ES7135 seven-inch features Cabaret Voltaire
‘NAG NAG NAG (LIVE)’
The lead track of this month’s Electronic Sound seven-inch will be familiar to many of you. Initially released in mid-1979 as one of the earliest singles on Rough Trade, Cabaret Voltaire never again sounded like this twisted blast of 60s psych rock meets northern electro. ‘Nag Nag Nag’ is a total one-off, an enduring and hugely popular cut that the recently reunited Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson had to include on the setlist for the Cabs’ 50th anniversary live shows, which started in their home city of Sheffield last October.
“I know everybody’s reaction to ‘Nag Nag Nag’ has always been positive,” says Mal. “It’s a song that a lot of people seem to go back to. It represents a particular point in our history and it’s something Chris did when he was in the band with Richard Kirk and me, so it felt like an important track to do.”
This fantastic live version feels brighter, sharper, more taut and a lot more electronic than the original. It’s almost techno.
“It still has all of the same elements – organ, guitar, bass, drums and drum machines,” notes Mal. “Although none of the tracks we’ve been playing have changed in terms of their elements or their arrangements, the mixing desks, the PAs and the way we record are all massively different now. The way we hear the material is also different, because technology enables us to hear the finer details in sound that we lost in the murkiness of the analogue systems of the 1970s.”
How did it feel to perform ‘Nag Nag Nag’ in Sheffield?
“Everything about that Sheffield gig was terrifying,” says Mal. “There was such a weight of responsibility, not least because we hadn’t done things like ‘Nag Nag Nag’ for a very long time. I was conscious of how and if we could ever fulfil people’s expectations. Everyone who comes to see us has their own idea of what this material should be, so I was always aware this was going to be difficult. Then you add in the fact that we were in Sheffield, in our home town… I mean, I’m not saying Sheffield was a judge and jury situation but, well, you know… it actually probably was.”
‘SPIES IN THE WIRES (LIVE)’
The flip-side of our seven-inch is ‘Spies In The Wires’ from ‘Micro-Phonies’, Cabaret Voltaire’s pivotal 1984 album, and it’s another magnificent live track captured at one of the band’s recent shows. Their appearance at the ICA in London last November, where this recording was made, was one of those gigs where everything seemed to click. The venue was spot-on, the sound was amazing, and the crowd were buzzing. There was a lot of love for the Cabs in the room that night. There was even a civilised queue for the bar.
“I think the gigs we did before London proved to us that it was working,” says Mal. “We’d managed to do pretty well in Sheffield, in front of what was a potentially critical audience, so I think there was probably some sort of a release at the ICA gig. This was also a show that was full of my peers, people who I have massive respect for, such as Daniel Miller, John Foxx and Neville Brody. These people are part of the history, they’re part of the story of what we do, so I think we responded by lifting ourselves a little bit and we ended up having a really good time.”
The theme of ‘Spies In The Wires’ has resonated across the decades since you last performed the track live, hasn’t it?
“It did seem to be very prescient at the time,” agrees Mal. “When we wrote it, we were living in a world of Thatcher and Reagan, a world of the CIA and all their covert activity, and there was this awareness of a certain paranoia within the various lines of communication. These days, of course, we’re living our lives through our phones and the spies exist in the devices we’re holding in our hands. Maybe we should have renamed it ‘Spies In The Wireless’.”
Or ‘Spies In The Wi-Fi’?
“Ha-ha, yeah, ‘Spies In The Wi-Fi’ is good. The themes are certainly still out there. I’ve just recorded a track with Richard Norris for The Grid – this is an album Richard is making with the last tunes Dave Ball wrote – and that’s about exactly this kind of thing. It’s like a contemporary version of ‘Spies In The Wires’.”
