‘I didn’t understand what Gaz was singing. It’s about needing a hug’: how Reef made Place Your Hands

Jack Bessant, bass We were hanging out with the lovely producer George Drakoulias at Abbey Road. He said, “We’re going to bring in some instruments for you guys” – and replaced the fairly low-budget ones we’d been playing. I was given this beautiful 1960s Fender Jazz bass. Sometimes you pick up an instrument you’ve never touched before and immediately start playing stuff you wouldn’t normally play. It made me want to come up with something cool, James Jamerson-style, with that Motown feel. I found the riff that became the bassline to Place Your Hands, showed it to Gaz, and he came up with this chilled melody about going down by the water. When Kenwyn House, our guitarist, added that classic opening guitar riff, it changed from something mellow into something much more action-packed. It was just a lovely time to be alive. We were young and everyone in the band was talented, even though we didn’t really know what we were doing. We were rockers at heart, but we were very open-minded. We listened to everything from Motown and Bob Marley to Van Morrison’s Common One – Summertime in England can still make me cry. I eventually bought an old Telecaster bass – you can definitely hear the reggae influence in the bass during the bridge to Place Your Hands. I’ve always thought the emotion Gaz brought to it was incredible, but I didn’t fully understand what he was singing about until quite recently. He explained that “put your hands on” was a metaphor for wanting a hug, to help him through the grief of losing his grandfather. I hadn’t realised at the time because we were young rockers, swept up in the moment and full of testosterone, with no time to think about anything. The 90s wasn’t really a time when men were encouraged to be sensitive – there were all the lads’ mags, and we were playing that game to an extent. We certainly didn’t discuss our feelings in the way we would now. Looking back, I think the lyrics are beautiful. I don’t think we’ll ever get bored of pl…