Lunchtime Talk: Studio Electrophonique – The Sheffield Space Age, from The Human League to Pulp

A graphic showing a man in a recording booth, wearing wired headphones with large reels of tape on the equipment behind him. The whole image has a green filter over it. On the left side, running vertically down the image, the words 'British Pop Archive No.2' are written in white text. Next to that horizontally, there is a square image of an old recorder with two big tape reels. Above that is written 'Studio Electrophonique The Sheffield Space Age, from The Human League to Pulp. Jamie Taylor'.

Join Jamie Taylor as he takes us through an important moment in Sheffield music history.

The golden age of Sheffield pop had its first stirrings in the era of Threads, Thatcher and mass redundancy. Pop music pilgrims arriving today in Sheffield to sniff out the traces of dole-nourished musical manifestos may struggle, however, to locate its landmark sites.

The city’s most elusive and sacred shrine is, perhaps, the Ballifield council semi that housed Studio Electrophonique, the home studio owned by Ken Patten: panel beater, fly fisherman, water skier, neighbour to Sean Bean, and midwife at the birth of electronic music in the North.

Studio Electrophonique witnessed the birth of bands that became The Human League, ABC, Heaven 17, Def Leppard, Clock DVA and Pulp; not to mention the unheralded sounds of The Electric Armpits, The Naughtiest Girl Was a Monitor and Systematic Annex. Ken’s work shaped British pop but, in true Sheffield style, he never thought to tell anyone about it. This talk, from author Jamie Taylor (and special guests) will help to tell it for him.

This activity is part of the programme of events inspired by and complementing The Boy with a Leg Named Brian: Memoirs by Pete McKee exhibition at Weston Park Museum, which continues until 2 Nov 2025.

Suggested donation £5 – Please donate if you're able and help keep your museums open and available for everyone to enjoy.