Not Fade Away
RICHARD H KIRK
Cabaret Voltaire mainstay (1956-2021)
AS a teenager growing up in Sheffield in the 1970s, Richard Kirk swiftly discovered that the only entertainment to be had was self-made. The solution to his boredom “turned out to be making weird electronic music” and by 1973 he had teamed up with Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder to form Cabaret Voltaire, named after the Zurich nightclub credited as the birthplace of the Dadaist movement. Influenced by Brian Eno, the trio’s early sound collages were soon translated into provocative live performances and the band signed to Rough Trade in 1978.
Their early recordings had a DIY spirit that linked them to the ethos of punk, but there was an experimental edge to their dark, dense industrial soundscapes that defied easy categorisation. Watson departed after 1981’s and The Cabs developed an even more eclectic approach over a series of albums for Virgin and then EMI, incorporating elements of synthpop, hip-hop and acid house. “After Chris left we carried on in a totally different direction,” Kirk told in 2020. “A lot of people said it was rubbish. Fortunately,
