Peel would occasionally mention that as a child, Francis once fell out of a moving car whilst it was travelling through Wrexham. Fortunately he emerged unscathed from the experience. Francis gave Peel his first EP when he was ten years old, which had on one side two tracks by Bing Crosby and on the other side, two tracks by Russ Columbo. The Bing Crosby track, 'Just A Gigolo' from the EP was later added by Peel to his Peelenium 1931 in 1999.