On the 21st of December 1995 my wife Jaqueline gave birth to beautiful twins Joshua and Ruth. These two tiny bundles of love were destined to bring so much happiness and laughter into our already bustling family life revolving around our three super boys.

One glorious spring afternoon I was spending a rare quiet moment relaxing with Ruth spread-eagled across my lap, content, savouring every second of this precious droplet of time in the bucket of life. It was during this moment, images began appearing on the television of smoky battlefields, men standing up to their waste in water filled trenches. The whole scene flashed with blazing light as shells exploded around the men. A very old man was talking about his memories of those dreadful times, the friends he lost, the indescribable injuries, the rats and of course the mud. The filthy stinking mud, over which the whole absurd war was being fought. Suddenly as I became engrossed in the program, I began to imagine myself in the same situation. Just as those men must have daydreamed of home, I was daydreaming their hell. Scared, hurting, freezing cold and most of all missing my family.

My daydream was broken by Ruth stirring to suck her tiny thumb. This was the point at which the grim reality came to me, those men were the same as me. They were fathers, brothers, and sons. They longed for the touch of their wives and girlfriends, they dreamed of a hug with their mother and they wept at the thought of not seeing their little Ruth grow up. It all flashed through my mind, I was filled with emotion for them and their families - The song Trenches was written that evening. From that point on I knew I had to set to music the story of just one of those men, one imaginary man just like all those millions that must never be forgotten.

Russell Catchpole February 1998 Back