protesting the use of nuclear weapons as a reaction to recent speeches by Ronald Reagan, which instigated Partridge's fears of another Cold War. Accordingly, "My first child was on the way and [I] just thought that, if I survived, how terrible it would be to have to tell her what life used to be like, that there was once a place called London and it was a fantastic place but it's not there anymore." One of the guitar parts is a slew of sustained feedback notes played through a Marshall amplifier. The "high stratospheric squeaking noises in the last verse", Partridge said, are viola harmonics played by session musician Stuart Gordon, who "saws the bow over at a harmonic point, very whistly, and that was put into a [Roland] Chorus Echo. Glorious, reminiscent of birds and ... grand things." All of the drums were samples. The guitar chords in this song are the same as those in "Complicated Game", from their earlier Drums and Wires record. Side two "The Everyday Story of Smalltown" "The Everyday Story of Smalltown" introduces side two with the sounds of kazoo and drums. Partridge described the Swindon-inspired song as "all autobiographical", including the mention of a milkman who "lift[ed] his foot off [the] accelerator. It woke me up one morning and I thought, That's got to go into a bloody song." Its sampled brass band marked the band's first use of an E-mu Emulator. One of the guitar lines was taken from the Beatles' "Fixing a Hole" (1967). Gregory was enthused with the song and hoped it would have been released as a single, later opining that it was "twatted by a lousy mix". He said: "The big finale of the song features one of Andy's soon-to-be-favourite production techniques-- the over-layering of earlier vocal and instrumental themes as a counterpoint to the main chorus. It clatters off in jubilant canonic style, neatly cross-fading into the languid guitar introduction to 'I Bought Myself A Liarbird' -- a nice moment." "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" "I Bought Myself a Liarbird" is about Ian Reid, the band's former manager. The title is a pun on "lyrebird". In the 1998 XTC biography Song Stories, the song's entry simply states: "Due to a legal arrangement with their former management, XTC is unable to discuss the lyrical content of this song!" "Reign of Blows" "Reign of Blows", according to Partridge, "is