Singer songwriter Charlie Landsborough has eventually achieved recognition after struggling for nearly three decades. He worked as a teacher, amongst other things as he continued to write and perform on a semi-pro basis but by 1984 began to feel that his ambitions might not materialise.
However, one song in particular was to transform his life. Charlie wrote What Colour is the Wind which tells the story of a young blind child's attempts to envision the world. As a result of Gerry Anderson playing the track on radio in Northern Ireland, the song came to the notice of chat show host Pat Kenny in Dublin, who invited Charlie to perform on his immensely popular Kenny Show Live (RTE January 1995). The programme received its biggest ever response following Charlie's appearance, and a week later Charlie's album, also called What Colour is the Wind was suddenly at number one in the Irish album charts, removing Garth Brooks from the top spot and fighting off fierce competition from both Celine Dion and The Chieftans. This was a dream come true for Charlie and since then he has gone from strength to strength and is now one of the all-time biggest selling artists in Irish music history.
Following the album's success in Ireland, Charlie appeared on several TV shows in the UK. In particular, his performance on GMTV and the now, much missed, BBC Pebble Mill Live prompted record numbers of enquiries to the shows.
Since then, Charlie has released a further seven albums and has now sold in excess of 600,000 units. This has given him a further two number ones in the Irish Pop Charts and most of his albums have topped the British country charts.
Charlie's most successful album to date Still Can't Say Goodbye was recorded in Nashville in 1999 with Producer Jim Rooney who has also worked on albums for Nanci Griffith and Iris de Ment. This record went to number 38 in the British pop charts and resulted in Charlie winning the BMCA Best Male Vocalist (2000) for the third year in succession, and the Southern Country Award for best album. The recording of this album was followed by Granada TV for their documentary The Road to Nashville (October 1999). Other highlights of Charlie's Nashville trip were three appearances on the Grand Ole Opry.
Since 1985 Charlie has toured the UK and Eire twice a year building up a large following for his live work. He has performed at most major concert halls and theatres including London Palladium, Labatts Apollo, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Belfast Opera House, Belfast Waterfront and Dublin's National Concert Hall.
The arrival of the new millennium heralded a busy year for Charlie. He made his first trip to Australia on a promotional tour. In addition to his UK and Irish tours, Charlie was invited to perform at the prestigious Albert Dock Festival in Liverpool where he was accompanied by his band and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He played to a sell-out crowd of over 4,000 and this must rank as on of the highlights of Charlie's career.
2001 saw a big move for Charlie as he changed both management and record label. The first release from Telstar Records was Once in a While and album of covers from some of Charlie's favourite writers.
In September 2001 Charlie and his band played their first concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. The tour exceeded everyone's expectations and was very well received and as a result plans are being made for a more extensive tour later in 2002.
Charlie's songwriting blends easy on the ear, folk, country and blues with a strong and often personal lyric content. This has led to his work being covered by several artists including Jack Jones, Pat Boone, Foster and Allen, George Hamilton IV and Daniel O'Donnell.
At present Charlie is commencing work on a new album to be released in the summer of 2002.