Songfacts®:

• This was XTC's breakthrough single. It was written by bassist Colin Moulding, who shared vocal and songwriting duties with guitarist Andy Partridge.
• Moulding: "Partly biographical, this one. My dad prompted me to write it. He wanted a university future for me and was very overpowering in trying to persuade me to get my hair cut and stay on at school. It got to the point where he almost tried to drag me down the barber's shop by my hair. I know the song tells of a slightly different situation, but it all boils down to the same thing - parental domination."
• Partridge: "Quite early on it had been decided that Making Plans For Nigel was going to be the single. We spent five times longer messing with that song than any of my tracks. At one point I was fuming because my songs were being ignored."
• The Rembrandts, Primus and Robbie Williams all covered this. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Christian - Copenhagen, Denmark, for all above
• This was covered by Nouvelle Vague, a bossa group, and included on a chillout compilation album known as Breakfast Club: Milan. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Erik - Fairfield County, CT
• Colin Moulding recalled to Uncut magazine March 2014: There were no Nigels at school. I wasn't bullied, but I think I had a natural empathy for people that were. 'Nigel' was my song for the bullied, I suppose."
  
  He added: "British Steel was just a bit of naughtiness. What I hadn't bargained on was the union boss later ringing me up and asking me to join the cause! I had the devil of a job to convince him it was an organisation I chose at random."
• Andy Partridge told Uncut: "The things that sound like sheets of metal being struck, that's a white noise patch on a monophonic Korg synth we had. We decided to do it with this industrial sound and glories, so it hinted that British Steel, which is where Nigel works."
• The first 20,000 pressings of the single came with a bonus fold-out board game called Chutes And Ladders, built around Nigel's mundane and mapped-out life. There were two versions of the game board, one to be played by Nigel and the other to be played by his parents.