STANLOW

"Stanlow" by OMD.
As a kid I could see the distant Stanlow oil refinery situated on broad flat banks of the River Mersey, from the top class of the school building. When my parents drove past it to go to nearby Chester, I would gaze out of the window at this huge installation of machinery with its complex network of pipes emanating steam at certain points. At night it was illuminated by a multitude of lights which could be seen miles away across the estuary and appeared to me as being some kind of futuristic space station when viewed against a golden sunset of an Autumnal sky.

This song brings back thoughts and feelings of that time for me.

Eternally
This field remains
Stanlow
No heart or head or mind
No season could erase
We set you down
To care for us
Stanlow
A vision fading fast
A million hearts to one
But so restrained
She turns away
Stanlow

I've seen her face in every day
The same routine along the way
Tonight in the rain
Alone

And then again it been so long
Since one single promise kept
All to say to
Reason
We wanted a heart
To say what we want to

A morning comes just as it left
A warmer feeling seldom owned
And tonight
All I see
Alone
And as she turned we always knew
That her heart was never there.