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Cabaret Voltaire

  • FRI 14.8.

Cabaret Voltaire is a legend, the kind of group whose influence still shows up whenever electronic music wants to feel dangerous, political, and physical all at once. Formed in Sheffield, they made it clear early on that machines could do more than make beats. They could generate ideas, friction, and resistance. And in a world that feels saturated again with manipulation and unease, their work lands with a sharp, uncomfortable accuracy.

More than 50 years have passed since the band’s live birth. Their first show took place at Sheffield Students’ Union Refectory on 13 May 1975. The anniversary live project is curated by original members Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson, tracing the essential Cabaret Voltaire arc from the earliest experiments through the Rough Trade and Factory years, the Doublevision video label era, and later phases that also intersected with producers such as Adrian Sherwood and Marshall Jefferson.

The point is not preservation. Mallinder describes the live show as rebuilt from the ground up, faithful to the original tracks, assembled with the same technologies and processes as back then, yet always driven by the core Cabaret Voltaire impulse: unpredictability, tension, and that moment when chance collides with cause and effect. Watson speaks about the privilege of sharing a stage again and insists that Dada interventions are still necessary.

This tour is framed as Cabaret Voltaire’s farewell run. Not a victory lap, not a nostalgia exercise, but a final statement. They do not smooth things over or overexplain. They create pressure, leave interference in the room, and turn it into rhythm.