After a while the barman, or should I say bartender, made
some polite conversation. "Where you from?" etc.
We got comfy, a couple of beers later, the bar was quiet and out the blue
the bar tender says:
"You don’t know of a band from Glasgow
called the Close Lobsters do you?"
"There not from Glasgow they're from Paisley"
I returned.
"Know know know them ... what the.. Can you believe
it".
The bartender went on to tell me of how he loved the Close
Lobsters, meet them backstage in Pittsburgh once up on a time. and I told
him of my fanzine interviews, of gigs around the UK and how once upon
a time I .... Oh well.
This bartender wrote a letter to the Close Lobsters on
the back on a yellow napkin on the hope that I would bump into them in
Glasgow (I had said something about seeing Womble at the train station)
and pass on the note. Of course I never seem Womble again for another
5 years and the letter, well who knows what happened to that.
Years later I come across Todd's Close Lobsters web site
and he has a scan of one of my fanzine interviews and all the rest. We
exchange a few emails and Todd suggests I write something for his web
site. This got me thinking of way back when, poging with the guys down
the front of a Wedding Present gig, of an interview in a Glasgow pub where
the rest of the gang claimed Andy had been thrown out (typical lobster
event), of The Cellar in Paisley, of handbills and fanzines and photocopiers
and pritstik. Ferocious Apaches indeed.
It seemed to make sense I had the Close Lobsters demo
on my Walkman (cassette) on the train to Gilmour St, Paisley, to attend
Paisley University (Nae College of Technology). Mid eighties Britain,
beach streaked blond, pastel coloured, furry boat wearing, look .. you
don’t want to go there. The Close Lobsters where different, it made
sense. The Close Lobsters where great on record, progressing through the
onslaught of the early singles, mid period "what is there to smile
about" (which may be my favourite era) to the later LP. There is
a fine legacy in fine records, something to be proud of.
Live. The Close Lobsters played better away. I remember
them opening for That Petrol Emotion in Dundee, of a lo key Edinburgh
Venue gig where they played great. They where barley accepted in Glasgow,
there never was a Glasgow scene or a Scottish scene, as many people liked
to think there was. If there were the Close Lobsters would never have
fitted in. They where just the Close Lobsters.
I remember whirling around an Edinburgh bedsit to 'kiss
the flower in bloom', the June Brides gig with the stage invasion. See
.. this article has been a lot about me but the Close Lobsters where caught
up in the fabric of good times. There is a point in there somewhere.
It's easy to berate today’s youth, today guitar
bands (Hell I do so more than most) but its important that they to have
a contemporary soundtrack to their good times. I've listened to the Close
Lobsters 12-15 years after the event and I can say that I still love what
I hear. I can't say that about all the music I liked back then.
I wonder how many of today’s CD’s will be hidden at the back
of the closet. How many will reach and be remember 10 years on, by bar
tenders 1000 of miles away.
Like others, the Close Lobsters proved that with ideas and wit and talent,
a bunch of friends could raise the barriers and reach out to the world,
to touch people, to be remembered, to matter. I think that something to
be proud off. I salute you.
Jim Kavanagh
2003
www.eggrecords.co.uk
for the Official
Close Lobsters Home Page
