It was within the final field I seemed in. I reached in and there was the treasure I sought: a cassette tape, battered and scratched, however its gold cowl nonetheless shining by means of the murk of the attic. The cassette – referred to as C86 – was considered one of three dozen compiled by NME through the Nineteen Eighties, bought to keen readers in change for a £2.95 postal order to cowl put up and packing. It was cash properly spent. A number of of the bands included on C86 would subsequently gallop ahead of their careers – the likes of Primal Scream, the Soup Dragons, the Wedding ceremony Current and Half Man Half Biscuit.
However, by together with tracks by shorter-lived lesser lights akin to Miaow, the Servants and the Mackenzies, it grew to become a dependable barometer studying of the bands in NME’s orbit within the spring of 1986. These teams laid the foundations for later outfits such because the Stone Roses, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys who took indie “overground”, swapping upstairs rooms in pubs for headline slots on the greatest festivals.
Though conceived to be merely the newest of NME’s cassettes, C86’s quick influence was to unintentionally give start to a subgenre of indie music – imaginatively titled C86. Rapidly lowered to a sneering, single-line stereotype that described such bands as both jangly, fey or shambling (or a mix of all three), any scene which will or might not have existed was shortly dismissed. Some bands managed to sidestep the C86 tag and keep it up their means; these had been the much less jangly, extra discordant outfits akin to Stump, Bogshed and Massive Flame. Others that fitted the stereotype would without end really feel confined by its straitjacket.
The cassette’s rediscovery within the attic set in movement the thought of a guide: to search out members of all of its 22 bands greater than 35 years on. I used to be fascinated to search out out what playing cards life had dealt them. As a number of months of subsequent detective work would uncover, its alumni had taken many and various paths by means of life. Some grew to become pop stars: Primal Scream’s Screamadelica gained the primary ever Mercury prize in 1992, the Soup Dragons performed to twenty,000 individuals at Madison Sq. Backyard and the Wedding ceremony Current scored 18 High 40 hits. However a lot of the different 19 bands may solely watch on in envy at these successes as they headed again to Civvy Road.
Within the age of social media, there was a hazard that these musicians can be too straightforward to search out – a message despatched in 10 seconds flat, a solution acquired inside the hour. However, fortunately, a good proportion of the category of C86 had gone to floor, requiring an old school technique of detection: trawling by means of cellphone directories. This was my fundamental tactic for monitoring down the 4 elusive members of Glossop’s most well-known musical sons, the Bodines. Equally, the lead “He runs a motorcycle store within the Highlands” was the dangling carrot that led me to pinpoint the whereabouts of Store Assistants guitarist David Keegan.
One after the other they agreed to be interviewed. Invariably, they'd ask who else had confirmed. If, say, members of the Pastels or Age of Probability or the Mighty Lemon Drops had been on board, that was sufficient for them. Some would tender previous cellphone numbers of their former bandmates, eager for every of those lacking individuals circumstances to be solved. Ultimately, no band needed to be disregarded, for his or her story to not be instructed. After I secured an interview with the drummer from the twenty second and final band to reply, I punched the air in delight. Reduction, too.
The place potential, I aimed to interview every particular person within the context of their life now, ideally earlier than the backdrop of some facet of their on a regular basis existence. So Keegan was evenly grilled over-the-counter of that store in Kingussie as he suggested clients about obscure bike components, whereas former A Witness singer Keith Curtis, now tour supervisor for PiL, was interviewed through the din of a soundcheck in Manchester. In Lancaster, I spoke to the Bogshed bassist who grew to become a caricaturist at weddings, whereas down in Croydon I discovered the ex-member of the Shrubs who later educated as an actor and located gainful employment as Jeremy Irons’s physique double.
I used to be completely satisfied to go the additional mile, usually at unsociable hours. I spoke to the Wolfhounds’ frontman David Callahan, now a famous ornithologist, after we went birdwatching on Rainham Marshes on the daybreak. At different instances, for different individuals, a cuppa in a sitting room or a pint in a saloon bar sufficed. The guide has a tremendously various solid, with these nonetheless capable of make their dwelling by means of music becoming a member of lecturers, shopkeepers, scientists, novelists, social staff, safety guards, teachers, radio producers and extra in my time machine.
Regardless of the vocation, I heard tales instructed with heat, candour and, pretty continuously, remorse. There have been many tales of “may haves” and “ought to haves”, of improper turns taken within the flush of floppy-fringed youth. However most had now made peace with these instances. They confirmed a middle-aged, mellowing satisfaction at how far that they had journeyed alongside the street to no matter promised land they had been aiming at, be it an enormous file deal, showing on High of the Pops and even simply securing one other session for John Peel. As the previous Wedding ceremony Current guitarist Peter Solowka, sacked from the band in 1991 however holding no grudge, instructed me: “It’s not what may need been. It’s what was.”
A couple of interviewees’ reminiscences had been initially hazy, requiring some encouragement to convey them into focus. Different had been immediately pin-sharp of their reminiscences as they recalled exact particulars from again within the day. The names of long-lost venues and recording studios. Verbatim quotes from a treasured dwell overview. The quantity of Enterprise Allowance money they acquired every week that allowed them to maintain dreaming their musical goals.
Travelling from Hove to the Highlands, from Whitstable to Wirral, the search grew to become – because the guide’s subtitle suggests – one thing of an odyssey. An overblown description? Presumably. However I did at the very least have an encounter with a cyclops – particularly Fred, the one-eyed pooch belonging to ex-Soup Dragon Sean Dickson, which we took for a stroll within the native cemetery.
There have been, although, no sirens making an attempt to lure me to my dying by means of track. The closest I got here was when sitting in on the primary rehearsal since pre-pandemic instances of the Birmingham five-piece Mighty Mighty, reconvened to play to an viewers of simply me. However 5 follicly challenged males on, or simply over, the brink of turning 60 don't seductive sirens make. Nonetheless, they sounded simply as sprightly and superb as that they had a number of many years earlier, even when they now wanted to take fistfuls of painkillers afterwards to beat back the consequences of a four-hour rehearsal.
I zigzagged my means up and down the nation, supping decaf scorching drinks within the West Midlands with the still-lively pop-punks We’ve Acquired a Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It, and skimming the wares of the classic/retro store in Harrogate run by Steve Elvidge, the ex-singer of Age of Probability. The plans for a motorcycle experience with Nigel Blackwell, Half Man Half Biscuit’s resident sage, had been scuppered when a monsoon-like downpour fell on Birkenhead. We stayed indoors as an alternative.
Others had been discovered farther afield. The Mighty Lemon Drops’ guitarist Dave Newton was hunted right down to California the place he’s a file producer for rent, working out of the studio in his double storage. He even as soon as shaped a covers band – the C86 All Stars – to play the indie hits of the mid-to-late 80s. Dave was clearly nonetheless completely satisfied to be related to C86. For lots of the bands, the cassette supplied their careers with a springboard, usually involving signing for a significant label. For others, it was a millstone that was arduous to shed, a pigeonhole unattainable to flee.
“There was an upside in addition to a draw back,” concludes Stephen McRobbie, of the Pastels. “There’s little doubt that it helped us to succeed in a bigger viewers. We most likely benefited. However it grew to become extra of a signifier than any of us imagined … ”
No matter Occurred to the C86 Children? An Indie Odyssey is printed by 9 Eight Books on 18 August. To assist the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Supply expenses might apply.
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