Nige Tassell tracks down all 22 bands on the NME’s C86 cassette

Nige Tassell tracks down all 22 bands on the NME’s C86 cassette - “regional Britain revisited!”

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2 жыл бұрын

Author and former Word writer Nige Tassell sent off his coupons to the NME in 1986, paid his £1.50 post and packaging and acquired the tape now generally considered to be the birth of Indie. When he found it in his loft a few months ago he had a lightbulb moment. In an extraordinary piece of detective work he’s tracked down and talked to members of all the bands that were on it for his new book ‘Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids’, among them Primal Scream, the Mighty Lemon Drops, the Wolfhounds and the Shop Assistants (you can still hear the voice of Peel reading the tracklist - “the mighty Stump, Bogshed, Close Lobsters … ”). One’s an ornithologist, some are teachers, some still touring, one played Madison Square Garden and is now a driving instructor. It’s a touching account of giddy ambition, noble ideals, “dark nights of the soul” and what happened, in many cases, when wilful lack of ambition came face to face with the corporate record label. And a welcome reminder that Half Man Half Biscuit were once offered a slot on the Tube, to be ferried from Birkenhead to Newcastle by helicopter, but turned it down to watch Tranmere Rovers. Punk was largely the story of the London suburbs but the C86 was regional Britain.
@nigetassell
Books by Nige Tassell including ‘Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids: an Indie Odyssey’: www.amazon.co.uk/NIGE-TASSELL...
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Пікірлер: 44

@SamLowryDZ-015 2 жыл бұрын

C86 - also marked the last golden period of the University touring circuit, which thanks to Thatcher putting a block on NUS fundraising activities, was practically dead by the end of the decade and finished of by the Education bill in '93.

@markofsaltburn 2 жыл бұрын

There were a lot of tax-loss bands pushed out on to the college circuit in the time between The Smiths and baggy, and most of them weren’t great.

@SamLowryDZ-015 2 жыл бұрын

@@markofsaltburn All depends on your POV - I certainly remember seeing such greats at the local SU - Smiths, REM, New Model Army, The cult, Killing Joke, The Woodentops, The Fall, Neds, Sisters and Mission, Proclaimers, Howard Devoto Band, Billy Bragg Chumbawamba, Carter USM, The Bolshoi, House of Love, The Manics, Spacemen 3 and The Mighty Lemon Drops to name but a few. And I don't think any of them were more than 3 quid when you would easily be paying £5 or £6 the next week to see the same band at the Lyceum, Astoria or the Palais.

@KevKavanagh Жыл бұрын

Same in Australia. Universities were great venues for young bands often denied an opportunity in mainstream venues, lunchtime shows in particular being great showcases. The Tory Howard government put an end to that by destroying the student unions which funded these activities.

@dancing-the-whole-way-home Жыл бұрын

This was my era. Somebody had to write this book sooner or later! Great read, Nige. Thank you

@PretzelLogic 2 жыл бұрын

For a while there around 1986 The Shop Assistants were the band I got slightly obsessed with. A couple of years ago it was discovered that the singer Alex Taylor had died back in 2005. I thought surely a website like Louder than War, or a paper like The Scotsman, or any music mag would report this and tell her story. But from what I have found, nothing has been written. Which is why when I learn of this book I thought maybe......but after watching this, I suspect this will be a footnote at best.

@markofsaltburn 2 жыл бұрын

I love the Luba & The Shop Assistants single “Something to do”, which, like the early Hurrah! and Pastels singles, was ahead of the curve. It was the best example of C86 twat-pop, but it helped create a monster.

@nigetassell370 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Bluerum. In the book, David Keegan talks a lot about Alex, including when he discovered that she'd passed away many years previously. That Alex's husband had chosen to remain private about her passing for so long meant I was in no position to encroach. At the time her death was revealed, the We Are Cult website wrote a heartfelt appreciation of her. Well worth a read.

@eightiesmusic1984 10 ай бұрын

@@nigetassell370Just read the book and really enjoyed it, even though I do not know any of the music. I was aware at the time of some of the bands and remember the compilation being released but I was not into indie per se. I will be checking out some of the tracks and the work of the bands as a result of reading the book-my musical palate has expanded almost as much as my waistline in the intervening years- I was 16 in 1986. Although I was not familiar with the bands learning about what happened subsequently with musicians is always interesting and often very poignant, as the book proved. Growing up on Merseyside, I knew something of Half Man Half Biscuit- the chapter on them was especially interesting I thought. A really enjoyable, well written book, so thank you!

@belverticale 2 жыл бұрын

Yes I sent off my dough to the NME in 1986 as a 15 year old and tried strumming along to a lot of these tracks in me bedroom. It wasn't all weedy jangle though...there was the post-punk Beefheart weird out of Stump...the post-modern noise of Age of Chance, and of course the mighty Fuzzbox.

@ukzen9309 2 жыл бұрын

Great times , i still have loads of fanzines some with flexis or cassettes , sent off for using an address provided by Peelie on his show

@jeffbroadhurst7315 2 жыл бұрын

I bought C86. Some good stuff on there.

@neilparnell2089 2 жыл бұрын

Think you'll find Gillepsie is singing on Loaded he sings 'ahhhh Yeah" at 3.10 on the track haha

@markkavanagh7377 2 жыл бұрын

Rock on, Tommy!

@louistracy6964 2 жыл бұрын

great stuff

@richardjames5843 2 жыл бұрын

Must have some bloody long wall plugs holding up that vinyl!

@simonharris6652 2 жыл бұрын

I recently acquired a copy of C81. Maybe that could be your follow up book Nige. Several bands on there definitely still going in one form or another but what became of Red Crayola or Gist or Furious Pig?

@markofsaltburn 2 жыл бұрын

C81 featured a much more interesting and varied selection of music than C86.

@nigetassell370 2 жыл бұрын

C81 gets many mentions in the book. So many of the interviewees loved it.

@Spectrescup Жыл бұрын

@@markofsaltburn without doubt.

@markwatkins8309 2 жыл бұрын

All good - Nigel radiates genuineness btw, a rare commodity these days. I'm glad his C86 dream came true (in a book) and I bet it was hard work as well as interesting to do.

@nigetassell370 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Mark. Yes, it was loads of fun. Met a ton of fascinating, funny people.

@markofsaltburn 2 жыл бұрын

The C86 period is far more interesting than it is listenable. The Festive 50 for that year, which was chock-full of those twat-pop bands, was the nadir of the post-punk era, and Peel very quickly came to feel stifled by the conservatism of the movement he’d facilitated. Ten years after the hippies sulked away from Peel when he started playing The Ramones, the anoraks were writing him stroppy letters demanding the expulsion of hip hop from the airwaves.

@benday1218 2 жыл бұрын

Yes it is conservative musically (sadly I like that 'twee rubbish'). But McCarthy were communists? There's a huge twee pop movement in the USA these days - I'd love someone to explain how that happened.

@Ridersonthestorm8899 2 жыл бұрын

@@benday1218 My recommended jingle jangly pop from the mid 80s was The Dentists album Some People Are On The Pitch👍😀 Great stuff

@benday1218 2 жыл бұрын

@@Ridersonthestorm8899 thanks, I don't know it, so will check it out. For modern US twee - a good example is 'Obvious to you' by Le Pain.

@TheEggmaniac Жыл бұрын

C86 might be an iconic music release of its time, but the music on it wasnt the best. Some of the bands on it were good, but when they were asked by the NME to give a track for their new free cassette, they or their record companies, generally offered some of their lesser known tracks, or B sides for it. They had no idea it was going to become so popular. There were many better bands going around at the time. So im not sure how representative it is of the music of time. It just seems to be a slightly random choice of guitar based bands by NME journalists. A lot of the bands on it have quite hard angular sound, which is completely different to the jangly guitar sound which people associate C86 with. Its has a lot to do with NME hype. It was one of its many inventions, of a new movement of music. It was a good promotion for their latest concept of a new musical movement. Though many of the bands had little in common. Obviously if you try to promote this new genre of music, you hope it will sell copies of your paper. That was what they did.

@stevencowie7151 Жыл бұрын

DIY is it? Joe Meek springs to mind ahem.

@stevencowie7151 Жыл бұрын

@Pontiac Soviro UK related post?

@miketomlin6040 2 жыл бұрын

Talk about a labour of love..................or something to do. But interesting how people navigate fame, or some fame of the short lived variety.

@GriefTourist Жыл бұрын

I'm really looking forward to reading the book but the music doesn't hold up that well but I don't think it was meant to!

@Larry-Art179 2 жыл бұрын

😁

@jonathancole833 2 жыл бұрын

I remember seeing Bobby Gillespie on Andrew Neil's late-night BBC show 3-4 years ago; looking like a disgusted/embarrassed teenager as Neil and guests, including Michael Portillo, danced around him for some reason that I can't remember.

@tolhumexy6706 2 жыл бұрын

The disdain! I think it might have been that Gang Namh Style (?)

@alanwilliams1223 Жыл бұрын

Yes, I remember that show, it was called 'This Week' a late night fave of mine. Not only Bobby Gillespie but they had some inane musical guests like an up with the fairies Pete Doherty and Ginger Baker who clearly didn't want to be there.

@diskochimp Жыл бұрын

"Neil and guests, including Michael Portillo, danced around him for some reason that I can't remember." Because they are attention-seeking Westminster idiots?

@djditchwater5734 Жыл бұрын

Bogshed were never on Ron Johnson!

@carltwidle3287 2 жыл бұрын

Can't remember the Shop Assistants at all.

@black__bread 2 жыл бұрын

c. 18 minute mark discussing the Soup Dragons bass player who became a driving instructor, missed out he's currently a producer for BBC radio 3 and alongside that and the driving instruction has recorded however many albums as "Future Pilot A.K.A" with folk including Philip Glass and Thurston Moore. No saying 'Nige' is a bullsh!tter, am saying he seem's hella selective in ways that fit a certain narrative.

@nigetassell370 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Martin. You'll be delighted to learn that there's a good few thousand words in the book on Sushil, including plenty of talk about radio producing and Future Pilot AKA. He was one of my favourite interviewees in the whole book. Spent a lovely morning with him in his conservatory, drinking chai and eating samosas.

@VonL 2 жыл бұрын

@@nigetassell370 (mike drop)

@matthewcoombs3282 Ай бұрын

Brtish Indie aside from a few bands (Smiths,Go Betweens) was weak. I mainly listened to American bands during that period, or stuff from previous decades from Beanos in Croydon. Before CD reissue mania you had to get a lot of 60s stuff second hand.