Music from small industrial towns ( eg Newcastle 2300 ) often cuts it’s own path – in response to the local smear of haze, to the ‘giant steelworks as metronome for a city’, and in defiant juxtaposition to the music of more glamorous cities nearby. Post-punk era Sheffield in the UK, gave birth to The Human League, ABC, Heaven 17 & Cabaret Voltaire in the early 80’s, another aspect of the late 20th century now documented on DVD ( via plexifilm.com, or www.stomp.com.au in oz).
Lest We Forget
Top of The Pops in the UK enjoyed a cult status in the 80s, and although it’s still kicking now ( www.bbc.co.uk/totp ), it’s notoriety ( and hairspray budgets ) loomed larger on the world stage back then (yes, yes – nostalgia ain’t what it used to be), the ultimate place for aspiring small town pop stars desiring to flaunt hair & lip-synched moves. The punk movement was still fresh in the air ( mmmm, smells like?), and it seemed viable for anyone to have a go making whatever sort of music they wanted. For much of the UK this meant slavishly aping the same 3 chords as the Sex Pistols, but in Sheffield the locals were carving out their own DIY electronic niche.
“Punk was the end of world war II – don’t tell us what to do, the war is over now….punk enabled anything to become acceptable.” explains one Sheffield muso in the film, from some act who didn’t make it on to Top of The Pops. Unlike The Human League, who were talked about as ‘the future of music’ by one David Bowie after he saw them live. Their lead singer Phil Oakey, is probably most remembered for co-writing ‘together in electric dreams’ with Giorgio Moroder, and if you saw him prancing about on Top of The Pops – would be surprised to hear him reveal on film:
“We thought we were the punkiest band in Sheffield. We were laughing at the bands that had learned to play guitars. ‘Cos they bothered learning 3 chords – we didn’t even do that – we used one finger.”
Aside from the self-styled electronic pop acts, Cabaret Voltaire were another Sheffield act who went on to achieve world fame – for their wildly experimental electronic pursuits. Only one of the early members of the band agreed to be in the film unfortunately ( it’d be interesting to know why the others refused ), but his anecdotes and attitudes are fun – recounting times of travelling around Sheffield playing their music and recording experiments out the back of a panel van with the doors open, playing in public toilets and other odd locations. All of the electronic pop acts get plenty of interview time, and nostalgia footage, and we also get some words from the late John Peel ( BBC Radio), and Jarvis Cocker from Pulp (also Sheffield ). The film is fun enough, but short at 52 minutes, padded out on disc with a range of extended interviews, a photo gallery, and rare live footage.
“People ask me about programs they watched in the 70s – we didnt watch tv – we were out, we were out 6-7 days a week…”
Also Made In Sheffield
-Steel apparently.
– www.lovebytes.org.uk – A quite respectable, and world renowned electronic arts festival.
– www.thedesignersrepublic.com – Quite respectable and world renowned graphic designers, who of course, designed the sleeves and DVD menu bits. Not that they’ve done anything extraordinary with it, so don’t expect anything crazy.
Not Made In Sheffield
Although former Steeltown label Bloody Fist has closed it’s doors, fans of new and secondhand breakcore, heavy drum n bass, gabber and experimental releases can now get a fix at Mark N’s newest record emporium “www.noisexchange.com“, set up in Melbourne beside Synaesthesia records ( www.synrecords.com ).
jp
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