the less deceived

The Heavens in the sky and the ground beneath our feet…

�

Lying on the street tonight there’s a hero with a thousand faces.

�

Once upon a daydream we told ourselves a lie

About the worth of material things: The kind we indemnify

But in our time of dying we come to realise,

That all we ever needed here was right before our eyes…

We are a Bildungsroman, Picaresque Mythic tale,

Caught between the Dreaming and the Waking…

�

This is the story of what happens next,

No time for deduction, cause or effect.

This is the story of the less deceived

The Heavens in the sky and the ground beneath our feet…

�

Lying on the street tonight there’s a hero with a thousand faces.

�

Follow your heart and dreams will open.

Follow your dream and doors will open.

Follow the lovelight that’s shinning.

Look for the star it’s there to guide you.

�

Saving lives in the ward tonight see the hero with a thousand faces

�

This is the story of the Saviour and the Thief

The hands of the Beggar and the protest on the streets.

These waking days are yours and mine,

All we must decide is what to do with our time.

�

Grace from the Saviour, mercy for the Thief

Don’t judge the Beggar there’s a Hero underneath

Grace from the Saviour, mercy for the Thief

Don’t’ judge the Hero there’s a Beggar underneath.

Sacrificial Lives

Watcher by the water with little time to spare

Saw a photograph and left it there

In and out of mercy, his dreams are falling through

�

Now the days grow shorter and the nights are long

He sold his soul for something but got it wrong

All the dreams he used have fade and fall away

�

Look into the everyday, and everywhere you’ll find

People with their hearts and they’re living sacrificial lives

�

Sacrificial lives, everywhere you’ll find.

�

Up upon the mountain top there are those that see

All the land below and all that they believe

The truth of everything they know, feels like nothing ever shows

�

Look behind the everyday, and everywhere you’ll find

People with their hearts so strong, and they’re living sacrificial lives

�

Sacrificial lives, everywhere you’ll find.

�

Time will show what you know to be wrong inside

Days, they fade, and don’t come back again – such a long goodbye

I have run all my life from the things I’m holding inside

These are the ways that we die from day to day

Give yourself one more chance to find a dream to live by

Stars in the sky – see, they die just like you and I

�

Days they pass so slowly now, felt those changes ringing like a bell

Just when you fell into a dream.

�

Watcher by the water, little time to spare

Tried to build a dream they’d made

But he could find nowhere to live inside of it

Now he runs from it instead

�

Look behind the everyday and everywhere you’ll find

People with their hearts so strong, and they’re living sacrificial lives

�

Sacrificial lives, everywhere you’ll find.

FIND YOU

Along the road of trials, you may never find release

You may live a life of integrity but find justice out of reach.

When the evening falls and these days are almost done

When the shadows call – salvation then must come.

�

You may wander in the chaos of an unforgiving world

Among the ruins of the wasteland where the seven fates still stir

Don’t crucify your soul on the hill of your own mistakes

Regrets are just illuminations that come too late

�

Oh, don’t go looking for the answers

Not here, in the absence of sense

On the last journey home you’ll understand all you’ve been shown

On the last journey.

�

It’s time to go on your yellow brick road

It’s later than you think.

You can amble too long amid the fates and the fogs

And miss the way out if you blink.

�

When the evening falls and these days are almost done

When the shadows call – liberation then must come.

�

Oh, don’t go looking for the answers

Not here, in the absence of sense.

On the last journey home you’ll understand all you’ve been shown

On the last journey.

WITHIN AND WITHOUT

I’ve been trying to see what is waiting for me

I’ve been taken by fear and I’ve swam in the ocean of tears

Where the deep waters wait and the ships of salvation all set sail too late.

�

I’ve been looking within to find a way out

I’ve paraded my sins and lived in the valley of what might have been

If only I’d recognized the warnings and signs that were screaming to me.

�

With hands and hearts attuned to a need

With aspiration of all that could be

With the love of a moment in time

And a fear of the fading of all the gifts that once were mine.

�

I’ve been trying to believe in the myth and the creed

Through the thick and the thin I’ve walked in the valley of what might have been

If only I’d recognized the warnings and signs that were screaming to me.

�

With hands and hearts attuned to a need

With aspiration of all that could be

With the love of a moment in time

And a fear of the fading of all the gifts that once were mine.

metamorphosis

Just keeping wheels on the big machine

Know your place, keep your head down, ignore what you might’ve seen

Don’t you look outside at the changing tide.

�

Through a glass darkly I’ve come to view the world

It’s a dangerous place man, haven’t you heard why don’t you look outside

Lift your eyes off the production line

�

With shaking hands they demand we suspend our reasoning

With a call to arms they’ll put you in harms way where the golden rule is meaningless.

�

Shed your skin for this metamorphosis

Transfiguration coming through to wake you.

�

They say the danger’s too abstract, not coming for you.

But you must see sooner or later you’ll be on the hitlist too.

Don’t you understand sanctuary is not found in no mans land?

�

I’ve watched their duplicity between the said and the done

Corporations and government agents pissing over human rights

They operate inside the apathy that our silence provides.

�

With shaking hands they demand we suspend our reasoning

With a call to arms they’ll put us in harms way where the golden rule is meaningless.

�

Shed your skin for this metamorphosis

Transfiguration coming through to save you.

�

The time is now, there’s never been a better time

To rise and shine from the slumber of your minds eye.

So hitch a ride transfiguration is coming through.

�

The uneasy dream it binds and blinds good common sense

It’s not too late – walk through door that changing days present

Let go of your self defense

�

Shed your skin for this metamorphosis

Transfiguration coming through to wake you.

�

Shed your skin for this metamorphosis

Find your strength in this metamorphosis

They call it the judas kiss and try to take you down for this

Metamorphosis

�

One voice calls and another will follow

Turner of the wheel upon a ring of changes

Shatter and shakedown the wall of lies

Here comes a stranger with a promise full of danger

�

Everyday people drop into the line

Conditioned and imprisoned transfixed upon a dollar sign

They don’t know that the future’s been sold

The days of innocence they’re all long gone now.

�

Shed your skin for this metamorphosis

Find your strength in this metamorphosis

They call it the judas kiss and try to take you down for this

Metamorphosis

�

The systems will move to take you down, but they can’t stop the change that’s coming around.

hollywood

Time is ticking now, lifetime counting down

It’s time to rise with fate what’s lost can still be found

We cannot cure the world of sorrows but we can choose who we become.

�

We move to the beat of a sacred task we hold

To tell a better story than the one we were told.

We may meet a hundred thousand failures and still not taste defeat

Love is the eternal answer

What was lost can still be found like a river in the rain

It all comes back again through the mirror to the face

I’m coming back to me again.

�

The sun awaits to rise on even the longest night

The Darkling Thrush still sings when morning takes to flight

The song is born of some blessed hope of which I am unaware.

�

It’s the territory of divinity to build heaven out of hell

When we hurt another soul we only hurt ourselves

We’ve got to tell a better story than the one our history tells.

In this lies the gift of kindness

What we give in turn we will receive like a river in the rain

It all comes back again through the mirror to the face

I’m coming back to me again.

�

Missteps and rainy days make ripples on the surface of our lives

They move us through the deeper waters on the ever journey through the valley of the sorrow and the light

�

This is our place

This is our time

These are the days

That make up a life

�

The rain brings unexpected springs

That can refresh us in our heart of darkness

Unimaged panoramas

Guiding lights in skies once starless.

�

This is our place

This is our time

These are the days

That make up a life

This is the day

Tomorrow’s too late

This is the beginning of the future we can make.

�

We move to the beat of a sacred task we hold

To build a better future than the present we have known

We are storyteller we are travelers on the road

We have to tell a better story than the story we were told

Than the story we were sold.

�

Our time is but a passing season

The days seem to fly now

I try to believe in love returning

Though I’ve lost it all, like a river in the rain

I’m coming back to me again, through the mirror to the face

I’m coming back to me again.

WAKE UP AND LOOK AROUND

It was morning and the sun was shining

On a new day your heart declining

And your believing won’t make it fade.

�

And the truth is out there waiting

For tomorrow there’s no escaping

What you believe and all that you see.

�

I have seen the pain across the love you made

I have seen the tide – moves right through me.

�

It was evening and the day was fading

From the answers you were investigating

And I can see it now, where it all went wrong.

�

You were smiling as the danger fell into tomorrow

There’s nothing winning in your eyes only a dangerous disguise

�

I have seen the pain across the time you gave

I have seen the light.

�

So look round and wake up cos time will not last

So show me what you’re meant to be and never fear the past

Open up your heart and you’ll find the star and you’ll make the changes I know

And you save the light and you’ll find the night and walk right out into it.

�

It’s the way I know, it’s the way I show, It’s the way I want to be with you

Just to be with you.

�

It was a new day in the spinning timeline

It was a new chance to live out your time

Forgetting all the answers and all you gave away

�

It was reason defeated your heart

Indecision right from the start

There’s no changes now, what you need is what you’ve got.

�

But I have seen the pain across the time you gave

I have seen tomorrow’s light.

�

So give me a chance to see, tomorrow is inside of all of us.

So wake up to a new change and rearrange what you’ve got to give

I don’t know what you know

I don’t show what’s inside

And I don’t wait with what you’ve got but I can’t shake it up from the top

I don’t know what we’ve got to do, but we’ve got to do something.

�

The memories they come and the memories they go

The good times we’ll have and the good times they show

And the memories will fall out of time and leave you alone

You’re not blinded by it

I know these days – someday they’ll show us.

�

Walk right through, me and you

Don’t turn around, only the past is behind you.

It’s the way I know, it’s the way I show

It’s the way I’ll always be beside you.

light in the dark

Out of the blue we woke to the truth in the eyes of freefalling souls

Tired and forsaken with sick bodies aching we were faced with what we’ve always known:

Out of resistance the storm has persistence, no shelter and no way home.

�

Another morning will arise to take us through this broken hour

Another light will split the sky

Through the pavement – changes

Flows grow now I always knew we’d find a way

A way now, from the chaos shaking

�

There is still time in the desolate night a dim light breaks in the distance

There is a will that lives in us still, nothing is lost and don’t let time escape us now.

�

Don’t let time escape

Out of the blue he came, and he said he believed in me.

Out of the rain he came, and said he believed in me.

�

Another dream it will arise to take us through this broken hour

And we’ll watch lightening split the sky

Through the tempest – changes

Flowers grow now, I always knew we’d find a way

A way now the light of dawn is breaking

�

A new light is dawning.

VALLEY OF THE KINGS

It came out of nowhere this hideous lie

That some lives are somehow more worthy

The crown heads of Europe, those noble blood lines

One long saga of bloodshed and they’re up to their necks in the slime

�

There’s no room in the Valley of the Kings

For the children of chaos – a common place theme

There’s no truth in the story of the hierarchy’s game

We’re all born equal, we’re all born the same

All hearts beat the same.

�

There’s no room in the Valley of the Kings

For the children of chaos – a common place theme

There’s nothing in the kitchen of the great and the good

For those on their knees with no comfort or food.

�

Look for me here

This if we hear

There’s nothing to fear right now.

�

Pray for me now

I’ll be needing somehow

To believe in you now.

�

Came out of nowhere

Those innocent lies

That some lives are somehow more worthy

The crown heads of Europe, these evil blood lines

One long story of bloodshed and they’re up to their necks in the slime

�

There’s no room in the Valley of the Kings

For the children of chaos- a common place theme

They’re tangled in the lies that you show me now

You’ve got to believe we’ll get through it somehow

�

Pray for me now

When the storm’s closing in

Pray for me

�

Wait for me now

When the world’s still spinning around

Please wait for me

�

A meeting of the high command – all the president’s men

They’ve invented another war so that you can aggrandize them

�

Here’s the news

This is nothing new

You take the strain, feel the pain to get you through

�

So the story goes…

In your heart a memory awakes from the distant dust of your own mistakes

And in this hour you’re begging for time, you slip and falter by your own design

Something’s rising now, a voice from the past and eye of the storm

�

I have walked alone

Along this path I don’t know

And I have felt the rain all upon me now

The strain, I don’t let it bring me down.

�

Another day it rises up, from the ashes of all you gave up

Now the world is a darkened room, but I hold on to light as a passing soul

A shimmering sky covers the land and an evening tide climbs over the sand

The day will break, a new day will rise and you will gaze with wonder filled eyes.

�

I have walked along this path I don’t know

I have felt the rain fall upon me now

The strain threatened to take me down.

�

A new day arises against the things you knew

The sweetest memory could be enough to get you through

Only love will see you through the storm now

Only love will be enough

�

I have felt the rain upon my window pane

I have felt the doubt and there’s no way out

We can always count upon our new tomorrows

No need to fear the black car at the door

Only love can see you through the storm now

Only love will be enough

�

In the hazy mist of older days you open the gate you are greeted with grace along tree line streets

In a picture box lane

�

You could be loved, you could’ve realized all the things you wanted all your life

You were looking away, always looking away

�

I have felt the rain upon my window pane

I have seen the storm closing in now.

The storm is closing in.