a thread for those 1980s nme tapes that some kind soul decided to digitise for our listening pleasure

http://pressplayandrecord.wordpress.com/

these were doing the rounds on twitter last week, so I downloaded a bunch and am very slowly going through. There is so much jazz! I didn't know the NME was still this jazz-minded in the 80s.

Anyway, I'm finding these super interesting as a window into what it might have been like to be an NME-reading kid ten years or so before my time. Anyone else been enjoying them?

my favourite tape so far is 'raging spool' (actually 2 tapes, i think), but i haven't even listened to all of them once yet...

Raging Spool was one cassete.

How many of these will fit onto one CDr, as opposed to two? Not many...

I have owned and loved Pogo A Go-Go and C81 for many years, great comps. that Peel one on the link is amazing!

I have most (if not all) these.

Was always pondering getting these 'done', and now..

Yeah!

very cool. i've only grabbed the peel one that sleeve mentioned, and it is killer. i was too young for these things (and in the US to boot), but it is funny how precious sampler CDs/tapes used to be in the days before streaming virtually everything was possible.

yeah! my collection of coverfront tapes and cds was hugely important to me, especially in my compilation-tape making days -- for one thing, it meant you could pretend to a knowledge and a collection of records beyond what you actually had. But a lot of those were either tied to a specific record label, or to songs/remixes off recent albums/eps, presumably cos that meant labels would pay part of the costs.

the internet suggests to me that these weren't actually coverfront, but rather people had to collect tokens and send away for them, and pay at the very least p&p. which in part goes to explain the relative freedom of song choice on these-- that genre and period could be decided by the compilers, less determined by economic considerations.

i wonder if people got to see the tracklists before they bought, or if they just sent away for them based on the tape name and then were like "wait, the shangri-la's? this is way too pop"

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltb2zvTuF91r0o130o2_250.gif

They were not covermounts.

They cost more than p&p.

They were not 'tie-ins' to labels, apart from some of the 'archive' ones.

The first was a "Rough Trade" promotion but there were tracks from EMI, Postcard, Chrysalis, others.

Oh yes, and the track listings were advertised.

I didn't know the NME was still this jazz-minded in the 80s.

I think this is bcz Fred Dellar was basically in charge of the tapes, not that they reflected an editoral interest?

whats happening $tateside was then released properly by emi, as was c86 of course.
any others get released 'properly' ?

also, a quick scan over the track lists seems to imply that cabaret voltaire featured more than any other band.

I didn't know the NME was still this jazz-minded in the 80s.

As opposed to the 70s? Jazz was probably considered cooler in the 80s.

According ti Wiki (I know, I know): "C86 was the 23rd NME tape, although its catalogue number was NME022 (C81 had been dubbed COPY001). The rest of the tapes were compilations promoting labels' back catalogues and dedicated to either R&B, Northern Soul, Jazz or Reggae."

So they *were* label-based..?

Never knew there was a C96 CD, to "celebrate" the 10th anniversary of C86!

http://www.discogs.com/Various-NME-C96/release/2973948

1 Tiger – The Rose
2 Dweeb – Retard
3 Urusei Yatsura – Skull In Action
4 Broadcast – Lights Out
5 Magoo (5) – Struck A Chord
6 Backwater – Hot Rhythm
7 Mogwai – A-70
8 Comet Gain – Dreams Of A Working Girl
9 Delgados, The – Fourth Channel
10 Baby Bird – Bad Shave (II)
11 Spare Snare – Aftertaste
12 Ligament – STSLAJ
13 Tunic – Manhattan Skyline
14 Quickspace Supersport – Song For NME

I have owned and loved Pogo A Go-Go and C81 for many years

so much great + rare stuff on pogo a gogo, one of my fav ever comps

I stumbled across this blog recently too! I have the C86 tape, and I've had C81 on mp3 for years, and I already have everything on Pogo A Go-Go,
but I've never heard any of the others. I figured I'd start with some of the soul and reggae comps first, and that Mixed Peel one is probably a good listen.