Creeping Bent 30 / C81 - C86 - GO !!

Katy Lironi & Grant McPhee in conversation about the C81 & C86 cassettes with Nicola Meighan (BBC Radio Scotland). They’ll also be discussing their books (Matilda In The Middle / Hungry Beat / Postcards From Scotland).

Katy & The Cords

Mackenzies

The Port Sulphur C81 Ensemble (featuring Davy Henderson, James Kirk & Paul Research).

2025 sees the 30th anniversary of the Creeping Bent Organisation, it will also be the final year of the label’s operations. To celebrate the end of the 30 year journey, Creeping Bent has programmed a music and literature event, C81 - C86 - GO !! as part of the 2025 Celtic Connections festival. 

Creeping Bent founder Douglas MacIntyre was inspired as a teenager by the C81 cassette produced by Rough Trade (in conjunction with the NME music paper). C81 contained music by artists including Josef K, Blue Orchids, Robert Wyatt, James Blood Ulmer, Orange Juice, Scritti Politti, Aztec Camera etc. However his main inspiration was Vic Godard and Subway Sect.  

Shortly after the formation of Creeping Bent, MacIntyre formed The Secret Goldfish with Katy Lironi. She had been the singer with the Fizzbombs, who were part of the Edinburgh C86 scene with friends and contemporaries the Shop Assistants. C86 was the name of another cassette produced by the NME that features leading lights of the 1986 independent scene. The cassette featured tracks by Scottish groups The Pastels, Shop Assistants, Mackenzies, (among others). C86 quickly became synonymous with a new wave of independent groups and gave its name to the resultant scene.