''C81'' was a cassette compiled for the British music paper ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' in 1981 (hence (C)assette 81) and released in conjunction with the record label Rough Trade. Featuring a number of contemporary musical acts and performers, it was intended to mark the first five years of the

independent label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represente ...

movement in the UK record industry and Rough Trade itself. It was the first in a series of many cassette releases from the paper, including the ''

C86 ''C86'' is a Audio cassette, cassette compilation released by the British music magazine ''NME'' in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, ''C86'' quickly evolved into shorthand for a g ...

'' compilation of 1986.

Background

''C81'' was compiled by ''NME'' journalist

Roy Carr Roy Carr (1945 – 1 July 2018) was an English music journalist, covering pop, rock and jazz. He joined the ''New Musical Express (NME)'' in the late 1960s, and edited ''NME'', '' Vox'' and ''Melody Maker'' magazines. Biography Born in Black ...

, and Christopher Rose, who worked in

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. Pu ...

for Rough Trade. To obtain a copy, ''NME'' readers needed to collect two coupons from the magazine and send off £1.50. The first printed coupons and advertisement for the cassette were in the issue dated 31 January 1981. By the time ''C81'' went on general sale at the end of May that year, 25,500 copies had been sold through the coupon offer, which represented a "big commercial success" according to Carr. The tape contained a set of 25 diverse tracks ranging from

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

( Red Crayola, Essential Logic, D.A.F., the Raincoats),

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

(

James Blood Ulmer James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues music, blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been ...

), poetry (

John Cooper Clarke John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet and comedian who styled himself as a "punk poet" in the late 1970s. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he released several albums and performed on stage with punk and post-punk ...

ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...

( the Beat), electronic ( Cabaret Voltaire) to veteran '

Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) is a musical scene that originated in the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisation ...

' performer

Robert Wyatt Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...

. It was accompanied by the ''C81 Owner's Manual'', a 32-page booklet of lyrics and artwork that readers would assemble themselves by cutting up and folding a page from the tabloid sized magazine. This consisted of 16 small double sided panels, and was designed to be slipped into the cassette case. A running joke throughout the booklet was the comparison of a number of acts on the tape to various periods in the history of

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

. When ''C81'' went on general sale in May 1981,

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...

refused to re-licence the tracks by

the Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

and Linx, and these were then replaced by Panther Burns and

Television Personalities The Television Personalities are an English post-punk band formed in 1977 by London singer-songwriter Dan Treacy.Earp, Joseph.The Missing Man Of Music: A Search For The Elusive Dan Treacy Of Television Personalities. ''The Brag'', 26 July 2016 ...

. Publishing a tape was an acknowledgment of the flourishing self-published cassette culture of the time that the ''NME'' had been supporting during its short-lived ''Garageland'' column. An alternative view, however, was that the ''C81'' cassette was more akin to ' bandwagon jumping', drawing on the enthusiasm and momentum of the cassette culture movement and using this as a promotional tool, whilst failing to acknowledge that movement, and ignoring its inherent critique of the established music industry. British music writer

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his career at ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture. Reynold ...

called it "post punk's swan song", noting the appearance of three acts from Scottish independent label Postcard Records and the emerging new pop tendency of bands such as Linx and

Scritti Politti Scritti Politti are a British band formed in 1977 in Leeds by singer-songwriter Green Gartside, who is the sole remaining member of the original band. Initially formed as a punk culture, punk-aligned underground act influenced by leftist poli ...

, and that ''NME'' stopped publishing the ''Garageland'' column in the very same month that ''C81'' went on general sale, an acknowledgement that the DIY cassette culture movement was on the wane.Reynolds (2005). p. 366.

Track listing

Side one

# " The "Sweetest Girl"" –

(6:09) # " Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat (4:58) # "Misery Goats" –

Pere Ubu Pere Ubu is an American rock group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. The band had a variety of long-term and recurring band members, with singer David Thomas being the only member staying throughout the band's lifetime. They released their ...

(2:26) # "7,000 Names of Wah!" – Wah! Heat (3:57) # "Blue Boy" –

Orange Juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange (fruit), orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As ...

(2:52) # "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire (3:32) # "Kebab-Träume (Live)" –

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (; "German-American Friendship"), or D.A.F., was a German electropunk/Neue Deutsche Welle band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabi Delgado-López, Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López (vocals), Robert Gör ...

(3:50) # "Bare Pork" – Furious Pig (1:28) # "Raquel" –

The Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

(1:51) (replaced by "Bourgeois Blues" by Panther Burns on reissued version) # "I Look Alone" –

Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band that singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto formed in Manchester in 1976. During their career, the band combined elements of punk rock, power pop, and pop punk. The ...

(3:00) # "Fanfare in the Garden" – Essential Logic (3:00) # "Born Again Cretin" –

(3:07)

Side two

# "Shouting Out Loud" – The Raincoats (3:19) # "Endless Soul" – Josef K (2:27) # "Low Profile" –

Blue Orchids Blue Orchids are an English post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1979, when Martin Bramah left The Fall (band), the Fall, after playing on the band's debut album ''Live at the Witch Trials''. Christened by Salford-based punk poet John Cooper ...

(3:47) # "Red Nettle" – Virgin Prunes (2:13) # "We Could Send Letters" –

Aztec Camera Aztec Camera were a Scottish pop/ new wave band founded by Roddy Frame, the group's singer, songwriter and only consistent member. Established in 1980, Aztec Camera released a total of six studio albums: '' High Land, Hard Rain'' (1983), ''Kn ...

(4:57) # "Milkmaid" – Red Crayola (2:01) # "Don't Get in My Way" – Linx (5:15) (replaced by "Magnificent Dreams" by

on reissued version) # "The Day My Pad Went Mad" – The Massed Carnaby St

(1:46) # "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" –

(4:03) # "Close to Home" –

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was an English singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s, during the punk rock, punk and new wave music, new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Kilburn ...

(4:13) # "Greener Grass" –

Gist In computing, GiST or Generalized Search Tree, is a data structure and API that can be used to build a variety of disk-based search trees. GiST is a generalization of the B+ tree, providing a concurrent and recoverable height-balanced search tree ...

(2:32) # "Parallel Lines" –

Subway Sect Subway Sect were one of the first British punk bands. Although their commercial success was limited by the small amount of recorded material they released, they have been credited as highly influential on the Postcard Records scene and the ind ...

(2:38) # "81 Minutes" –

(0:13)

References

External links