Cabaret
Voltaire/Soborgnost
Sensoria Festival, Sheffield - 25 October 2025
"This
was not just a concert. This was an event. The perfect alchemy."
It’s an
indisputable fact that Cabaret Voltaire are true pioneers of music
- both individually and together. Formed of members Stephen
Mallinder, Chris Watson, and Richard H. Kirk, they emerged from
the materia prima of industrial Sheffield in 1973 and changed
history. Exploring their vast importance is beyond the scope of
this review but suffice it to say their DNA is everywhere and
without their genius, the musical world would be a much different
place. Like lightning, they struck fast, they struck hard, and the
thunderclap they created hasn’t stopped reverberating.
Watson
left the group in 1981 to pursue a very rich career in
sound/field recording, and it continued as a two piece until
1994. Kirk revived the name as a solo project in 2009, but it
was purely future facing with no retrospection. When he passed
in 2021, it seemed to be the end of things. So, the impact of
the announcement that Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson were
going to reunite as Cabaret Voltaire to play in Sheffield - as
part of the Sensoria Festival (itself named after a CV song) -
to mark the 50th anniversary of their first show was akin to a
meteor slamming into the earth, a massive seismic impact with
the shockwaves rippling outward. Fingers hovered above keyboards
for the moment tickets went live and when they did, they were
gone in seconds.
This was a
show that no one thought would happen, and the anticipation built
to a fever pitch in the preceding months. What would they play?
Given that Chris Watson left the group in 1981, would it be
limited to material from their early period? Would it be the same
without the third founding member Richard H. Kirk? Opinions and
speculation swirled over the internet.
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Photos
[L-R]: Soborgnost x 2
Wherever
you looked, you saw your tribe. Many, like me, had missed out on
them the first time - I grew up in America and being of a
certain age I didn’t even find them until the mid 80s, and never
got to see them live. The show was held in FORGE Warehouse - a
repurposed Victorian steel forge now renovated into a
large-scale venue utilising a Pioneer sound system geared
towards club sound, in the heart of the industrial district. The
combination of steel columns, vintage machinery, and bass made a
perfect setting for a band who was so instrumental in the
evolution of electronic industrial, house, and dance music.
I got there very early and jumped in the quickly lengthening queue - the night cold and the mood celebratory - and dashed inside to get right up front. Everyone was quite polite and the bon homie flowed; with the crème de la crème of the Sheffield music scene pointed out in hushed whispers and glimpsed faces.
The
opening artist was Soborgnost,
the project of Jim Osman. Sitting at the intersection of
several different genres and labeled as sci-fi dance punk, his
music was very complimentary to the event. Strong and
confident, he did a blinding set in the face of what must have
been some heavy pressure. By the time he finished, the
anticipation in the air for the main event was palpable - the
air itself an electric state of fizzing, anxious expectancy.
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Photos
[L-R]: Cabaret Voltaire x 3
Finally,
Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson, longtime CV collaborator Eric
Random (guitar/electronics) and Oliver Harrap (drums, replacing
collaborator Benge due to illness) took the stage while the sounds
of Theme From Earthshaker (1984) filled the room, followed
by the opening voice samples from The Voice of America/The
Damage Is Done (1980). The unbelievable moment was upon us and
frankly, we couldn’t believe it was happening. Mal walked to the
microphone and simply said "For Richard Kirk".
What happened
next was a solid 75-minute of tracks that blew everyone’s minds. All
our questions (and maybe some of our dreams and prayers) were
answered in a setlist that took us from the early days of albums The
Set-Up (1979) through to Easy Life (1990) with some
unexpected stops along the way. Mallinder, on vocals and moving
between keyboards and bass was the captain on this fantastic voyage
and his stage prowess was understated and powerful. No filler, no
rambling anecdotes or meditations, none of the stuff that usually
appears at an anniversary show. The sound was tight, precise,
chestrattlingly loud but super clear - that Pioneer system got a
good workout. I’ve heard people say it was like a sonic attack, but
for me it was more akin to an ecstasy or a rapture of sonic bliss,
creating a perfect loop between the past and the present. A groove
that, once hooked into, didn’t let you go.
They kicked
off with material from The Crackdown (1983) - 24/24,
Animation, and Why Kill Time (When You Can Kill Yourself).
Unexpectedly, a piece of Chris Watson’s field recording came in the
form of Tinsley Viaduct, an experimental sound collage piece
created as part of a sound map of the city, which brought Sheffield
itself into the performance, another important element. It is, after
all, a foundational city for the industrial-electronic scene, its
sounds ingrained in the psyche of the musicians and the music made
in it.
We then shifted back into the darkness with The Set-Up (1978) and Landslide (1981), the latter from the album Red Mecca - a soundtrack to urban decay, surveillance, and 1980s social unrest. It sounds just as home today as it did then and still serves as a soundtrack to our paranoid times. A snippet of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, then we were plunged into a wonderful run of tracks: The Crackdown (1983, and one of the few points where words were spoken to remember Dave Ball and his contribution of drum programming), Spies In the Wires (1984), Just Fascination (1983), and Taxi Music (1983, from the film Johnny YesNo by Peter Care, director of many of the Cabs' music videos). The crowd was locked in, the music moved through us. No fiddling with phones, no chatter, no pushing, none of the distractions found too often at gigs these days. Just people fully in the moment, reveling in this incredible sonic feast laid out before us.
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Then,
the gears changed again as the opening notes of Yashar
(1982) hit us and we sprung into the more dance oriented Sex,
Money, Freaks (1987) and Easy Life (1990). Do
Right (1984) cranked it up another level, and as if it
couldn’t get any more intense, we were then hit with the
one-two encore punch of Nag, Nag, Nag (1979) and Sensoria
(1984). We didn’t want it to end, but end it did, and the
crowd was left in a sweaty, ravished afterglow. I wandered out
to the courtyard to breathe some air and gazed at the
neighboring waste transfer station, its tall tower’s steam
rising into the starry night. The thing we never thought would
happen happened, and it felt like a journey completed.
A
very important element that cannot be overlooked (or
underestimated) was the razorsharp, complex visuals expertly
live mixed by Dan Conway, with assistance from Nick Cope. They
filled the whole field of view and contained reworkings of the
original CV films and visuals (many by CV collaborator Cope
himself). For me, this was not just an accompaniment, they
elevated the show to a full-on immersion. CV’s combination of
sound and vision were hugely important and made such an
impression on me as a young person (again, not enough space in
this review to emphasise that point), and I feel the show
would have been incomplete without them as they were so
groundbreaking and synergistic. In short, they were awesome.
Some
people will say it’s not the same without Richard H. Kirk
present and it’s a sad irony that if he was still here these
performances might not have happened at all. I’ll say this:
everyone brought their best to this show. I felt Kirk was very
present, maybe not physically, but sonically and in spirit.
The utmost care and love went into bringing these songs back
into the live realm in the most complete, respectful, and
authentic way possible, and it’s truly a gift that’s been
bestowed on us from Mal and Watson.
If
music is an emotional connection, a common language, and a
shared humanity, we were certainly all plugged into the same
circuit that night. This was not just a concert. This was an
event, an experience, a remembrance, a reverie, a celebration.
For many, it was reconnecting with something that viscerally
changed them at their beginning, and for others it was finally
connecting that last dot. One thing for sure, it was magic,
all the elements of sound, vision, city, and venue created the
perfect alchemy - and I am utterly glad my finger was fast
enough on the button to be there!
They
have a US/Canada tour, festival performances, and one last
whip around the UK this year, so don’t miss out! 10/10
Review
+ Photos: E. Gabriel Edvy
Setlist: 24/24, Animation, Why Kill Time
(When You Can Kill Yourself), Tinsley Viaduct, The
Set Up, Landslide, Crackdown, Spies in the Wires,
Just Fascination, Taxi Music, Yashar, Sex Money
Freaks, Easy Life, Do Right - Encore: Nag
Nag Nag, Sensoria
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