Close Lobsters

As one of Fire’s earliest signings, Close Lobsters stormed up the indie charts with their unique melodic jangle pop and skewed world-view. Their debut ‘Going To Heaven To See If It Rains’ announced the band with a top ten bang, and they never looked back. By the release of their first full length ‘Foxheads Stalk This Land’, produced by John Rivers (Love and Rockets, Felt), they were finding early backing from all of the music papers, as well as Rolling Stone and American college radio. Global touring and a more aggressive stance, lyrically and musically, would make the Phil Vinall (Radiohead, Elastica) produced follow up ‘Headache Rhetoric’ a bigger success and signalled an interesting direction for the future. However, soon after the band would cease recording.

Burning briefly, but oh so brightly, the band would continue to be sighted as an influence for decades to come. The Wedding Present would soon show their appreciation by covering “Let’s Make Some Plans” as the b-side to their UK Top 20 hit ‘California’. Bands on both sides of the Atlantic tried to master that patented sound, hoping for just a little of the magic that made Close Lobsters so amazing.

The set includes both studio albums, as well as ‘Forever, Until Victory! The Singles Collection’ (titled after the final sign-off in a letter from ‘Che’ Guevara to Fidel Castro ‘Hasta la victoria siempre!’). ‘Forever’ gathers all of the band’s singles, as well as their b-sides and bonus tracks. The singles collection was re-engineered by Andrew Burnett and Graeme Wilmington from the band in Glasgow and in their hometown, Paisley.

Fire Archive is a continuation of the celebrated efforts of the label to reissue important records from the past, prepared with loving care for existing fans and new audiences alike. Each release receives special attention to audio and packaging as we strive to provide the definitive version for decades to come.