Julia's Club Eighties
Sunday, August 12, 2007
C81/C86
C81 was a cassette that was obtained through the British magazine New Musical Express in 1981 (hence (C)assette 81) and released in conjunction with the record label Rough Trade. Intended to mark the first 5 years of the independent label movement in the UK record industry and Rough Trade itself, it was the first in a series of many cassette releases from the paper. Probably the best known (and derided) was the C86 compliation. Publishing a tape was also an acknowledgment of the flourishing self published cassette culture of the time that the NME had been supporting in its short lived Garageland column.
C81 was compiled by NME journalist Roy Carr, and Christopher Rose, who worked in public relations for Rough Trade. To get a copy, NME readers had to collect two coupons from the newspaper and send off £1.50. The 15,000 orders were sold out within a month.
The tape contained a set of 24 diverse tracks ranging from jazz (James Blood Ulmer), poetry (John Cooper Clarke), ska (The Beat), and the folksy 'Canterbury Scene' (Robert Wyatt). British music writer Simon Reynolds called it "post punk's swan song", noting the appearance of three acts from Scottish independent label Postcard Records, and the emerging new pop tendency of bands such as Linx and Scritti Politti.
C81 was compiled by NME journalist Roy Carr, and Christopher Rose, who worked in public relations for Rough Trade. To get a copy, NME readers had to collect two coupons from the newspaper and send off £1.50. The 15,000 orders were sold out within a month.
The tape contained a set of 24 diverse tracks ranging from jazz (James Blood Ulmer), poetry (John Cooper Clarke), ska (The Beat), and the folksy 'Canterbury Scene' (Robert Wyatt). British music writer Simon Reynolds called it "post punk's swan song", noting the appearance of three acts from Scottish independent label Postcard Records, and the emerging new pop tendency of bands such as Linx and Scritti Politti.
Tracklisting:
* Scritti Politti - The "Sweetest Girl"
* The Beat - Twist and Crawl Dub
* Pere Ubu - Misery Goats
* Wah! Heat - 7,000 Names of Wah!
* Orange Juice - Blue Boy
* Cabaret Voltaire - Raising the Count
* D.A.F - Kebab Traume (Live)
* Furious Pig - Bare Pork
* The Specials - Raquel
* Buzzcocks - I Look Alone
* Essential Logic - Fanfare in the Garden
* Robert Wyatt - Born Again Cretin
* The Raincoats - Shouting Out Loud
* Josef K - Endless Soul
* The Blue Orchids - Low Profile
* Virgin Prunes - Red Nettle
* Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters
* Red Crayola - Milkmaid
* Linx - Don't Get in My Way
* The Massed Carnaby St John Copper Clarks - The Day My Pad Went Mad
* James Blood Ulmer - Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher
* Ian Dury - Close to Home
* Gist - Greener Grass
* Subway Sect - Parallel Lines
* John Cooper Clarke - 81 Minutes
DOWNLOAD LINK: C81
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.
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"; 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. 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.
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"; 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. 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.
Tracklisting:
* 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
* The Age Of Chance - From Now On, This Will Be Your God
* Shop Assistants - It's Up To You
* The Close Lobsters
* Miaow - Sport Most Loyal
* Half Man Half Biscuit - I Hate Nerys Hughes
* The Servants - Transparent
* MacKenzies - Big Jim
* Big Flame - New Way
* We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It - Console Me
* McCarthy - Celestial City
* The Shrubs - Bullfighter's Bones
* The Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait
DOWNLOAD LINK: C86
Info taken from: wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C81
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_%28music%29
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