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Back in May/June 1986, the New Musical Express released one of their regular mail-order cassettes. Reflecting the latest trends in Indie music, C86 was a 22-track cassette which was inspired by the NME’s C81 tape from half a decade earlier. Aside from a few name bands (The Pastels, Primal Scream, the Wedding Present, the Mighty Lemon Drops), most acts were relatively unknown beyond the back pages and gig listings of the weekly music press. A few hadn’t even issued a record!
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.
This deluxe expanded edition of the original C86 cassette adds some 50 bonus tracks. The box set is curated by original compiler Neil Taylor and has the endorsement of the NME. Neil has chosen tracks which could conceivably have been on the original C86 package: all the recordings were made between mid-1985 and mid-1986. Neil wrote about many of the bands at the time.
The C86 3-CD has been assembled by the same team behind 2013’s Award-winning 5-CD box set “Scared To Get Happy” (AIM Best Catalogue Release Of 2013). Many tracks have never been on CD before. A few are even previously unreleased. Key names include The June Brides, The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Primitives, That Petrol Emotion, Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes, Happy Mondays, The Nightingales, The Railway Children, Pop Will Eat Itself, BMX Bandits, the Blue Aeroplanes and Treebound Story (featuring Richard Hawley).
Tracklist
DISC ONE:
1. PRIMAL SCREAM – Velocity Girl
2. THE MIGHTY LEMON DROPS – Happy Head
3. THE SOUP DRAGONS – Pleasantly Surprised
4. THE WOLFHOUNDS – Feeling So Strange Again *
5. THE BODINES – Therese
6. MIGHTY MIGHTY – Law
7. STUMP – Buffalo *
8. BOGSHED – Run To The Temple *
9. A WITNESS – Sharpened Sticks
10.THE PASTELS – Breaking Lines *
11.AGE OF CHANCE – From Now On, This Will Be Your God *
12.SHOP ASSISTANTS – It’s Up to You *
13.CLOSE LOBSTERS – Firestation Towers *
14.MIAOW – Sport Most Royal
15.HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT – I Hate Nerys Hughes (From The Heart)
16.THE SERVANTS – Transparent
17.MacKENZIES – Big Jim (There’s No Pubs In Heaven) *
18.BIG FLAME – New Way (Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology) *
19.WE’VE GOT A FUZZBOX AND WE’RE GONNA USE IT – Console Me *
20.McCARTHY – Celestial City *
21.THE SHRUBS – Bullfighter’s Bones *
22.THE WEDDING PRESENT – This Boy Can Wait (A Bit Longer!)
DISC TWO:
1. THE JUNE BRIDES – Just The Same
2. YEAH YEAH NOH – Another Side To Mrs Quill
3. THE PRIMITIVES – Lazy
4. JESSE GARON & THE DESPERADOES – Splashing Along
5. THE BAND OF HOLY JOY – Rosemary Smith
6. THE McTELLS – Virginia M.C. *
7. B.M.X. BANDITS – E102
8. ONE THOUSAND VIOLINS – Like One Thousand Violins
9. THE DENTISTS – Peppermint Dreams
10.THE MEMBRANES – Everything’s Brilliant
11.THE WEATHER PROPHETS – Worm In My Brain
12.THE BRILLIANT CORNERS – Meet Me On Tuesdays
13.TALULAH GOSH – I Told You So
14.PIGBROS – Hedonist Hat
15.14 ICED BEARS – Inside
16.ST. CHRISTOPHER – Go Ahead, Cry *
17.THE GROOVE FARM – Captain Fantastic (Demo)
18.KILGORE TROUT – The Peacock Nose *
19.THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Inside Me
20.THE HIT PARADE – You Didn’t Love Me Then
21.THAT PETROL EMOTION – Mine
22.THE TURNCOATS – One Breath *
23.A RIOT OF COLOUR – Skink (Flexi Version) *
24.PAUL GROOVY & THE POP ART EXPERIENCE – Tune In, Turn On, Trip Out **
25. THE RAILWAY CHILDREN – Darkness And Colour
DISC THREE:
1. THE CHESTERF!ELDS – Sweet Revenge
2. THE JASMINE MINKS – World’s No Place
3. STITCHED-BACK FOOT AIRMAN – Why *
4. RAZORCUTS – Sad Kaleidoscope
5. TREEBOUND STORY – I Remember *
6. THE NIGHTINGALES – Part Time Moral England
7. EPISODE FOUR – Strike Up Matches
8. THE AVONS – Everything’s Going Right *
9. MEAT WHIPLASH – Don’t Slip Up
10.KING OF THE SLUMS – Spider Psychiatry *
11.HAPPY MONDAYS – Freaky Dancin’
12.BIFF BANG POW! – Love’s Going Out Of Fashion
13.BLUE AEROPLANES – Outback Jazz
14.LAWRENCE & THE COMFORTABLE SOCIETY – Heartache *
15.LAUGH – Take Your Time, Yeah (Flexi Version) *
16.NORTH OF CORNWALLIS – Billy Liar **
17.POP WILL EAT ITSELF – Mesmerized
18.BENNY PROFANE – Hang Fire *
19.GO! SERVICE – Real Life
20.JANITORS – Good To Be The King *
21.THE CLAIM – Gullible’s Travels
22.THE AUCTIONEERS – Scoop **
23.NOSEFLUTES – Perfect Cockney Hard-On *
24.THE LOVE ACT – Hep Clothes **
25.THE ENORMOUS ROOM – I Don’t Need You *
** = PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
* = ORIGINALLY NEW TO CD (AT THE TIME OF THE FIRST PRESSING