“Place Your Hands” was about grief and a need for comfort, Reef members reveal

Reef’s Jack Bessant and Gary Stringer have shared the story behind their best-known song “Place Your Hands”.

Bessant recalled that producer George Drakoulias brought better instruments into Abbey Road, giving him a 1960s Fender Jazz bass. The instrument inspired him to create a Motown-style bassline. Stringer first sang a gentle melody about going down by the water, but guitarist Kenwyn House, after lowering his low E string to D, added a riff that gave the track a more explosive feel.

The band had already enjoyed success with a Top 10 debut album, three Top 40 singles and a Glastonbury performance. They recorded several songs at Abbey Road before travelling to Los Angeles to finish the album with Drakoulias, who had worked with Rick Rubin at Def Jam and helped discover the Beastie Boys.

Stringer explained that the lyrics were about the death of his grandfather Kenneth. He got the news while on a tour bus and later went to a morgue. “Put your hands on” was his way of asking for a hug to help with the grief. Bessant admitted he did not understand this meaning at the time, adding that the 90s was not a period when men were encouraged to be sensitive.

The song has remained a unifying force through the band’s lineup changes. Stringer also remembered how Chris Evans championed the single on Radio 1, and how the band’s “It’s Your Letters” segment on TFI Friday became a recurring joke because the phrase matched the syllables of “Put your hands on”. The video cost about £250,000 and involved wires threaded through the musicians’ trousers.

Reef are set to perform at Lakefest in Eastnor, Herefordshire, on 8 August.