# How a council house in Sheffield launched a legion of Britain’s best bands

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/how-a-council-house-in-sheffield-launched-a-legion-of-britains-best-bands/
- Published: 2026-07-23T05:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-07-28T23:44:08+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-a-council-house-in-sheffield-launched-a-legion-of-britains-best-bands/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music, UK, World

## Key points

- Ken Patten’s home studio supported major Sheffield bands.
- Pulp recorded an early demo there in 1981.
- Sessions cost musicians £15.

## Summary

A Sheffield council house known as Studio Electrophonique became an influential low-cost recording space in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Run by car mechanic and hobbyist producer Ken Patten, it gave emerging local musicians access to recording equipment and helped nurture acts including The Human League, Heaven 17, ABC and Pulp.

The ordinary-looking home contained synthesisers, an electronic drum kit and a homemade vocoder, while sessions cost £15. Martyn Ware’s band The Future recorded there after responding to a local advert in 1977, and Pulp made an early demo there in 1981 which Jarvis Cocker passed to John Peel, leading to a Peel Session before the band had a record deal.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.