• Track Listing

Deluxe three CD edition of this influential cassette-only release. Back in May/June 1986, the New Musical Express released one of their regular mail-order cassettes. Reflecting the latest trends in Indie music, C86 was a 22-track cassette which was inspired by the NME's C81 tape from half a decade earlier. Aside from a few name bands (The Pastels, Primal Scream, the Wedding Present, the Mighty Lemon Drops), most acts were relatively unknown beyond the back pages and gig listings of the weekly music press. C86 slowly but surely became the NME's best-selling ever compilation, selling an estimated 40,000 copies and eventually being reissued on LP and cassette by Rough Trade the following year. This deluxe expanded edition of the original C86 cassette adds some 50 bonus tracks. The box set is curated by original compiler Neil Taylor and has the endorsement of the NME. Neil has chosen tracks which could conceivably have been on the original C86 package. Key names include the June Brides, the Jesus & Mary Chain, the Primitives, That Petrol Emotion, Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes, Happy Mondays, the Nightingales, the Railway Children, Pop Will Eat Itself, BMX Bandits, and others.