C81? + Tav Falco - The Specials

Some people had no idea what C81 was: it was a cassette put out by the NME (one of the first real indie compilations) magazine, designed I guess to be a state of the nation address. The tracklisting (with celebratory exclamation) is as follows:

Scritti Politti - the sweetest girl (Madness did it worse)
English Beat - Twist and Crawl Dub (Less Dub than the Dubliners)
Pere Ubu - Misery Goats (paradoxically would make any animal happy)
Wah! Heat - 7,000 names of Wah (almost 7,000 piles of shite but not quite. Masteful)
Orange Juice - Blue Boy (think The Bluebells with more checks)
Cabaret Voltaire - Raising the Count (but not the heartbeat)
DAF - Kebab Traume (cf:Doner nightmares: where Front 242 came from)
Furious Pig - Bare Pork (genius / madness / The Osmonds after brain trauma)
Buzzcocks - I look alone (salad without chicken)
Essential Logic - Fanfare in the Garden (X Ray Spex with pleurosy)
Robert Wyatt - Born Again Cretin (the sound of a very small man drowning)
Raincoats - Shouting out Loud (but sung very softly)
Josef K - Endless Soul (can't remember; not Kaftaesque)
Blue Orchids - Low Profile (and urban The Blue Nile without hats)
Virgin Prunes - Red Nettle (the contact miked decay of a squid)
Aztec Camera - We Could send Letters (or you could sod off)
Tav Falco and the Panther Burns - Borgeois Blues (if moustaches could play geetar)
Red Krayola - Milkmaid (opera for people who can't afford to get in)
Linx - Don't get in my way (blanked from my consciousness)
John Cooper-Clarke - The Day my Pad went Mad (as surreal as an apple)
Ulmer, James Blood - Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher (who's the student?)
Ian Dury - Close to Home (would like it more if it was further away)
Gist - Greener Grass (Nik Kershaw cover)
Subway Sect - Parallel Lines (Blondie's album played at 178rpm and then slowed down)

+ it had one of the most pointlessly anthropomorphic covers ever. Truly a design tragedy.


in honour of this momentous compilation I give you:

Tav Falco live in 2002 (i thought he was dead; he looks it...

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

and...

The Virgin Prunes - Pagan Love Song (real audio)

The Virgin Prunes - Stormy Weather (real audio)

and Young Marble Giants - Radio Silents which is a bonus track on the CD of their Collosal Youth Album.

Yeah, I know they weren't on C81 but in a way they were. Answers on a postcard please.