[1] It germinated from a piano riff found during the 1981 sessions for English Settlement[2] and later composed on the band's Mellotron using only three fingers,[1] becoming the first song Partridge wrote on a keyboard.

[4] Partridge met Wexler at the US premiere of the 1980 film Times Square and remembered: "I didn't want to think of it as love at first sight, because I'd only been married for something like six months, so it was a bit painful, you know?

"[5] Wexler mailed Partridge fan letters, which caused tensions between him and his then-wife, whereas fellow band member Dave Gregory nicknamed her "Whacky Wex".

and just, true to type -- and the fact that I was married, and didn't want to fuck up my marriage -- I leaned right out, scared shitless, and sort of immediately said, [fast] "Oh, well, I've still got a lot of work to do on that, and let's go into the control room, shall we?

[2] Producer David Lord and guitarist Dave Gregory voiced concerns about the discordant harmony in "Seagulls", but Partridge refused to change it.

They were stood in a big desolate landscape near the sea, and a sort of proscenium across the top was constantly scrolling, changing the different images that were either telling the story with you, or contradicting what was going on.

[4] In a retrospective review of The Big Express, Dave Jennings of Louder Than War highlighted "Seagulls" as "reason enough to label this album as 'classic'.