C81 Playlist

It’s Friday and time for a new Rebellious Jukebox playlist. It was at the end of January 1981 that readers of NME could send away for the C81 Cassette, 34 years later we remember this classic compilation. The playlist, which is available here on Youtube, collects the 14 best tracks from the cassette, but first here’s your history lesson:

C81 was a cassette tape compiled by Rough Trade Records featuring new songs by Post-Punk bands on independent labels. Independent (or Indie) labels are those which operate outside of the mainstream of Major labels. Anti-commercialism and Do-It-Yourself were big parts of Punk ethics, and many bands took it upon themselves to create their own labels which weren’t owned, funded or distributed by Major labels, who made music for profit. In the UK the first independent Punk label was New Hormones, created by The Buzzcocks to release their excellent debut Spiral Scratch EP. Soon after, a wave of independent labels sprang up in the UK, like Rough Trade, Factory and 4AD, and in the US, where labels such as SST, Dischord and Alternative Tentacles continue to this day. C81 was intended as a celebration of the first five years of these DIY and independent labels. The cassette, which features some truly brilliant works by some of the UK’s most innovative groups, was compiled by Christopher Rose from Rough Trade and Roy Carr from NME. Each week leading up to the release, issues of NME featured pages that could be cut out and folded to create the ‘C81 Owner’s Manual’ to accompany the tape, adding an extra DIY element.

However, as brilliant as the music was, there have been criticisms of the tape. In 1981 Post-Punk was at a crossroads. The original Punk aesthetic had more-or-less disappeared from mainstream music and the scene had exploded into a multitude of diverse scenes and movements. Simon Reynolds, in Rip It Up and Start Again, describes the scene, ‘C81 was in many ways post-punk’s swan-song. The epoch it defined was already crumbling. Many of the featured artists… had already broken ranks with independent consensus: they sounded shiny, accessible, ambitious.’ The most obvious sign of the changing times is ‘Parallel Lines’ by Vic Godard & Subway Sect, which asks the important question ‘what happened?’. Punk was supposed to be about freedom and anarchy, yet by 1981 is had gotten to a point where the only way to be Punk was to sound like The Exploited; the bands truly progressing music had gone far past the sounds of the Sex Pistols. The next track is Velvet Underground inspired pop from Josef K, then signed to the legendary Scottish label Postcard records. A live track from Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (German American Friendship) mixes Kraftwerk, Neu! and Suicide into New Wave Dance. Another classic from The Buzzcocks, their last recording to feature the classic line up of Shelly/Diggle/Smith Maher, then the Gothic overtones of Virgin Prunes, then releasing on their own Baby label. The Beat offer a taste of the new wave of Ska music that had hit Britain thanks to labels like Two-Tone and Go Feet. An experimental collaboration between Texas’ original innovators Red Crayola and conceptual art collective Art + Language, followed by ‘The Sweetest Girl’ by Scritti Politi, with which one of Britain’s most radical political bands give up politics in favour of pop. Cabaret Voltaire offer a soundtrack to Industrialism, and Devon’s greatest export Furious Pig made their debut with this track featured on C81. An instrumental interlude by Young Marble Giants spin-off group Gist, before a fantastic piece by Kurt Cobain’s beloved Raincoats. With all the experimental pieces on the cassette, the strangest thing to find on there is the American Free-Funk guitarist James Blood Ulmer, however his hypnotic rhythms are a welcome addition. The playlist is finished off with a reading from Punk’s resident poet John Cooper Clarke. Due to availability, some songs have been changed from the original C81 cassette. To find out more about the original cassette see here.

This time next week expect a new playlist, featuring the most raw, raucous and ugly noises from 60s Punk.

28/09 On This Day in Punk History

This day – 1977 – The Pistols put out ads for their new single ‘Holidays in the Sun’, featuring the classic cartoon cover with lyrics from the song serving as dialogue. A real collector’s item and a great example of Pop Art on Punk Art:

 

One year later Sid Vicious will be on stage in Max’s Kansas City, having been and gone with The Pistols. With him on vocals the band is Arthur Kane and Steve Dior on guitars and Jerry Nolan on drums. They play some Dolls songs, some Stooges songs and the covers Vicious is known for such as ‘Stepping Stone’ and ‘Something Else’ (the man didn’t have a big repetoire).

This day 1981 in NME Neil Norman published a review of trans-star Divine; ‘…the Man-Girl itself… bursts through hastily erected paper screen like Mae West on Steroids… [singing plus] a couple os stories about the making of Pink Flamingoes and that scene’. Divine is not only Protopunk for her trash-glam style, subversive behaviour and appeal to bad tastes, but was also a part of the early New York scene. She was involved with The Ramones, The Heartbreakers and Wayne County and played all the clubs with them. Rebellious Jukebox remembers the gone, and tried-to-be-forgoteen Divine!

And finally, this day 1977 Stiff Records put out Hits Greatest Stiffs, The independent label stopped producing its early singles but the demand didn’t go down, so now record shops are selling 7-inches for extortionate prices. Therefore, Stiff release a compilation of their most desired tracks. To celebrate, I’ve made a youtube playlist recreating the album (except for the Plummet Airlines track which I changed cause I couldn’t find the original) – listen here!