C86

{{About}}

{{use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{use British English|date=April 2025}}

{{Infobox album

| name = C86

| type = Compilation

| artist = various artists

| cover = NMEC86.jpg

| alt =

| released = May 1986

| recorded = 1985/86

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Indie pop, post-punk, indie rock, jangle pop, alternative rock

| length =

| label = Rough Trade, NME

| producer =

| compiler = Neil Taylor, Adrian Thrills, Roy Carr

| prev_title = Pogo A Go Go!

| prev_year = 1986

| next_title = Holiday Romance

| next_year = 1986

}}

C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time.{{cite web |last=Hann |first=Michael |title=NME releases a cassette that codifies music |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/14/nme-cassette-codifies-music |website=The Guardian |date=14 June 2011 |access-date=28 October 2014}} As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" (a John Peel-coined description celebrating the self-conscious primitive approach of some of the music{{cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |url=http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/2167/The_C86_indie_scene_is_back.html |title=The C86 indie scene is back! |publisher=Timeout.com |date=2006-10-23 |access-date=2015-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002142154/http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/2167/The_C86_indie_scene_is_back.html |archive-date=2012-10-02}}) and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognised as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK,Bob Stanley, sleevenotes to CD86 as was acknowledged in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. In 2014, the original compilation was reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records;{{cite web |last=Michaels |first=Sean |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/mar/14/nme-c86-compilation-reissue-unheard-tracks |title=NME's C86 compilation to be reissued with previously unheard tracks | Music |date=14 March 2014 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2015-06-11}} the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.

The C86 name was a play on the labelling and length of blank compact cassette, commonly C60, C90 and C120, combined with 1986.

The ''C86'' cassette

The tape was a belated follow-up to C81, a more eclectic collection of new bands, released by the NME in 1981 in conjunction with Rough Trade. C86 was similarly designed to reflect the new music scene of the time. It was compiled by NME writers Roy Carr, Neil Taylor and Adrian Thrills, who licensed tracks from labels including Creation, Subway, Probe Plus, Dan Treacy's Dreamworld Records, Jeff Barrett's Head Records, Pink, and Ron Johnson. Readers had to pay for the tape via mail order, although an LP was subsequently released on Rough Trade on 24 November 1986.{{cite news |title=Record News |work=NME |publisher=IPC Media |page=43 |date=15 November 1986}} The UK music press was in this period highly competitive, with four weekly papers documenting new bands and trends. There was a tendency to create and "discover" new musical subgenres artificially in order to heighten reader interest. NME journalists of the period subsequently agreed that C86 was an example of this, but also a byproduct of NME{{'}}s "hip hop wars"{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/1836411.stm |title=NME: Still rocking at 50 |publisher=BBC News |date=2002-02-24 |access-date=2015-06-11}} – a schism in the paper (and among readers) between enthusiasts of contemporary progressive black music (for example, by Public Enemy and Mantronix), and fans of guitar-based music, as represented on C86.

NME promoted the tape in conjunction with London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, which staged a week of gigs in July 1986,{{cite web |url=http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/01/c86-review-of-c86-week.html |title=Indie music and festivals - C86 review of c86 week |publisher=Indie-mp3.co.uk |access-date=2015-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908042019/http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/01/c86-review-of-c86-week.html |archive-date=2015-09-08}} featuring most of the acts on the compilation.

The tape included tracks by some more abrasive bands atypical of the perceived C86 jangle pop aesthetic: Stump, Bogshed, A Witness, The Mackenzies, Big Flame and The Shrubs.

C86 was the twenty-third 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.

Legacy

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/c86-mw0000981459 |title=C86 - Various Artists | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2015-06-11}}

| rev2 = Drowned in Sound

| rev2score = (9/10){{cite web |last=Gourlay |first=Dom |url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18283/reviews/4147877 |title=Album Review: Various - C86: Deluxe Edition / Releases / Releases // Drowned In Sound |publisher=Drownedinsound.com |date=2014-06-13 |access-date=2015-06-11 |archive-date=2015-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906050518/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18283/reviews/4147877 }}

| rev3 = Stewart Lee

| rev3score = (favourable){{cite web|url=http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/album-review-archive/various-artists-c86-deluxe-3-cd-edition/|title = Various Artists – C86 Deluxe 3 CD Edition : Stewart Lee - 41st Best Standup Ever!}}

| rev4 = The Line of Best Fit

| rev4score = (8/10){{cite web|url=http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/various-artists-c86 |title=Album Review: Various Artists -C86 |publisher=Thelineofbestfit.com |date=2014-06-16 |access-date=2015-06-11}}

| rev5 = Pitchfork

| rev5score = (9.2/10){{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19423-c86/ |title=Various Artists: C86 |first=Jason |last=Heller |date=10 June 2014 |publisher=Pitchfork Media}}

| rev6 = PopMatters

| rev6score = (7/10){{cite web|url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/183076-various-artists-c86-deluxe-3cd-edition/ |title=Various Artists: C86 (Deluxe 3CD Edition) |date=26 June 2014 |publisher=PopMatters.com |access-date=2015-06-11}}

| rev8 = The Quietus

| rev8score = (positive){{cite web|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/15760-various-artists-c86-review |title=Reviews | Various Artists |publisher=Thequietus.com |date=2014-07-15 |access-date=2015-06-11}}

}}

Ex-NME writer Andrew Collins summed up C86 by dubbing it "the most indie thing to have ever existed".Andrew Collins, "Wan Love, Indie RIP", Word magazine, October 2006 Bob Stanley, a Melody Maker journalist in the late 1980s and a founding member of pop band Saint Etienne, similarly said in a 2006 interview 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.Bob Stanley, Uncut magazine, February 2006

Martin Whitehead, who ran Subway in the late 1980s, added a new political dimension to the importance of C86. "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."[http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1325674,00.html] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060715224210/http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0%2C11710%2C1325674%2C00.html |date=15 July 2006}}

Some are more ambivalent about the tape's influence. Everett True, a writer for NME in 1986 under the name "The Legend!",[http://planbmag.com/blogs/staff/2005/07/22/friday-22-july/] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501212612/http://planbmag.com/blogs/staff/2005/07/22/friday-22-july/ |date=1 May 2007}} called it "unrepresentative of its times . . . and even unrepresentative of the small narrow strata of music it thought it was representing." Alastair Fitchett, editor of the music site Tangents (and a fan of many of the bands on the tape), takes a polemical line: "(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?"{{cite web |url=http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2002/nov/c86.html |title=Tangents fun'n'frenzy filled web site |publisher=Tangents.co.uk |access-date=2015-06-11}} The Guardian published an article in 2014 challenging some of the negative assertions about the cassette.{{cite web |last=Hann |first=Michael |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/14/c86-myths-nme-indie-cassette-debunked |title=C86: The myths about the NME's indie cassette debunked |work=The Guardian |date=14 March 2014 |access-date=2015-06-11}}

In 2022, journalist Nige Tassell published the book Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids?: An Indie Odyssey, based on interviews with members of all 22 bands that had appeared on the cassette. It outlines the "many and varied paths through life" these musicians took over a period of more than three decades.{{cite web |last=Tassell |first=Nige |title=Reel lives: how I tracked down the class of NME's C86 album |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/08/reel-lives-how-i-tracked-down-the-class-of-nmes-c86-album |work=The Guardian |date=8 August 2022 |access-date=2023-04-30}}

The significance of C86 was recognieed by several events marking the 20th anniversary of the compilation's release in 2006. Sanctuary Records released CD86,{{cite web |title=Featured Content on Myspace |url=http://www.myspace.com/cd86sanctuaryrecords |access-date=2015-06-11 |publisher=Myspace.com}} a double-CD set compiled by Bob Stanley. The ICA hosted "C86 - Still Doing It For Fun",{{cite web |date=2015-04-22 |title=Home | Institute of Contemporary Arts |url=http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=12257 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203000707/http://www.ica.org.uk/?lid=12257 |archive-date=2006-12-03 |access-date=2015-06-11 |publisher=Ica.org.uk}} an exhibition and two nights of gigs celebrating the rise of British independent music.

Cherry Red's 2014 expanded reissue was marked by an NME C86 show on 14 June 2014 at Venue 229, London W1; acts from the original compilation included The Wedding Present, David Westlake of The Servants, The Wolfhounds and A Witness.{{cite web |date=2013-12-11 |title=NME C86: The Wedding Present + more |url=http://www.timeout.com/london/music/nme-c86-the-wedding-present-more |access-date=2015-06-11 |publisher=Timeout.com}}

Other compilations

Other record labels, sometimes in collaboration with NME, have, on occasion, released similarly titled albums themed around surrounding years.

class="wikitable"

|+

!Name

!Label

!Release date

!Reference

C81

|Rough Trade

|February 1981

|{{cite web |title=NME / Rough Trade C81 |date=February 1981 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/757158-Various-NME-Rough-Trade-C81 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C85

|Cherry Red Records

|21 October 2021

|{{cite web |title=C85 |date=21 October 2022 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/25229557-Various-C85 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

CD86

(48 Tracks From The Birth Of Indie Pop)

|Sanctuary Records

|23 October 2006

|{{cite web |title=CD86 (48 Tracks From The Birth Of Indie Pop)

|date=23 October 2006 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/927257-Various-CD86-48-Tracks-From-The-Birth-Of-Indie-Pop |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C86

(Deluxe 3-CD Edition)

|Cherry Red Records

|9 June 2014

|{{cite web |title=C86 |date=9 June 2014 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/5809700-Various-C86 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C87

|Cherry Red Records

|10 June 2016

|{{cite web |title=C87 |date=10 June 2016 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/8574414-Various-C87 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C88

|Cherry Red Records

|30 June 2017

|{{cite web |title=C88 |date=30 June 2017 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/10533252-Various-C88 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C89

|Cherry Red Records

|4 August 2018

|{{cite web |title=C89 |date=4 August 2018 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/14128283-Various-C89 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C90

|Cherry Red Records

|21 February 2020

|{{cite web |title=C90 |date=21 February 2020 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/14956633-Various-C90 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C91

|Cherry Red Records

|21 January 2022

|{{cite web |title=C91 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/21803803-Various-C91 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C92

|Cherry Red Records

|24 January 2025

|{{cite web |title=C92, Various Artists 3CD Box Set |url=https://www.cherryred.co.uk/c92-various-artists-3cd-box-set |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Cherry Red Records}}

C96

|New Musical Express

|1996

|{{cite web |title=NME C96 |date=1996 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/2973948-Various-NME-C96 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C09

|Rough Trade

|18 April 2009

|{{cite web |title=C09 Rough Trade Compilation | date=18 April 2009 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1737636-Various-C09-Rough-Trade-Compilation?srsltid=AfmBOop_AxsWroLA6nynwXpk7XNKIlvI-SLl7aHhtxTKKy479pyIK6-i |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C23

|Bose

|16 March 2023

|{{cite web |title=Bose x NME: C23 |date=16 March 2023 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/26491109-Various-Bose-x-NME-C23 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

C24

|Bose

|19 July 2024

|{{cite web |title=Bose x NME: C24 |date=19 July 2024 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/32064837-Various-Bose-x-NME-C24 |access-date=2024-12-09 |publisher=Discogs}}

Track listing

{{track listing

|extra_column = Contributing artist

|headline = Side one

| extra1 = Primal Scream

| title1 = Velocity Girl

| length1 = 1:21

| extra2 = The Mighty Lemon Drops

| title2 = Happy Head

| length2 = 2:43

| extra3 = The Soup Dragons

| title3 = Pleasantly Surprised

| length3 = 2:05

| extra4 = The Wolfhounds

| title4 = Feeling So Strange Again

| length4 = 1:42

| extra5 = The Bodines

| title5 = Therese

| length5 = 3:03

| extra6 = Mighty Mighty

| title6 = Law

| length6 = 3:39

| extra7 = Stump

| title7 = Buffalo

| length7 = 4:27

| extra8 = Bogshed

| title8 = Run to the Temple

| length8 = 3:30

| extra9 = A Witness

| title9 = Sharpened Sticks

| length9 = 2:30

| extra10 = The Pastels

| title10 = Breaking Lines

| length10 = 2:58

| extra11 = Age of Chance

| title11 = From Now On, This Will Be Your God

| length11 = 3:17

}}

{{track listing

|extra_column = Contributing artist

|headline = Side two

| extra12 = Shop Assistants

| title12 = It's Up to You

| length12 = 2:36

| extra13 = Close Lobsters

| title13 = Firestation Towers

| length13 = 1:46

| extra14 = Miaow

| title14 = Sport Most Royal

| length14 = 2:55

| extra15 = Half Man Half Biscuit

| title15 = I Hate Nerys Hughes (From the Heart)

| length15 = 3:43

| extra16 = The Servants

| title16 = Transparent

| length16 = 2:33

| extra17 = The Mackenzies

| title17 = Big Jim (There's No Pubs in Heaven)

| length17 = 2:36

| extra18 = Big Flame

| title18 = New Way (Quick Wash and Brush Up with Liberation Theology)

| length18 = 1:38

| extra19 = We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It

| title19 = Console Me

| length19 = 1:25

| extra20 = McCarthy

| title20 = Celestial City

| length20 = 3:00

| extra21 = The Shrubs

| title21 = Bullfighter's Bones

| length21 = 3:45

| extra22 = The Wedding Present

| title22 = This Boy Can Wait

| length22 = 3:59

}}

See also

References

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

External sources

{{External links|date=June 2015}}

  • Bladh, Krister [https://web.archive.org/web/20060827061239/http://www.indie-mp3.net/C86%20Essay.pdf Everything went Pop!, C86 and more, A wave and its rise and wake (pdf) 2005]
  • "Fire Escape Talking",[http://fireescapetalking.blogspot.com/2006/07/anoraky-in-uk-c86-punk-that-refuses-to.html "Anoraky in the UK, C86, the punk that refuses to die" ] ("Fire Escape Talking blog", 7 July 2006)
  • Fitchett, Alastair, [http://unpopular.typepad.com/unpopular/2005/07/c86.html "C86"] (Tangents Blog, 25 July 2005)
  • Hann, Michael [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1325674,00.html "Fey City Rollers"] (The Guardian, 13 October 2004)
  • Hasted, Nick [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/how-an-nme-cassette-launched-indie-music-421802.html "How an NME cassette launched indie music"] (The Independent, 27 October 2006)
  • Pearce, Kevin [http://www.tangents.co.uk/tangents/main/2001/march/junebrides.html "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}}
  • Reynolds, Simon [https://web.archive.org/web/20090209054948/http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/2167.html "The C86 Indie Scene is back"] (Time Out, 23 October 2006)
  • Stanley, Bob, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080704103719/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14932-2411784,00.html Where were you in C86?] (The Times, 20 October 2006)
  • True, Everett [https://web.archive.org/web/20070501212612/http://planbmag.com/blogs/staff/2005/07/22/friday-22-july/ C86 Q&A](Plan B Blog, 22 July 2005)
  • Wire, Nicky [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1930836,00.html The Birth of Uncool](The Guardian, 25 October 2006)
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20060112071512/http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2006/01/c86-tape.html C86 Profile "Indie MP3-Keeping C86 alive" blog]

{{Alternative rock}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:C86 (Album)}}

Category:1986 compilation albums

Category:Alternative rock compilation albums

Category:Indie pop albums by British artists

Category:Jangle pop compilation albums

Category:Post-punk compilation albums

Category:Rough Trade Records compilation albums

Category:New Musical Express

Category:Compilation albums included with magazines