“The album was a song or two short in my opinion even though my daughters told me that albums are not so long these days. (Really?!) Still, having done the song with Michael I had an idea. I had this song which I didn’t think I would ever get to record. It was called ‘A Middleton Waltz’. First of all, as you will hear, it’s not really in my key but we all agreed that it would just not sound the same if we transposed it so I decided to stick with it and give it my all. I knew that Michael would do a good job with it – not that Jörg wouldn’t of course, but he was still not fit. The song fits nicely into the retro theme that completes the album.
The song is a homage to my hometown Middleton, placed to the North West of Manchester. I was reading this book about old Middleton and, like most Manchester towns, it was interesting to read how it had been built on pure solid graft and hard work. Life was never easy there but at least there was work in the cotton mills, with the silk industry and so on. It’s like if you were born there you were born to get on with it. So with it I drew parallels as I ironically saw myself deep down feeling the need to leave the town in order to ‘get on with it’ as it were. I so love the town, so unpretentious and, sometimes brutally down to earth (it has to be said), but it’s where I was born and I feel privileged to have been raised in such a strong place. I have family there so I am happy to still visit Middleton from time and time.
After this track was recorded Jörg was well enough again to return to the studio to put down a couple of acoustic guitar tracks that we were still missing. It was a fitting end to the recording of the album, the three of us having worked together for almost 15 years coming together one final time. I will soon move to County Tipperary in Ireland (or will already have done by the time you read this) so I don’t know if we will ever get to do a third album together or even record together again so it is a fitting occasion to say a huge thanks to Jörg and Siggi. Together we have brought so many of my songs to life. Thank you so much.”
Here is a segment