Halfway
Any Old Love
The Halfway album Any Old Love is a series of songs based around a story set in Barcaldine Central Queensland in the late 70s. It tells a tale of hope and hopelessness in regional Queensland. The central character is an ex-jockey, whose bright future in thoroughbred racing was cut short after suffering an injury in a race fall. So with his wife and two small kids he leaves the city and moves to Barcaldine. Here he will try to start a new and seemingly ordinary life - working with his brothers on the Central Western Railway Line road gang. Much of the record is set in or around the The Shakespeare Hotel - which is the central meeting place for local workers and crews after knock off time. Here they unwind, tell stories of better times, listen to Tom T Hall on the juke box and try to forget. One of the great parts of the sessions was reuniting ex-Go Betweens members Robert Forster (Producer) and John Willsteed (Halfway member) for the recording and mixing of Any old Love. The last time they had worked together in a studio was on the Go Betweens "16 Lovers Lane" in 1988.