When I was seventeen   I was chasing after dreams   In southport   I had to get away   Or end up in a nursing home alone   When I was seventeen   I had a special love   And southport   Didn't seem a bad place after all      On the promenade   The carnival facade is peeling   And the floral clock   Has stopped a moment caught in time   Such a sad decay   Well, it's something like the way I'm feeling   For such a dream so big   Southport seemed a little bit too small      And I was still naive   I really did believe in magic   Thought I had found a love   And treasured it above all else   But then I looked beyond   I saw another life was waiting   I was chasing after dreams   I had to find them by myself      I hope you understand   Such a love could never be   The sea has turned my soul   And it aches to be free   I will always think   Of southport at the fair   Summer on the beach   The fun that we had there      With southport in my mind   But las vegas in my heart   I set out to search for the stars   But every dream I dream   Follows where you've been   And it's tearing my heart apart      When I was seventeen   I left to find my dream   From southport   January came   I blame myself for out goodbyes   Nothing is so sad   As the sea side out of season   And nothing is so sad   As you and i      When I was seventeen   I was chasing after dreams   In southport   I had to get away   Or end up in a nursing home alone   And now it seems I'd never been   A boy of seventeen   In southport   It didn't last   A lifetime passed   A love outgrown      Was it all a dream   Or was it all for real   I'm standing on the pier   I'm trying not to feel   The tears are in my eyes   Your face is in the sand   I'm trying to look down   I'm reaching out my hand   I'm falling to the wind   I'm waiting for the sea   But the sea is never in   It's never in for me   In southport   (it's never in for me)   (repeat and fade)