In Lancaster, I spoke to the Bogshed bassist who became a caricaturist at weddings, while down in Croydon I found the ex-member of the Shrubs who later trained as an actor and found gainful employment as Jeremy Irons’s body double. So most of the bands approached it with low-expectations, believing that this set-up would be along the same lines in terms of audience and impact.

Most now are balding / greying (or bald) guys not in the industry but they've all got that edge still there from their youth.His full length debut on Daptone Records is equal parts raw feeling and elegance and exudes confidence and charm.

And yet with it being a media creation, it was the very same media who would later queue up to attack and ridicule any bands who they later deemed to be “C86”, when they had decided that musical trends had changed. The Mighty Lemon Drops’ guitarist Dave Newton was hunted down to California where he’s a record producer for hire, operating out of the studio in his double garage. Jude Rogers 'Who, of a certain vintage and a certain propensity for hoarding things in lofts, including cassette-tape compilations sold via a weekly music publication, wouldn't want THIS BOOK?It outlines the "many and varied paths through life" these musicians took over a period of more than three decades. Compiled by NME staffers, the mixtape highlighted emerging bands with a common sound: breezy, sometimes sardonic, vocals backed by jangling guitars. Tassell has done a fine job, his informal and relaxed style works really well and this makes for a great trip down memory lane for fans of the era or an ideal introduction to newcomers, into one of the most important Indie albums to be released in the UK in the 80s. A unique journey into the legacy and afterlives of the artists who featured on the legendary NME C86 tape.

It’s not hard to imagine The Shrubs’ distorted, discordant vocals cropping up in today’s noise-rock scene, while the wonky rhythms of the Stump song ‘Buffalo’ provided a rough blueprint for guitar music’s whole-hearted embrace of the dancefloor in the ‘00s. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. The spectre of John Peel looms large as Nige catches up with members of all 22 bands who supplied music for the compilation. About the Author: Nige Tassell is a music journalist whose writing has appeared in The Word, Q, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and New Statesman among others. Recorded at Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, NY, with the help of producer/arrangers Mike Buckley and Vincent Chiarito (both members of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires) and crack team of a-list musicians, his upcoming album blends heavy arrangements and introspective lyrics with sophistication, leaving the listener in a blissful wash of wonderment.The cassette’s rediscovery in the attic set in motion the idea of a book: to hunt down members of all of its 22 bands more than 35 years on.

Premium Digital includes access to our premier business column, Lex, as well as 15 curated newsletters covering key business themes with original, in-depth reporting. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, [3] as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. The book deconstructs the imagined glamour of life in a Peel session / NME single of the week / top 10 indie chart hit band to the point where you feel almost fatherly to the young groups of 36 years ago. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs.If you were a reader of the music press in the 1980s this is essential reading, and even if you weren’t it is a fascinating story of life after fame (in most cases). Where possible, I aimed to interview each person in the context of their life now, ideally before the backdrop of some aspect of their everyday existence.