Sheffield music ‘really healthy’ says Cabaret Voltaire veteran
Cabaret Voltaire founding members Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder ended the band’s 50-year career with a sold-out show in Sheffield, where they began in the mid-1970s. Watson said the city was the right place to close the chapter and described its music scene as “really healthy”.
The group helped pioneer experimental electronic music, drawing on Dadaism and the sounds of Sheffield. Journalist Daniel Dylan Wray said their influence reached across electronic, dance, industrial and post-punk music; the third founding member, Richard H Kirk, died in 2021. Watson left the band in 1981 and later made sound programmes for BBC radio and wildlife documentaries.
In short
- Cabaret Voltaire ended its 50-year career in Sheffield.
- Watson called the city’s music future “really healthy”.
- The band’s experimental sound influenced several music genres.
Explained simply
Cabaret Voltaire were an experimental music group formed in Sheffield in the mid-1970s by Chris Watson, Stephen Mallinder and Richard H Kirk. They took their name from a Zurich venue associated with Dada, an art movement that challenged conventional ideas.
The band used electronic equipment and sounds from everyday life to make music that crossed styles including industrial and post-punk. Their approach influenced later electronic and dance music. Watson left in 1981 and went on to make sound programmes for BBC radio and wildlife documentaries; Kirk died in 2021.