Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids?: An Indie Odyssey

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In retrospect, we were probably slightly more established than most of the other bands, even if it didn’t seem like it at the time. We were just honored to be on an NME tape, having read the magazine for years, and perhaps a bit guileless about how it might affect us. But I can understand why, say, the June Brides didn’t want to be on the tape, and how some of the less established bands might be pigeonholed by it, especially when the scene seemed to have run its course. Their title not mine - highly debatable that "indie" could encompass The Slits.Hmm .. so which bit reminded you of me? "Forgotten?""Women of the 80s"? The tape that inspired ‘a thousand indie bands’. The tape that launched a whole genre. Even ‘the beginning of indie music’ (it may be taboo here, but for the sake of discussion I will refer to ‘indie’ as a genre category in this article). These are just a few descriptions of C86, a compilation cassette put together by NME in 1986. The tape was intended as a showcase of mid-80s underground guitar pop, but it was more than a just a reflection: it became a genre itself, launching the careers of bands such as Primal Scream, Jesus and Mary Chain and The Wedding Present, as well as becoming the first collection of indie pop songs. The Story of C86

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As eclectic as C86 is, by no means does it try to encompass the entire British indie scene circa 1986. As Taylor recounts in his liner notes, “The aim […] was to take an aural snapshot of the moment. Were these acts representative of the state of a certain kind of indie music at that time? Very much so. Was C86 intended to be the be-all and end-all of independent music at that time? Of course not”. In fact, some bands refused to be included, fearing it would lead to being pigeonholed—like the June Brides, one of the major players in the admittedly loose-knit scene that C86 gathered together. That’s been rectified by the reissue, with the June Brides’ horn-punched, Burt Bacharach-like gem “Just the Same” serving as the first song on the box set’s first bonus disc. And some bands that were surely nowhere near being seriously considered in the first place— such as Happy Mondays, whose undercooked “Freaky Dancin’” is a minor skirmish of the dancefloor havoc they’d go on to wreak— serve more as a historical curiosity than a corrected omission. The music was actually quite varied. People now see C86 as all jangly indie pop, but Bogshed and Big Flame were nothing like that – they were much harder. I guess we rode that divide: there were elements that were very jangly and Velvet Underground-ish, but we had a much harder edge. So much for that old punk/new wave/alternative ethic. Same old, same old ‘f*** the public’ approach to doing commerce. I went to see The Flatmates on Saturday night, supported by Helen McCookerybook of proto C86 act The Chefs. Indie never forgets (but The Flatmates have got a different singer since they reformed five or so years ago).C86 & All That: The Creation of Indie In Difficult Times comprehensively documents the rise of indie during the socially-divisive 1980s, tracing its ancestry out of Post Punk, Neo Psychedelia, Anarcho Punk, Garage, Trash and Goth and on to the landmark compilation C86 in the spring of 1986. I would take issue with the "Forgotten" bit as well. There are some obscure ones on there but a fair few are well-known to many people interested in 'indie' music. I don't know whether they are 'forgotten' but Voice of the Beehive are another one that started out genuinely "indie" The line between C86’s jangly, dreamy representatives and its more distortion-smothered counterparts is blurred by bands like 14 Iced Bears. An oddity both then and now, the group’s song featured here, “Inside”, alchemically combines droning noise, hushed melancholy, and a nearly nauseating aura of discordance that presages My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything by two years (a time when MBV themselves had barely begun to absorb the influence of C86). But 14 Iced Bears aren’t the only group on the box set that prophesied shoegaze: “Go Ahead, Cry” by 14 Iced Bears’ Sarah Records labelmate, St. Christopher,is underlain with an atmospheric smear of static that might as well be a wormhole to the next three decades of noise-pop. By 1986, however, the politics of the magazine had changed dramatically. C86 was used as a weapon not only in the civil war within the paper, in but in the war between it and other music magazines. There was heavy competition around this time between music publications, with four weekly music mags competing for sales, each trying to pique reader interest by writing about new bands and trends. C86 aimed to create a new genre for NME to profit off, hoping to generate attention by ‘discovering’ and promoting a new genre. In achieving this purpose, the tape was a success. To this day, C86 is recognised as its own legitimate subgenre on RateYourMusic.com. But C86 was also used as a pawn in the so-called ‘Hip-Hop Wars’ going on in NME in the 1980s, a schism between fans of hip hop and guitar music enthusiasts. C86 was a tactic devised to reinvigorate interest in the indie scene, taking attention away from the burgeoning rap game. It was designed to be, as Ex-NME staffer Andrew Collins put it, “the most indie thing ever to have existed”. “The most indie thing that ever existed”

book on the truth behind C86 and mid eighties indie Great new book on the truth behind C86 and mid eighties indie

Seriously, yes, the Slits were my thing, other bands not so much, so that is quite interesting to me. I'm not that much of an indie kid, although I know people from the C86 bands, went to see the Monochrome Set the other night, and was musing yesterday as to who would win in a punch-up between them (C86) and the Pillows and Prayers lot. ( My money would be on P&P). The book casts an eye over a period when indie was a passion not a brand, and places its rise firmly in the context of the turbulent political times. Based on primary source material – including scores of forgotten fanzines -it also draws in the views of many of the key players, opening a window on a period that, with its parallels, resonates strongly today. You're right of course MSD, no offence meant. Just took a stab in the dark as to my untrained eye I wondered if any other than the Slits might fail in your ballpark. I also though "Indie" was pretty inaccurate. But of the book itself, it is excellent. Not something that can be recommended to the casual reader. You had to be there at the time (or be an extremely keen student of British popular music.) I was a teenager when I sent off for the C86 tape and instantly fell in love with all the diverse groups, spent every penny I had on the records. So, personally speaking, I couldn’t wish for a more comprehensive and authoritative account than this. There’s not much left out. In 1986, the NME released a cassette that would shape music for years to come. A collection of twenty-two independently signed guitar-based bands, C86 was the sound and ethos that defined a generation. It was also arguably the point at which ‘indie’ was born.I got quite drunk with the C86ers last night - my good friends from the Lemon Drops were there, him from JAMC/Felt, along with a June Bride, a Wolfhound, a member of Miaow Miaow. We went to the pub.

C86 cassette helped create the British How NME magazine’s C86 cassette helped create the British

Some of the bands, like Primal Scream, went on to achieve global stardom; others, such as Half Man Half Biscuit and the Wedding Present, cultivated lifelong fanbases that still sustain their careers thirty-five years later. Then there were the rest, who ultimately imploded in a riot of paisley shirts, bad drugs and general indifference from the record-buying public.C86 slowly but surely became the NME’s best-selling ever compilation, selling an estimated 40,000 copies and eventually being reissued on LP and cassette by Rough Trade the following year. C86 prompted a week of shows at the ICA and would come to embody a whole musical style and era. Following on from acclaimed histories of the British punk upheaval of the late 1970s (Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming) and the post-punk ferment of the early 80s (Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again); Neil Taylor’s new book takes the story forward to cover the next wave of groundbreaking musicians, dubbed the “C86 bands” after a now-legendary cassette compilation released by music weekly NME, whose work paved the way for the commercial breakthrough of indie later in the decade. Neil Taylor co-compiled C86 and is the author of Document & Eyewitness: An Intimate History Of Rough Trade. Since the 1990s he has worked in publishing. Finally, former NME journalist Neil Taylor is about to release his in-depth book about C86 and the true story of the indie underground. The book is an in-depth exploration of the post post punk culture and the fascinating scene at the time. Yet, while the pursuit of long-lost musicians can often manifest as earnest hagiography, Tassell’s unique, light-hearted approach makes this a very human story of ambition, hope, varying degrees of talent and what happens after you give up on pop – or, more precisely, after pop gives up on you. It’s a world populated by bike-shop owners, architecture professors, dance-music producers, record-store proprietors, birdwatchers, solicitors, caricaturists and even a possible Olympic sailor – and let’s not forget the musician-turned-actor gainfully employed as Jeremy Irons’ body double…

C86 and All That: The Birth of Indie, 1983-86 - Goodreads

THAT PETROL EMOTION - Mine 22.THE TURNCOATS - One Breath * 23.A RIOT OF COLOUR - Skink (Flexi Version) * In fairness, "forgotten" is a rather relative and loose term when there is no qualifier as to who the forgetters are.What he said.ABOUT USLouder Than War is a music, culture and media publication headed by The Membranes & Goldblade frontman John Robb. Online since 2010 it is one of the fastest-growing and most respected music-related publications on the net.