Close Lobsters — Let's Make Some Plans

JUL 01 1987 · 12:00

Close Lobsters — Let's Make Some Plans (1987) Era: C86 / UK Indie Pop Peak (1987–1988) - Scottish post-punk jangle pop at the height of the NME-designated C86 movement, shortly after the band's debut album and coinciding with their most commercially visible UK indie singles run on Fire Records. As one of the few surviving official video documents from Close Lobsters' original 1986–1989 run, this promo holds significant archival value as a primary visual record of the C86 scene at its creative peak. The combination of its rapid editorial rhythm, warm-toned rawness, and band performance format encapsulates the production conditions and aesthetic values of a critically important but under-documented moment in UK independent music. Its curatorial importance is amplified by the song's outsized cultural afterlife relative to the band's commercial profile. Context: Close Lobsters were a five-piece band from Paisley, Scotland, who rose to prominence as part of the C86 movement after their track 'Firestation Towers' appeared on the NME's landmark 1986 cassette compilation. 'Let's Make Some Plans' was released on Fire Records in 1987 during the sessions that produced the debut album Foxheads Stalk This Land, and it became one of the band's most enduring songs — later covered by The Wedding Present as the B-side to their 1992 UK Top 20 single 'California', and again by The Luxembourg Signal in 2017. The video was produced at a moment when the UK indie press was simultaneously championing and satirising the C86 movement, and when Fire Records bands occupied a vital position in the college radio ecosystems of both the UK and North America. The band's Paisley origins gave an unintentional psychedelic resonance — a quality critics noted in their sound — and the video's raw, energetic performance aesthetic reflects the DIY ethics and anti-gloss stance that defined the scene. Director notes: The video is catalogued on RateYourMusic as a 1987 release in the C86 and Indie Rock genres. The single 'Let's Make Some Plans' was released on Fire Records (catalogue BLAZE22) in 1987 and recorded during the Foxheads Stalk This Land sessions at W.S.R.S., Leamington Spa, July–August 1987, produced by John A. Rivers. No video director credit appears in any indexed source. The rapid editing pace (135 cuts in 260 seconds, avg. shot 1.93s) and warm-toned visual palette are consistent with the period's DIY promo conventions. The Discogs entry for the album Foxheads Stalk This Land lists the video title 'Let's Make Some Plans (Official Video)' in its video section, confirming this is the canonical official promo.