John Howard - Last Stand (2007)

From the 2007 album Barefoot With Angels.

"As a child I used to love wandering around empty derelict factories and warehouses. The north-west of England was full of them in the 1950s, before they were turned into prestigious apartments, or pulled down to be replaced by luxury apartment blocks. They were a symbol of past 'glories' in that part of the world. My maternal grandmother had worked in a cotton mill in Heywood in the early 20th century. I'm not sure where this song came from as I sat at the piano one afternoon in 2006, the riff came first then the opening line "bleak black block of bricked up building...", after that the song wrote itself. But obviously from somewhere deep within my childhood memory was the image of this rather lonely little boy walking round the vast emptiness of derelict abandoned factories, full of imaginary hustle and bustle which must have peopled these forgotten giants of industry. The factory in my song is 'speaking' about her predicament and hopes one day her 'lovers', the men who would arrive each day at her doors, would return. When men do return however, it isn't to bring her back to her former beauteous state... a sad and rather strange song. My partner Neil said when I first played it to him, 'Only John Howard could write a convincing song from the point of view of an abandoned warehouse!'. He knows me so well!". - JH

This track and the album Barefoot With Angels can be downloaded from iTunes and all other good download sites. To buy the CD of the abum go to www.kidinabigworld.co.uk and visit John's Shop.

Category:

Music

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• John
• Howard
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• Songwirter
• Last
• Stand
• Barefoot
• With
• Angels