Just not true. I called on Everett ('The Legend') in 86 to get some publicity for my band (didn't sleep on his floor, but he offered tea and biscuits - he was scrupulously polite.) He was having a moment about fellow Romford popsters, The Wolfhounds (hence my excuse to call round). After an hour or two discussing music and whether to go and see the Bambi Slam (U.S Grunge precursors) that night, he decided he was too busy folding sleeves for the new single from the Soup Dragons' (quirky Buzzcocks soundalikes). Listening to C86, you'll hear McCarthy, who don't sound like anyone; Roger McGuinn lookalikes, Primal Scream and The Pastels; lounge-popsters, Mighty Mighty; 70s trivia obsessives, Half-Man, Half Biscuit; minimalist pop-punks, Fuzzbox; Miaow, who again, don't really sound like anyone, and....well, I could go on, like Everett's reviews (which had a primitive charm, like many of the bands). The point is, while he's correct in saying 'C86' now seems to mean either bowl-haircutted 12-string guitar bands OR fuzzy pop beat acts (so that's '2' styles then, not one), what's on the NME's compilation goes WAY beyond any Byrds v Beefheart binary. He also plays down the fact that he, along with Neil Taylor (and to a degree, Rom Ron at Sounds) played a huge part in promoting the scene. They were the fanzine geeks who became music press writers and chose which bands to highlight; the NME just put them on a cassette. Plus. in no way, shape or form, did C86 'wipe out' other styles of alternative music (not even Goth - regrettably for some). In the mid-eighties, indie labels of all kinds clearly flourished. And if 'Grebo' or 'Baggy' got pushed back slightly, well, that was in part, at least, due to Everett and co choosing to ignore them. Maybe he saw Kurt Cobain and Nirvana as a form of atonement; he wasn't the only hack to repent of his supposed twee-worshipping sins in favour of a return to grass roots rock and roll. I still like Everett, but be wary of taking the recollections of old music journos (and bands) at face value.

Wow 👌 very informative

True indie twee riot grrrl is more punk than anything

C86, so much to answer for. Folks these days idealise this to mean twee.shamblin, cute, bowl haircutted indie. As Everret ( The Legend ) says'it wiped out all different futures of music in the uk'. I remember the anoraky cutie types at the time. It was basically started by the pastels but it was fun. But musically, with all the other bands that jumped on the band wagon it got quit boring, soon after it started, With all the fey foppish twee daftness. It was a distraction from all the other every day dullness that was going on in some parts of Britain.

Neither of them 'appeared on the front of the NME' .