Iconic UK Electronic Group Returns to the US for One Last Time

Stephen Mallinder is like a shark — always moving forward.

The Cabaret Voltaire cofounder admits he’s never consciously listened to any of his influential UK electronic group’s releases in the fifty-plus years since it all began back in his hometown of Sheffield.

“I’m one of those weird people where when we made music, up until the point of release, it was mine. But for every Cabs record that we’ve ever ever ever done, the moment the record becomes released, I never listen to it again,” the 71-year-old says. “I don’t know whether that’s odd. But once it’s in the public domain, it’s everyone’s music.”

That makes sense when you realize Cabaret Voltaire’s pioneering impact across several burgeoning underground genres — techno, electro, EBM, acid house, industrial, post-punk — during its career from 1973 to 1994. Over the years, everyone from Trent Reznor to Skinny Puppy has cited the trio’s wide-ranging work as a major influence on their own musical endeavors. That pervasiveness is hard to ignore, even for someone as locked-in and productive as Mallinder.

“When I hear the Cabs, it comes to me by accident or through other people,” he explains. “It’s really funny, actually. I’ve been around my mate’s house after a couple of beers and we’d been listening to a tune, and people crack up, because I’ll go, ‘This track is really good. It’s really interesting. What is it?’ And people go, ‘It’s you, you dickhead. It’s one of your tracks.’”

That changed last year, when, after 31 years, Mallinder decided to jump back behind the mic, along with original member Chris Watson, and give Cabaret Voltaire a proper send-off, a final tour, after selling out several shows across the UK.

“They were really just to test the water because we had no idea,” he says. “I said I’d do it, and I worked on it for a good eight months doing pre-production and the films, but until we actually stepped out on stage and people heard it, we didn’t know what it was going to be, and we didn’t know what people’s reaction was going to be.

“We said if it does work, then we could carry on,” Mallinder continues. “We could tell straight away that it was working.”

Westword caught up with the humble British bassist at the beginning of the end, following the first gig of the last North American run earlier this month in Seattle. The Cabs are playing Denver’s Summit on Sunday, May 10, along with I Speak Machine. ISM’s Tara Busch is standing in for Watson, who originally left the Cabs in 1981 to pursue a successful career in sound recording and is currently unavailable for the US dates.

It’s the first time in more than three decades that Cabaret Voltaire, named after the underground Swiss club that became the alternative headquarters of the post-WWI Dada art movement, is performing across the pond, and in some places, the one and only time ever.

“When I came off, I was quite emotional, because as much as it’s been a long time for you guys, it’s a long time for us,” Mallinder says of his reaction following the set in Seattle. “There was a lot of love in the room. … I was a little bit surprised. To see people there and play some of those songs, which are familiar to them, it was quite moving, really.”

Visiting each era — from the experimental tape-looping of 1978 debut EP to 1990’s house-heavy Groovy, Laidback and Nasty — Mallinder & Co. reinvigorated the discography by building all the music back up from scratch with the original, now-vintage, tech. “It was quite a process,” he says, but necessary in order to provide the proper “punch” for modern audiences.

“I was convinced we haven’t lost the relevance of why we did it, and those tracks and the ideas behind them and the ways we made things and did things felt it resonated very clearly through to the current world,” he adds. “I still felt there were still things to be said through the music that we made.”

There are no plans to write new music as the Cabs, but part of this goodbye is to honor fellow founder Richard Kirk, who resurrected the banner as a solo project in 2009 up until his death in 2021.

“I felt as though not having had a chance to do more shows with Richard, it felt like a wrong way to finish the story of the Cabs and I thought it was an opportunity to go out and share those songs, partly for the memory of them and to acknowledge the work that we all did with Richard,” he shares. “I felt that it was respectful that the Cabs has a narrative arch. I thought it needed a final chapter.”

Mallinder is perfectly content to move on after this globetrot, which will officially end with one last show in Sheffield, where it all started, on a yet-to-be-determined date. But until then, he says it feels like “a discovery of my own music.’

“I think I’ll be ready to move on. It will be quite emotional. I think the final show in Sheffield will be very emotional for us,” he says.  

“I think it should come to an end because I don’t want it to whither,” Mallinder concludes. “I want it to have meaning, and I think that gives it meaning. I’m quite happy to move on, but I’m really enjoying it.”

Cabaret Voltaire, with I Speak Machine, 7 p.m. Sunday, May 10, Summit, 1902 Blake St. Tickets are $35.