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Wednesday 24 June 2009

Close Lobsters

Close Lobsters 7" anyone? That's handy, because that's exactly what I've got here and we're instantly back in familiar territory with a band that were featured on the legendary C86 tape and were released on the marvellous Fire Records; erstwhile home of Teenage Fanclub, Pulp, Spaceman 3 et al.

So, formed in Scotland by brothers Andy and Bob Burnett (vocals and bass respectively), Tom Donnelly (guitar), Stuart McFadyen (drums) and Graham Wilkington (possibly also bass; two basses! RÖCK!), the band were moderately successful and troubled the indie charts scorers regularly from 1986-1989; they supported such luminaries as the Jesus and Mary Chain (although from a quick look around the internet it seems that pretty much anybody from Scotland who ever picked up a guitar supported JAMC at some point) and latterly had a song covered by The Wedding Present in their 12 singles in a year phase.

Their official site is a Geocities monstrosity, so you'll be lucky to see it (one day I must get around to rescuing all those poor band pages that live on Geocities...) and there's a wiki and myspace page needless to say.

I'll apologise in advance for the terrible quality of this recording, the vinyl was just too battered for even the old tuppence-on-the-arm-trick to work:








("Close Lobsters - Nature Thing", right click, 'Save as...' to download)

7 comments:

  1. On the subject of Fire Records - well worth checking out Luke Haines (Auteurs) book 'Bad Vibes' for a vivid description of how awful they were as a label. And because it's a damn great read too.

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  2. You should go ahead and rescue the Geocities sites. I did it like this:
    http://petty.me.uk/wordpress/?p=549

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  3. hey congrats for the blog!

    i´d like to ask u a favor.
    do u know any of these songs?

    http://rapidshare.com/files/252652587/UNKNOWN_.rar (15 MB)

    maybe it´s not exactly your style, or doesnt fit in this blog, but maybe you or somebody else know at least one of these songs. i think they are from the 90's and are european. i know one is on tape by the pooh sticks, but which version?
    they are mainly indie pop punk rock or whatever... and also think some are really good. the sound quality is not good.

    i appreciate your (or somebody else´s) help, if posible. or maybe u know somebody who could help me, i.e another blog

    thank u in advance and sorry for bothering

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  4. Re: Angel's comment, the first one I'm 99% sure is the Pooh Sticks, if anyone else happens to know what the others are..?

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  5. great blog! please check out or maybe put it on your link:
    http://noiseboxmusiccollection.blogspot.com/

    we have the same interest in music. thanks and keep up the good work!

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  6. I *loved* the Close Lobsters. Specifically their second album Headache Rhetoric (the CD of which handily contains their almost as good debut Foxheads Stalk This Land). But their absolute best tune was definitely Let's Make Some Plans (which I believe was the tune the Wedding Present covered). They deserve a place in the indie hall of fame just on the basis of that track. *sigh*.

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  7. posted the Close Lobsters peel session at frankosonic.duckworthsquare.com if you're interested

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