Latest news with #CabaretVoltaire
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Yes, there was a riot, but it was great': Cabaret Voltaire on violent gigs, nuclear noise – and returning to mark 50 years
Fifty years ago, Cabaret Voltaire shocked the people of Sheffield into revolt. A promoter screamed for the band to get off stage, while an audience baying for blood had to be held back with a clarinet being swung around for protection. All of which was taking place over the deafening recording of a looped steamhammer being used in place of a drummer, as a cacophony of strange, furious noises drove the crowd into a frenzy. 'We turned up, made a complete racket, and then got attacked,' recalls Stephen Mallinder. 'Yes, there was a bit of a riot, and I ended up in hospital, but it was great. That gig was the start of something because nothing like that had taken place in Sheffield before. It was ground zero.' Mallinder and his Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson are sitting together again in Sheffield, looking back on that lift-off moment ahead of a handful of shows to commemorate the milestone. 'It is astonishing,' says Watson. 'Half a century. It really makes you stop, think and realise the significance.' The death in 2021 of third founding member Richard H Kirk was a trigger for thinking about ending things with finality. 'It'll be nice if we can use these shows to remind people what we did,' says Mallinder. 'To acknowledge the music, as well as get closure.' It's impossible to overstate how ahead of their time 'the Cabs' were. Regularly crowned the godfathers of the Sheffield scene, inspiring a wave of late 1970s groups such as the Human League and Clock DVA, they were making music in Watson's attic as early as 1973. Their primitive explorations with tape loops, heavily treated vocals and instruments, along with home-built oscillators and synthesisers, laid the foundations for a singular career that would span experimental music, post-punk, industrial funk, electro, house and techno. 'There was nothing happening in Sheffield that we could relate to,' says Mallinder. 'We had nothing to conform to. We didn't give a fuck. We just enjoyed annoying people, to be honest.' Inspired by dadaism, they would set up speakers in cafes and public toilets, or strap them to a van and drive around Sheffield blasting out their groaning, hissing and droning in an attempt to spook and confuse people. 'It did feel a bit violent and hostile at times, but more than anything we just ruined people's nights,' laughs Mallinder, with Watson recalling a memory from their very first gig: 'The organiser said to me after, 'You've completely ruined our reputation.' That was the best news we could have hoped for.' Insular and incendiary, the tight-knit trio had their own language, says Mallinder. 'We talked in a cipher only we understood – we had our own jargon and syntax.' When I interviewed Kirk years before his death, he went even further. 'We were like a terrorist cell,' he told me. 'If we hadn't ended up doing music and the arts, we might have ended up going around blowing up buildings as frustrated people wanting to express their disgust at society.' Instead they channelled that disgust into a type of sonic warfare – be it the blistering noise and head-butt attack of their landmark electro-punk track Nag Nag Nag, or the haunting yet celestial Red Mecca, an album rooted in political tensions and religious fundamentalism that throbs with a paranoid pulse. Watson left the group in 1981 to pursue a career in sound recording for TV. Mallinder and Kirk invested in technology, moving away from the industrial sci-fi clangs of their early period into grinding yet glistening electro-funk. As the second summer of love blazed in the UK in 1988, they headed to Chicago instead – to make Groovy, Laidback and Nasty with house legend Marshall Jefferson. 'We got slagged off for working with Marshall,' recalls Mallinder. 'People were going, 'England has got its own dance scene. Why aren't you working with Paul Oakenfold?' But we're not the fucking Happy Mondays. We'd already been doing that shit for years. We wanted to acknowledge our connection to where we'd come from: Black American music.' This major label era for the group produced moderate commercial success before they wound things down in the mid-1990s. But in the years since, everyone from New Order to Trent Reznor has cited the group's influence. Mallinder continued to make electronic music via groups such as Wrangler and Creep Show, the latter in collaboration with John Grant, a Cabs uber-fan. Watson says leaving the group was 'probably the most difficult decision I've ever made' but he has gone on to have an illustrious career, winning Baftas for his recording work with David Attenborough on shows such as Frozen Planet. He recalls 'the most dangerous journey I've ever made' being flown in a dinky helicopter that was akin to a 'washing machine with a rotor blade' by drunk Russian pilots in order to reach a camp on the north pole. On 2003 album Weather Report, Watson harnessed his globetrotting field recording adventures with stunning effect, turning long, hot wildlife recording sessions in Kenya surrounded by buzzing mosquitoes, or the intense booming cracks of colossal glaciers in Iceland, into a work of immersive musical beauty. When he was at the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania with Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, recording sounds for the score to the 2019 TV series Chernobyl, he couldn't help but draw parallels to his Cabs days. 'It was horrific but really astonishing – such a tense, volatile, hostile environment,' he says. 'But it really got me thinking about working with those sounds again, their musicality and how it goes back to where I started.' Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Mallinder views Watson's work as a Trojan horse for carrying radical sounds into ordinary households. 'The Cabs may have changed people's lives but Chris is personally responsible for how millions of people listen to the world,' he says, with clear pride. 'And one of the things that helped make that happen was the fact that he was in the Cabs, so through that lens he opened up people's ears.' Watson agrees, saying Cabaret Voltaire 'informed everything I've ever done'. Watson's field recordings will play a part in the upcoming shows: he'll rework 2013 project Inside the Circle of Fire, in which he recorded Sheffield itself, from its wildlife to its steel industry via football terraces and sewers. 'It's hopefully not the cliched industrial sounds of Sheffield,' he says, 'but my take on the signature sounds of the city.' These will be interwoven with a set Mallinder is working on with his Wrangler bandmate Ben 'Benge' Edwards as well as longtime friend and Cabs collaborator Eric Random. 'We've built 16 tracks up from scratch to play live,' says Mallinder. 'With material spanning from the first EP' – 1978's Extended Play – 'through to Groovy …' Mallinder says this process has been 'a bit traumatic – a very intense period of being immersed in my past and the memories that it brought, particularly of Richard. This isn't something you can do without emotion.' Mallinder and Kirk were not really speaking in the years leading up to his death, with Kirk operating under the Cabaret Voltaire name himself. 'Richard was withdrawn and didn't speak to many people,' says Mallinder. 'And I was one of those people. He wanted to be in his own world. It was difficult because I missed him and there was a lot of history, but I accepted it.' There will be no new music being made as Cabaret Voltaire because, they stress, tsuch a thing cannot exist without Kirk. Instead, it's a brief victory lap for the pair, a tribute to their late friend, as they sign off on a pioneering legacy with maybe one last chance for a riot. 'Richard would probably hate us doing this but it's done with massive respect,' Mallinder says. 'I'm sad he's not here but there's such love for the Cabs that I want to give people the opportunity to acknowledge what we did. You can't deny the music we made is important – and this is a way to celebrate that.' Cabaret Voltaire play a Forge Warehouse, Sheffield, 25 October, then tour the UK from 17 to 21 November. Tickets on sale 10am 6 June
Scottish Sun
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Huge rap star hails ‘maddest energy yet' as he's spotted showing Celtic allegiances before sold-out Glasgow gig
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A HUGE UK rapper kitted himself out in Celtic colours before his sold-out Glasgow show last night. He shared two pictures of himself donning a Celtic tracksuit in the city centre on social media ahead of his much-anticipated gig at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in St. Vincent Street. Sign up for the Celtic newsletter Sign up 2 He posted two pictures to his Instagram story 2 He enjoyed some Irn-Bru before his Glasgow show Do you recognise the famous rapper and record producer? It's London-based music icon AJ Tracey. The 'Thiago Silva' artist is currently in Scotland for his aptly named sold-out UK tour - 'Not Even A Tour'. He played at King Tut's last night and will perform in Edinburgh at the Cabaret Voltaire tonight. The 31-year-old divided fans in Glasgow with his outfit choice as he proudly displayed his Celtic allegiance in the hours leading up to his show. He posted two snaps of himself in the tracksuit on his Instagram story to his one million followers and even enjoyed a taste of Scotland too. In his first upload, the rapper confirmed to his fans he was in fact in Glasgow and proudly displayed two bottles of Irn-Bru which he no doubt enjoyed. He then thanked his Glasgow fans for their support at the show before posting another picture in Celtic colours. He wrote: "Thanks Glasgow - maddest energy yet! "Glad I had the chance to come up here and link you lot face to face. It's been a minute." Gordon Strachan on burying the hatchet with McGeady and THAT Boruc 'Pope' t-shirt Then standing with his arms crossed in popular clothing shop End Clothing, the brand shared a snap of him - which he reposted - visiting the store along with the caption: "Big up @ajtracey for pulling thru." The 2022 Brit Award nominee didn't wear his Celtic tracksuit for his gig last night. The London music star, whose real name is Ché Wolton Grant, is a big Tottenham Hotspur fan. Glasgow was the third night of his UK tour. His third album 'Don't Die Before You're Dead' is due to be released on June 13. Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Boston Globe
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
A look back at when art was revolutionary
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement Into this debate marches Morgan Falconer, an art critic and educator at Sotheby's. His new book, ' enfant terribles of the early 20th century, who radically transformed our perception of what art can be with their unorthodox, confrontational, and irreverent methods. It's an engrossing survey, full of colorful characters and winning personal touches. Like all good art, it ultimately raises more questions than it answers. Falconer is bored by what he sees at today's big art fairs and exhibitions. According to him, where once artists sought to épater la bourgeoisie — that is, to disturb the conventions and the complacency of polite society — today, they seem more inclined to cater to it. He describes a sad epiphany he experienced at Art Basel Miami: 'I sat down at a picnic table and tried to rouse my soul with another espresso and an intensely refrigerated pastrami sandwich. … I realized I didn't want any more art. Not today … but not tomorrow either. I wondered, in fact, whether I'd ever want to see more art again.' Advertisement He, too, longs for the excitement of a bygone era, and out of this crisis divines his mission: 'We need to recall what an extraordinary thing it could be,' he writes, 'for art to enter life.' With this in mind, he takes readers on a tour of last century's most radical avant-garde movements — Futurism, Surrealism, Dada, De Stijl, the Bauhaus, Russian Constructivism, and Situationism — in search of inspiring examples that he hopes can shake us — or, maybe just him — from this torpor. Related : The movements Falconer explores are by no means identical, but they share a few common threads: a bold vision, often articulated in a brash manifesto; charismatic hype men, capable of promulgating that vision beyond the movement's insular clique; and a commitment to taking art out of stultifying museums and comfortable sitting rooms in order to recenter it in the daily lives of regular people. Their adherents were not interested in simply making pleasant, aesthetic works for the contemplation of high-minded collectors or appreciators. In the troubling aftermath of the Great War, when little seemed certain, these artists sought to make the world their canvas and desired no less than to reshape society in their own image. 'Over a hundred years ago, a generation of artists were serious and ambitious enough to question what art's purpose was in the world,' he writes, 'and to ask whether it might be put to new ends.' To illustrate this, Falconer provides readers with compelling capsule biographies of important figures, including the bellicose Filipino Marinetti, author of the Futurist manifesto, which declared the movement's intention to 'sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness.' He illuminates the short life of the anarchic Cabaret Voltaire, which lasted less than six months but launched a slew of trailblazing artists, etching Dada indelibly in the annals of art history. And he charts the rise and fall of Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus school, whose minimalist aesthetic and practical ethos is today essentially the foundation for all modern design. 'They bound together in cultish cells,' Falconer writes, 'they explored obscure knowledge, and they scorned the public.' And while he isn't advocating that contemporary artists should mirror their tactics exactly, he does believe that there's much to be learned from the avant-garde's disdain for convention and their desire to utterly separate from the past. Related : Advertisement Art is a never-ending dialectic between a disruptive, revolutionary spirit and an anesthetizing bourgeois sensibility that seeks to blunt the cutting edge. Kissick and Falconer argue that the pendulum has swung too far in one direction and a rebalancing is in order. To put it simply: Art needs antagonists. But it's important to be clear about who exactly we should be antagonizing. Pinning the blame on identity politics lets the institutional-curatorial complex that has co-opted a genuine concern for marginalized voices to its own commercial ends off the hook, and risks inviting a reactionary backlash that would only serve to validate bad-faith culture-war grievances. One need only to look at Marinetti and the Futurists to see how easily the avant-garde can serve as a catspaw for fascism. Falconer marks out his target more clearly — it's the money. '[T]he wealth that nurtures [art] seems only to increase its power and mystique, and hence its distance from us,' he writes. No matter what form art takes, be it a narrow exploration of personal identity or a broad, universal commentary on society, its future — and perhaps our own — depends on reducing that distance. Advertisement HOW TO BE AVANT-GARDE: Modern Artists and the Quest to End Art By Morgan Falconer Norton, 288 pages, $32.99 Michael Patrick Brady is a book critic from Boston. He can be reached at mike@
