What are some of your favourite tracks from the album?
It's difficult to stipulate where my favourites are because the record kind of runs a bit like a story. I think Claude-Michel wanted to - the essence of the record to him was getting a record I could relate to and get my teeth into, but more importantly songs that would mean something to me personally. So it kind of runs a bit like a love story, from start to finish. From the early ages to later on in a person's life, and it's sort of bookended by two amazing songs. One of them's a tribute to the people who've stood by me and looked after me through thick and thin and the other one finishes with a song that's kind of, again, sort of stipulating that without the people who support me and the fans who follow me that I'd be working at a factory in Salford, which is how I started life.
You'll be touring the stage show next Spring - what can fans expect from that?
Again, because Claude-Michel's so hands on he wanted to produce a brand new show for me which will be music from the record, and they're also gonna write four brand new songs for it as well. We're gonna add in a few little favourites from Schönberg and Boublil's catalogue from 'Les Mis' and 'Miss Saigon' as well, but again the show is gonna run like a story. So it won't be like an acted, theatre, stage production but it will run completely different to anything I've ever done, and it will run like a story, like a show with a start, a middle, a conclusion - they'll be a real essence and a sense of storytelling and a feel that hopefully the person in the audience has been on a journey.
Aside from this, you're also now the voice of 'Home Ground'. Can you give us some insight into that?
That's an amazing project. I was approached recently and of course when you get approached to work with that kind of project the answer is inevitable. These are the kind of projects that I'm really, really keen to get involved with.
I think since I got ill, I have a much stronger work ethic with regards to doing things for charitable events and charitable projects, because when you've been through the mill a little bit yourself - I'm a very lucky man because I had a huge amount of support, I had the best medical care and I had a lot of people around me that love me and care for me and looked after me and helped me during the very difficult period - but there are a lot of people who are a lot less fortunate than me.
I'm involved in about five or six different charities at the moment and we're putting a lot of time and effort in to all of them, but I get personally a huge amount of reward from putting smiles on people's faces who are less fortunate. The charity is called Coming Home, the song is called 'Home Ground' - it's kind of a piece which is a commemoration of the soldiers that were lost - that fell - in World War I, but the Coming Home project itself is an amazing project.
It's sort of where Help For Heroes leads off - when soldiers come back from war they go through this huge rehabilitation period, and the Help For Heroes thing, again, is an amazing charity but that's the point where they leave off - where the rehabilitation period when the soldier gets back from war - so they're decommissioned from the army after three or fours. Then they're going back into everyday life, and rehousing and finding appropriate places for them and positions in life is quite a task, and this charity is set up to help to rehouse some of the heroes that have come back from places like Afghanistan, who might have injuries. Simple things like, you're in a house and if the soldiers have for instance lost limbs or something like that - they're tailor making specific housing for these people so they can live as normal a life as possible. It's an amazing charity.
'Only One Man' is released November 11, and can be pre-ordered on both iTunes and Amazon.
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