Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Velocity Girl - Primal Scream
2. Sun A Small Star - Servants
3. Around And Around - Hurrah
4. Why Does The Rain - Loft
5. Vibrato - East Village
6. Pristine Christine - Sea Urchins
7. What Went Wrong This Time - Siddeleys
8. Anorak City - Another Sunny Day
9. Get Out Of My Dream - Clouds (1)
10. Golden Shower - Boy Hairdressers
11. Ask Johnny Dee - Chesterfields (2)
12. He Blows In - Raw Herbs
13. Paul McCartney - Laugh
14. You Didn't Love Me Then - Hit Parade
15. Like Frankie Lymon - Weather Prophets
16. Sunday To Saturday - June Brides
17. I Had An Excellent Dream - Dentists
18. Everybodys Knows The Monkey - Mighty Mighty
19. E102 - BMX Bandits
20. Tallulah Gosh - Talulah Gosh
21. Cut Me Deep - Jasmine Minks
22. I'll Still Be There - Razorcuts
23. Therese - Bodines
24. Paradise Estate - Television Personalities

Disc 2:

1. Upside Down - Jesus & Mary Chain
2. Really Stupid - Primitives (1)
3. It Always Rains On Sunday - Groove Farm
4. Black Country Chainsaw Massacre - Pop Will Eat Itself
5. Come Get Me - 14 Iced Bears
6. Sign On The Line - Fizzbombs
7. Anti Midas Touch - Wolfhounds (1)
8. This Boy Can Wait - Wedding Present
9. Bible Of The Beats - Age Of Chance
10. Safety Net - Shop Assistants
11. Just Too Bloody Stupid - Close Lobsters
12. Dukla Prague Away Kit - Half Man Half Biscuit
13. Don't Slip Up - Meat Whiplash
14. I Could Be In Heaven - Flatmates
15. If I Said - Darling Buds
16. Poised Over The Pause Button - This Poison
17. Jack And Julian - Bachelor Pad
18. On Tape - Pooh Sticks
19. Flowers Are In The Sky - Revolving Paint Dream
20. Whole Wide World - Soup Dragons
21. Frans Hals - McCarthy (1)
22. Like An Angel - Mighty Lemon Drops
23. Why Popstars Can't Dance - Big Flame
24. Baby Honey - Pastels (1)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11768 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

CD Description
In 1986, U.K. music magazine New Musical Express released acassette called C86, a 22-track overview of a new crop of guitar-centric indie bands whose brief, simple, at times amateurish songs were heavily influenced by echoes of 1970s punkand 1960s psychedelia. It was so influential that this entire subgenre of British indie rock (roughly, everything between the Smiths and the Stone Roses) is often dubbed C86. Twenty years after this seminal release, St. Etienne's Bob Stanley compiled the outstanding 48-track anthology CD86 as a tribute to the era. The compilation only contains a few songs from the tape itself, including Primal Scream's iconic jangle-pop rush, "Velocity Girl". Wisely, Stanley chooses better songs from the original C86 bands than those that had appeared on the tape, including the Shop Assistants' brilliant buzzsaw-pop stormer "Safety Net" and Half Man Half Biscuit's signature "All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit". Rarities by beloved bands from the same time and place, like the Dentists' "I Had An Excellent Dream", fill out the set perfectly, making a compelling argument for the scene's depth and lasting impact.

Customer Reviews

Woke up to the smell of fresh cut grass ...
Well, who do you think would have put out the best indiepop double CD compilation in recent times, the hipper than hip Rough Trade or the 90's answer to K-tel - Castle ? The contents speak for themselves here with an absolute 'on-the-nail' selection from a truly golden age of British indie music. Sure, there's the odd 3rd division turkey in there, but out of 48 tracks that still makes for an exciting listen through !

I can't understand the odd gripe in other reviews that it doesn't represent every type of music that was on the original C86 tape though, that seems to be missing the point somehow. Very fine as the music put out by the likes of Ron Johnson was, stylistically it's of a different strain that came from and went through to other places. Leaving this stuff off the compilation actually makes the listening thread hang together much better.

I'd recommend this thoroughly both to those who 'wore their fringes like Roger McGuinn' at the time or to any younger viewers who've maybe read about the scene with some curiosity and want a high quality introduction to what, for anyone who was 16 in 1987 rather than in 1977 like me, was genuinely their very own Punk Rock.

Blasts From The Past
Fantastic compilation from a neglected era (area) of music. Some stuff I still listen to 20 years on (Wedding Present, JAMC, Half Man Half Biscuit), some stuff I didn't know (Fizzbombs) and some excellent blasts from the past I'd forgotten all about (Mighty Lemon Drops, Shop Assistants, Bodines and especially Anti Midas Touch by the Wolfhounds. It only loses a point because there's a bit too much crossover with the Subway Organisation and Rough Trade Indiepop compilations. Still such minor carping aside, well worth a dip into.

Anoraks Away!!
The 20th anniversary of the last truly rock orientated movement of the 1980's has recieved minimal column inches and just this one solitary compliation. C86 was a movement which gelled only after NME put a cassette out featuring a collection of relativley new bands causing a storm on the indie charts and getting regular plays on John Peel whilst anorak clad hordes bounced around to the sounds when they played live. It was alternative and it was proper indie music as there were labels set up to record and distribute this music by people who loved.

20 years on and we get a look back at this genre and 48 tracks at first look seems generous. There are a number of key bands represented here Primal Scream, The Primitives, Half Man Half Buscuit, BMX Bandits all of whom were key to the scene. There are also some glaring omissions which gives this collection a somewhat misleadingly narrow sound. There was a lot more to this scene than simple jingle jangle but you wouldn't believe it listening to this. The awkward and difficult sounds of the likes of Bogshed, Stump and even We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Going To Use It were all on the NME cassette and part of the movement although none get a place here. The sleevenotes betray the real problem with this compilation as Bob Stanley writes with all the dispassion of a record collector and not a fan.

Musically this is still wonderful. Sometimes off key, sometimes out of tune, even out of time with itself. It has an energy and a passion that makes it very much of its time by still powerfully compelling. Hearing some of these pieces for the first time in years made me feel nostalgic and a little sad that this wonderful music was something of a cul-du-sac as there is really little trace of this sound in the current crop of bands. Hearing The Flatmates strident "Shimmer", puzzling why "Like An Angel" by The Mighty Lemon Drops wasn't a hit, or marvelling at how well a song like "Anti Midas Touch" by The Wolfhounds has whethered is what compilations like this are for.

If looking for something of a flavour of the time I'd begin with the Subway Records collection, and then the Rough Trade "Indiepop" CD (both of which share a fair few duplicates with CD86) and then take a look at this, and don't forget your anorak!