C86 (MUSIC)

'C86' is the name of a celebrated cassette compilation released by the British music magazine ''New Musical Express'' (NME) in 1986, featuring new bands licenced from independent labels of the time. As a phrase it quickly evolved into shorthand for a musical genre best remembered for its devotion to Byrdsy guitars and fey melodies even though other musical styles were represented on the tape. Almost a term of abuse on release, and criticised for its associations with tweeness and underachievement many now argue that it represents a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK.^[1].

Contents

The C86 Cassette

Legacy

Follow Ups

Track listing

Side one

Side two

The C86 Genre

See also

Notes

References

Articles and books

External links

The C86 Cassette

The tape was a belated follow up to C81, a more diverse collection of new bands, released by ''NME'' in 1981 in conjunction with the label Rough Trade. C86 was similarly designed to reflect the new music scene of the time and compiled by NME writers; Roy Carr, Neil Taylor and Adrian Thrills who licenced tracks from labels such as Creation, Pink, and Ron Johnson. Readers had to pay for the tape via mail order although an LP was subsequently released on Rough Trade in 1987. The UK music press, in this period, was extremely competitive with 3 weekly papers documenting new bands and trends and the grouping of bands, often artificially, with an overarching label to heighten interest or sell copies was commonplace. NME journalists of the period now agree that C86 was a typical example but also a byproduct of NME's "hip hop wars";^[2] a schism on the paper (and amongst readers) between enthusiasts of the contemporary progressive black music such as Public Enemy and Mantronix and the fans of traditional white rock.
This was the 23rd NME tape although its catalogue number was NME022, C81 had been dubbed COPY001. The rest of the tapes were compilations promoting labels' back catalogues and dedicated to R&B, Northern Soul, Jazz or Reggae. C86 was followed up with a Billie Holiday compilation; Holiday Romance.^[3]. The title of the tape, like its predecessor C81, was a play on the labelling and length of blank compact cassettes that were sold in the 80s such as C60, C90 and C120s and obviously the year in which the tape was released.
The C86 tape, despite its subsequent association with a genre of the same name, had a much harder punkier shambling sound featuring early tracks from as many as 5 bands from the Ron Johnson label; The Shrubs, A Witness, Stump, bIG fLAME and The Mackenzies. Their loud quirkiness was completely at odds with the Byrdsy guitars and fey melodies of what came to be known as 'C86' bands. NME promoted it in conjunction with London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, who staged a week of gigs in July 1986 which featured most of the acts on the compilation.

Legacy

Ex-NME staffer Andrew Collins summed up C86 by dubbing it "the most indie thing to have ever existed".^[4] Bob Stanley; a ''Melody Maker'' journalist in the late 1980s and band member of Saint Etienne similarly claimed in a 2006 interview^[5] that C86 represented the:

"beginning of indie music...It's hard to remember how underground guitar music and fanzines were in the mid 80s; DIY ethics and any residual punk attitudes were in isolated pockets around the country and the C86 comp and gigs brought them together in an explosion of new groups".

Martin Whitehead, who ran the Subway label in the late 80s (whose first release was from The Shop Assistants) confirms this view^[6] believing it to have had a political influence. "Before C86, women could only be eye-candy in a band, I think C86 changed that - there were women promoting gigs, writing fanzines and running labels".
Some writers however regret the influence the tape had over the music scene of the time and subsequently. Everett True, a writer for NME in 1986 under the name "The Legend!"^[7] called it "unrepresentative of its times (as opposed to the brilliant C81 comp) and even unrepresentative of the small narrow strata of music it thought it was representing." Alastair Fitchett, editor of the long-running music site Tangents goes further, despite being a fan of many of the bands on the tape.^[8]

'"(The NME) laid the foundations for the desolate wastelands of what we came to know by that vile term 'Indie'. What more reason do you need to hate it?"'

Follow Ups

In 1996 NME continued the tradition of compiling a new band album (this time a CD) by releasing C96. Yet this time it had little impact and has been almost forgotten.^[9]
The 20th anniversary of the tape in 2006, saw several tributes. A download-only compilation, C06, of contemporary bands inspired by those on the original C86 cassette was put together by the indie-mp3 site in July 2006. A
double-CD compilation; CD86,^[10] compiled by Bob Stanley, was released by Sanctuary Records and the ICA hosted "C86 - Still Doing It For Fun",^[11] an exhibition and 2 nights of gigs celebrating the rise of British Independent music.
A documentary film marking the period; Hungry Beat; is in production directed by Paul Kelly.^[12]

Track listing

The full tracklisting for the C86 compilation was:

Side one

# Primal Scream - Velocity Girl
# The Mighty Lemon Drops - Happy Head
# The Soup Dragons - Pleasantly Surprised
# The Wolfhounds - Feeling So Strange Again
# The Bodines - Therese
# Mighty Mighty - Law
# Stump - Buffalo
# Bogshed - Run To The Temple
# A Witness - Sharpened Sticks
# The Pastels - Breaking Lines
# Age of Chance - From Now On, This Will Be Your God

Side two

# The Shop Assistants - It's Up To You
# Close Lobsters - Firestation Towers
# Miaow - Sport Most Royal
# Half Man Half Biscuit - I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)
# The Servants - Transparent
# The Mackenzies - Big Jim (There's no pubs in Heaven)
# bIG fLAME - New Way (Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology)
# Fuzzbox - Console Me
# McCarthy - Celestial City
# The Shrubs - Bullfighter's Bones
# The Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait

The C86 Genre

''For more information on C86 as a genre, see Indie Pop''
Over time ''C86'' became a shorthand for a movement within the British indie scene, often derided for its twee or "cuteness", jangly guitars, the bowl haircuts of its singers and asexual looks of its followers.

See also

★ Twee pop

★ Riot Grrrl

★ DIY punk ethic

★ Fanzine

★ Indie rock

★ Sarah Records

★ Indie pop

★ Northern Soul

Notes

1. Stanley, Bob Sleevenotes to CD86
2. NME: Still Rocking at 50, BBC News, 24 February 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1836411.stm
3. I Love Everything Forum http://ilx.p3r.net/thread.php?msgid=2077178
4. Andrew Collins, Wan Love, Indie RIP; Word Magazine, October 2006
5. Bob Stanley, Uncut Magazine, February 2006
6. Hann, Michael ''Fey City Rollers'' http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1325674,00.html
7. Everett True, Plan B blog http://planbmag.com/blogs/staff/2005/07/22/friday-22-july/
8. Alastair Fitchett, C86, Tangents, http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2002/nov/c86.html
9. Tim Footman, Tangents blog, 2002, http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2002/dec/c96.html
10. Press Release, CD86 Myspace Profile, http://www.myspace.com/cd86sanctuaryrecords
11. ICA website, C86 - Still Doing It For Fun, October 2006, http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=12257
12. Tangents blog; Hungry Beat, The Sun Is Shining, July 27 2006, http://unpopular.typepad.com/unpopular/2006/07/hungry_beat_the.html

References

Articles and books

★ Bladh, Krister ''Everything went Pop!, C86 and more, A wave and its rise and wake'' (pdf) 2005

★ Cavanagh, David ''The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize '' (Virgin Books, 2000) ISBN 1-85227-775-0

★ "Fire Escape Talking","Anoraky in the UK,C86, the punk that refuses to die" ("Fire Escape Talking blog", July 7, 2006)

★ Fitchett, Alastair, ''C86'' (''Tangents Blog'', July 25, 2005)

★ Hann, Michael ''Fey City Rollers'' (''The Guardian'', 13th October 2004)

★ Hasted, Nick "How an NME cassette launched indie music" ("The Independent", October 27, 2006)

★ Pearce, Kevin A Different Story; The Ballad of the June Brides(''Tangents'', March 2001)

★ Reynolds, Simon ''Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984'' (Faber and Faber, 2005) ISBN 0-571-21569-6

★ Stanley, Bob, ''Where were you in C86?'' (''The Times'' October 20, 2006)

★ True, Everett ''C86 Q&A''(Plan B Blog'' July 22, 2005)

★ Wire, Nicky ''The Birth of Uncool''(''The Guardian, October 25, 2006)

External links

★ C86 Profile "Indie MP3-Keeping C86 alive" blog

★ Ron Johnson Records - An appreciation

★ Rough Trade Indiepop Vol1 Tracklisting

★ Creation Records History 1983-2000

★ How Does it Feel to be loved ?