C86 & All That: The Creation of Indie In Difficult Times

To celebrate the launch of Neil Taylor's magnificent survey of the 80's indie scene(s), Walthamstow Rock N' Roll Book Club invited all to a fantastic evening of heated discussion, live music and key tracks that soundtracked our youth.

Neil Taylor co-compiled C86 while at NME and is the author of Document & Eyewitness: An Intimate History Of Rough Trade. Since the 1990s he has worked in publishing.


Cheap guitars, charity shop clothes, the Miners’ Strike, Thatcher and The Cold War … Welcome to the alternative ‘80s

C86 & All That: The Creation of Indie In Difficult Times comprehensively documents the rise of indie during the socially-divisive 1980s, tracing its ancestry out of Post Punk, Neo Psychedelia, Anarcho Punk, Garage, Trash and Goth and on to the landmark compilation C86 in the spring of 1986.

The Smiths were flag-bearers for the scene, the Jesus & Mary Chain bête noires threatening an ever more-bland music establishment. They were joined at the barricades by hundreds of others – the Wedding Present, the Shop Assistants, the Pastels, the June Brides, Primal Scream, The Membranes, The Servants, Wolfhounds, Bog-shed, Big Flame and the Loft, to name a handful. New labels, clubs and samizdat fanzines publications sprang up to document the scene.

The book casts an eye over a period when indie was a passion not a brand, and places its rise firmly in the context of the turbulent political times. Based on primary source material – including scores of forgotten fanzines -it also draws in the views of many of the key players, opening a window on a period that, with its parallels, resonates strongly today.

Neil Taylor co-compiled C86 while at NME and is the author of Document & Eyewitness: An Intimate History Of Rough Trade. Since the 1990s he has worked in publishing.

‘Neil Taylor – the man who gave us help when help was needed. Enough said….’Alan McGee

Panel Discussion chaired by Neil Taylor with Pete Astor (Loft/Weather Prophets), John Robb (Membranes), Dave Callahan (Wolfhounds). Live performnces from Pete Astor, Luke Haines (The Auteurs/The Servants) & Dave Callahan & Andy Golding (Wolfhounds). Walthamstow's own Dancette demons, Disco 2000 will be on the decks throughout. Doors at 6:30pm, talk from 7pm midnight finish.
Organized by Mark Hart
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