CD86 was issued in 2006. C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition didn’t appear until 2014. I’m thinking as the former had already featured this song, the latter couldn’t follow suit, which is why it went for an album track (see Part 52 of this series)
mp3: Upside Down – The Jesus and Mary Chain
Track 1, Disc 2 of CD86.
The band’s debut single, released on Creation Records in November 1984. The reverse of the sleeve on the very first pressings provided a contact address for the Jesus and Mary Chain. It was a residential address…possibly where the Reid brothers family home was?….the house is still standing awaiting some sort of commemorative plaque.
mp3: Velocity Girl – Primal Scream
Track 1, Side 1 of the C86 cassette; Track 1 Disc one of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition AND Track 1, Disc 1 of CD86.
One of only two songs to make it onto both of the CD compilations that have provided most of the content for this series,
The song most synonymous with C86? I think a very strong case can be made. 1 minute and 22 seconds of jangle-pop perfection. And to think, until C86, it would probably have been remembered only as an exceptional b-side to Crystal Crescent, the initially poor-selling second single released by Primal Scream on Creation Records.
Part 93 of this series recently told the story behind Strike Up Matches by Episode Four, and how that the band soon after changed name to East Village, who would see five singles and one album released between 1988 and 1993. It’s time to expand a little bit…
Their first two EPs, in 1988 were recorded for the newly established Sub Aqua Records. The label collapsed, unexpectedly, in 1989, leaving East Village high and dry.
Sub Aqua had been run by Jeff Barrett and having dusted himself down from the demise, he was now involved in a new label called Heavenly Records, and he asked East Village to join the roster. This led to a new single, Circles, being just the sixth release on the new label in early 1991.
Work had also been completed on a debut album, but before anything could be done in terms of its release, East Village decided, in March 1991, to break up. The album, Drop Out, would in due course be released posthumously in 1993 in the UK by Heavenly and over in Australia by the Melbourne-based Summertime Records. The Aussies already had a relationship with the band, and post break-up had put out a 7″ single with two previously unreleased songs, of which this was the a-side:-
Track 5, Disc 1 of CD86
It was no real surprise that Bob Stanley included East Village when he compiled CD86 as he’d long been a fan. Indeed, he had helped finance the recording of what would become the debut album when the band was between labels in 1989/90. Summershine Records would later release another East Village single in 1993 and finally a compilation CD, Hotrod Hotel, a collection of singles, b-sides and some unreleased demos.
And while none of the East Village releases can quite command the amounts that are asked when the Episode Four 12″ appears on the second-hand market, they still are reasonably valuable.
The McTells were from Hertford, a town some 30 miles north of London, and whose recording output, if Discogs does have everything listed, consisted of two cassette-only albums, two vinyl albums, one flexidisc single, nine vinyl singles and once compilation CD between 1986 and 1994, most of which came out on their own Bi-Joopiter Records. They could very well be as good a fit as any for the term ‘cult-band’, and DIY was very much their mantra.
The flexidisc single appeared in 1986, given away with Issue 2 of the Too Much Hanky Pantry fanzine. It featured two songs by The McTells and one by Rig Veeda and The Twins.
mp3: Virginia M.C. – The McTells
Track 6 Disc two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
It was the second of the songs on the flexidisc.
JC