Listen here:  Peel

‘Peel’ (previously ‘A Childs Tale’)
 

I had real problems with this arrangement as the acoustic version was so claustrophobic and melancholy, featuring just the solo vocal and guitar. That was until Kev worked on it and supplied the keyboard hooks that run through the song, as well as the pounding tom tom rhythm, which signifies both the child’s heartbeat and the father banging on the door. I added further instrumentation to Kevan’s arrangement and put more variety into the drum track.

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Me and Kev grew up listening to The John Peel Show in the late 70’s. It was a time of discovery, in terms of hearing music and also feeling there were others who loved the same music as intensely as we did – it really was an escape from dreary family life. I imagine in previous times, children would secretly read under their bedsheets with a torch as an escape – we would listen to Peel under the bedclothes with an ear against the small speaker of our transistor radio so our parents could not hear that we were still awake. John Peel’s show was an inspiration to our generation and this song is dedicated to him for saving us.

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SOS in Morse code on the guitar part is referencing Mick Jones at the end of ‘London Calling’ and Bowie’s original demo of ‘Space Oddity’ with Hutch.

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The Delfonics' 'Ready or Not' has a similar intro to the opening riff in Peel - although it was not intentionally stolen.

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The melody/riff for the guitar solo and bridges inspired by Elliot Smith’s ‘A Passing Feeling’. The accordion part also plays a snippet of Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” written by Danny Whitten.