According to vocalist Steve Grimmett in a 1984 interview, "Dead on Arrival" is about his friendship with Brian Field who was involved with the Great Train Robbery (1963). He said when he was living in Surrey his family owned a newsagent where they met someone who totally changed their lives. After the family moved to Tewkesbury they found out their friend had a criminal past and when he visited one weekend he told them all about his involvement with the robbery. The song is about when Grimmett learned of Field's death in a car accident two years later from a newspaper.