Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids?: An Indie Odyssey

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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 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. 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.

C86 - UNCUT Various Artists - C86 - UNCUT

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.

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" Following the success of the three-disc compilation, ‘ The Sun Shines Here’ (which documented the roots of Indie Pop from 1980-84), the prequel to C86, C85 combines “name” bands with many obscurities making their debut on CD. Several acts on C85 would eventually feature on that NME’s C86 collection: Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, the Mighty Lemon Drops, etc, who all had singles released in 1985. 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.

Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? by Nige Tassell - Waterstones

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. 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. 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… 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.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 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.

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) * Post Punk is where the action was when the generation of youth who had their minds scorched by Punk started to apply their own interpretation to music and culture. In this creative free for all barriers were broken and a fervent underground existed way beyond the mainstream. Neil Taylor has taken a dive into this bricolage culture and come up trumps as he tries to make sense of the senseless when a generation thought that music could change the world’ So much for that old punk/new wave/alternative ethic. Same old, same old ‘f*** the public’ approach to doing commerce.

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. 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. 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. 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 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).