C81
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Back When NME Was Fab? Highlights From C81
I was but a nine year-old lad in 1981, listening to Randy Stonehill and Larry Norman records on the home hi-fi, so I have no personal recollections of NME's C81 compilation or even its more famous offspring, C86. The C81 comp was a cassette released by NME and Rough Trade records to, in the words of Wikipedia "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.
Perusing the C81 tracklisting I wonder, Would NME champion such a variety of genres today? It's easy to make generalizations for the sake of an argument, but based on the wide range of styles found on the comp in comparison to the acts the magazine heavily promotes currently, my immediate answer is No. I also have to speculate, Has NME lowered itself to shilling bland pap (in my opinion) solely to shift more units or is it just a mirror, reflecting the state of popular British indie music? In my opinion equal diversity exists today, but would NME have the guts to promote it?
C81 captured the dying of one movement - "post punk's swan song" said Simon Reynolds, and the emergence of another - "new pop", according to Pitchfork's Jess Harvell. What movements would a C2006 summarize? In 25 years, how will the bands in the headlines today be viewed? Sorry, I have lots of questions!
The C81 Tracklisting, courtesy of Wikipedia
Side one 1. "The "Sweetest Girl"" (MP3) - Scritti Politti 2. "Twist and Crawl Dub" - The Beat 3. "Misery Goats" - Pere Ubu 4. "7,000 Names of Wah!" - Wah! Heat 5. "Blue Boy" - Orange Juice 6. "Raising the Count" - Cabaret Voltaire 7. "Kebab Traume Live" - D.A.F 8. "Bare Pork" - Furious Pig 9. "Raquel" - The Specials 10. "I Look Alone" - Buzzcocks 11. "Fanfare in the Garden" - Essential Logic 12. "Born Again Cretin" - Robert Wyatt
Side two 1. "Shouting Out Loud" - The Raincoats 2. "Endless Soul" - Josef K 3. "Low Profile" - Blue Orchids 4. "Red Nettle" - Virgin Prunes 5. "We Could Send Letters" - Aztec Camera 6. "Milkmaid" - Red Crayola 7. "Don't Get in My Way" - Linx 8. "The Day My Pad Went Mad" - The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes 9. "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" (MP3) - James Blood Ulmer 10. "Close to Home" - Ian Dury 11. "Greener Grass" - Gist 12. "Parallel Lines" (MP3) - Subway Sect
Great Times, Great Music.
Back When NME Was Fab? Highlights From C81
I was but a nine year-old lad in 1981, listening to Randy Stonehill and Larry Norman records on the home hi-fi, so I have no personal recollections of NME's C81 compilation or even its more famous offspring, C86. The C81 comp was a cassette released by NME and Rough Trade records to, in the words of Wikipedia "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.
Perusing the C81 tracklisting I wonder, Would NME champion such a variety of genres today? It's easy to make generalizations for the sake of an argument, but based on the wide range of styles found on the comp in comparison to the acts the magazine heavily promotes currently, my immediate answer is No. I also have to speculate, Has NME lowered itself to shilling bland pap (in my opinion) solely to shift more units or is it just a mirror, reflecting the state of popular British indie music? In my opinion equal diversity exists today, but would NME have the guts to promote it?
C81 captured the dying of one movement - "post punk's swan song" said Simon Reynolds, and the emergence of another - "new pop", according to Pitchfork's Jess Harvell. What movements would a C2006 summarize? In 25 years, how will the bands in the headlines today be viewed? Sorry, I have lots of questions!
The C81 Tracklisting, courtesy of Wikipedia
Side one 1. "The "Sweetest Girl"" (MP3) - Scritti Politti 2. "Twist and Crawl Dub" - The Beat 3. "Misery Goats" - Pere Ubu 4. "7,000 Names of Wah!" - Wah! Heat 5. "Blue Boy" - Orange Juice 6. "Raising the Count" - Cabaret Voltaire 7. "Kebab Traume Live" - D.A.F 8. "Bare Pork" - Furious Pig 9. "Raquel" - The Specials 10. "I Look Alone" - Buzzcocks 11. "Fanfare in the Garden" - Essential Logic 12. "Born Again Cretin" - Robert Wyatt
Side two 1. "Shouting Out Loud" - The Raincoats 2. "Endless Soul" - Josef K 3. "Low Profile" - Blue Orchids 4. "Red Nettle" - Virgin Prunes 5. "We Could Send Letters" - Aztec Camera 6. "Milkmaid" - Red Crayola 7. "Don't Get in My Way" - Linx 8. "The Day My Pad Went Mad" - The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes 9. "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" (MP3) - James Blood Ulmer 10. "Close to Home" - Ian Dury 11. "Greener Grass" - Gist 12. "Parallel Lines" (MP3) - Subway Sect
Great Times, Great Music.
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