Orpheus

Song Notes

Debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2003, and played regularly since then. Originally had the working title of “Dirty Sanchez”. The track was used on the soundtrack of zombie flick Shaun of the Dead. The track itself is said to be inspired by a curious screen test Tim had to play the Ewan McGregor part in the film Moulin Rouge. However Tim and the band have given several different explanations of the track over the years:

Tim: So I was in there with (director) Baz Luhrmann, he is talking me through the whole thing and it was because he based the whole movie on the Greek myth of Orpheus. It’s a weird song. Its about hitting the road and taking off and not being able to look back, just keep going is the theme. It’s about a guy who joins him in fuckin’ hell.

Tim: This is about someone who’s been through hell and is trying not to look back, just keep going.

Tim: Well the song itself is taken directly from the Greek myth of the same name, but it also tells the story of a friend of mine whose mum had just died one summer, and he was just trying to get through it. It’s mainly about someone who’s been through hell and now trying to get out the other side, whilst trying not to look back. We had an original version of the song that wasn’t half as complicated as it turned out in the finish, but then we stuck in this whole intersection and a middle break and the record label were going “it’s not going to work” and we were like “IT WILL!”.

Tim: The song’s sort of based on this idea of like a Mexican road song sort of thing. I wrote it after watching this Mexican movie where these two kids go on this road trip with this girl, it’s a rights of passage kind of thing. So I always thought it had this Mexican flavour, in fact when we first wrote the song it was called “Dirty Sanchez” for a while!

Rick: “Orpheus” is a classic Tim Wheeler summer song with big riffs and mad freak out bits in it, that’s quite a journey of a song. A musical journey