Made in Sheffield

Starring:John Peel, Jarvis Cocker
Director: Eve Wood
Studio: Plexifilm
Product Type: DVD

Description

The best post-punk music in Europe was electronic music and the best electronic music came from Sheffield, England. MADE IN SHEFFIELD documents the rise of the influential post-punk movement that emerged from Sheffield in the late 70's, defined by the electronic pop of The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17 and ABC. Their dream was to destroy rock music. The result was the creation of some of the most influential sounds in music. Rare archive footage, music & exclusive interviews with the famous, almost famous & not famous at all pull you directly into the Sheffield scene complete with fanzines, nightclubs, weird bands, record labels and all the ambition and creativity that made that time so special. Loaded with endearing moments & humor, the film captures the essence of the seldom portrayed aftermath of Punk & the spirit of the early 80's British New Wave movement.

Customer Reviews:

A Music Video for Music Videos.......2007-03-09

This could have been a lot better. All documentaries require some kind of structured narrative to make them more than rambling heaps of related fact. Here, the 'rising action' and background consume about 80% of the documentary; the denouement and 'fall' are squeezed into the rest. There is no sense of drama here. Even the nostalgia and regret expressed in many of the interviews seems flat and two-dimensional. You get a good amount of background on Sheffield and the nascent music scene, and then, BOOM, everybody's big, and then, POP, the bubble bursts, and everyone goes into rehab. The end product is unaffecting. But one could argue that this reflects the very nature of the rock-n-roll experience: exploitation, abuse, hype, and defeat. The rise is always propped up by illusions which ultimately prove unsustainable. If you aren't sick of 'behind the music' treatments of the recording industry, and you have an interest in this particular sound (Sheffield new-wave, 1976-1982), you might give this film a go. Otherwise, wait for something more comprehensive, or read a monograph on the subject, or stop kidding yourself and throw out all your albums and devote yourself to classical music.

A window into the phenomenon of the new wave art explosion.......2007-02-11

I love this film! The punk-inspired new wave days of late 1970s and early 1980s were a thrilling period of time to live. When music, dance, theatre, fashion, art & design all merged for a little while into a bigger concept of performance art. It was an expansive time when independent voices were inspiring and ricocheting ideas off one another like a global art cooperative.

This film is a microcosm of that time. Inspired by German and New York artists the group Cabaret Voltaire formed, and in turn they encouraged the youth of their everyday city, Sheffield*, to form their own bands.

The film is packed with 1970s film footage, probably not seen since then, of interviews and bands such as the Human League, Artery, Arabicus Pulp, etc. performing at Sheffield Hallam University and other venues of the time. Sheffield School of Art** had a new film studies course with a handful of teen-age film students on the scene.

The new interviews tell the stories of huge global success and bitter disappointments in hindsight. So its a wonderful film simultaneously full of the excitment and optimism of 1970s youth in balance with some hard-learned wisdom of adults; and peppered throughout with that singular British sense of humor. A wonderful film, a joy to watch!

Footnotes: *Sheffield is a South Yorkshire city famous for making cutlery until the Thatcher-era factory closures which is loosely described in the film The Full Monty. ** Sheffield Hallam University started the film studies course in 1976, and animator Nick Park is one of their most famous alumni.

Focusing on what IS here..........2006-03-06

I have just watched "Made in Sheffield" twice and have a much different reaction than the negative one. I would only agree on a point that this DVD could not be considered "the definitive story" (see edit. reviews). In every other respect I have to disagree that this DVD is a missed opportunity. This DVD is an excellent "introduction" to the subject, an important distinction - even if it does not tell the "whole" story, what it does tell is fascinating and worthwhile to watch.

And personally, I can wait until the filmmakers might someday have the very unusual and difficult-to-orchestrate opportunity to track down and interview ALL 3 members of Cabaret Voltaire, or any of the other people in all the bands covered here who were not interviewed. What they DID include in here is completely laudable. For example, I have found it MUCH easier in the past to find interviews of Richard Kirk and Stephen Mallinder - I've heard their side of the story already; it was Chris Watson that I had never heard from (on video), so it was a great thing for me to see him in here. The collection of interviews, edited into the flow of the images and song clips, are not worthless by any means for someone interested in hearing about the Sheffield scene of that time. They get pretty close-up and personal... there is a "casual" nature that made me feel like the interviews were conducted in my living room - they have a "welcoming" feel about them and are enjoyable whether they are telling the full story or not.

More full interviews of band members are included as extras (including Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, Stephen Singleton, Phil Oakey and more), unusual photos of many of the bands, and great live clips - and more to the point of what a DVD such as this is for in the first place - BECAUSE OF this DVD, I'm now going to try and find out more about the bands "I'm So Hollow" and "Pulp." Cool!

Missed Opportunity.......2005-06-29

Not a documentary as much as a myopic look back at the nascent 1980s New Wave scene, Made in Sheffield touches upon some of the great bands that shaped the industrial city's musical history, but never dives deeply enough to make watching it worthwhile. Parachuting in 20 years later, the creators locate a few of the original architects still middling about, briefly sketch blurry portraits, and move on, never providing a context for the disjointed snippets.

Worse is the consistent error in highlighting randomly chosen bit players to carry much of the weight. Chris Watson is an interesting guy, but using him as the sole face of Cabaret Voltaire is all sorts of wrong. Without the input of founders/main members Stephen Mallinder and Richard Kirk -- who kept the band going for more than a decade after Watson left -- the Cabaret Voltaire story is condensed into nothingness.

Many important contributors to the scene are overlooked. Much time is spent on unknowns like Vice Versa (pure crap) and Artery (an excellent, obscure revelation) while ignoring the work of producer Martin Rushent and incredibly under-rated acts like Hula. The only lead singers featured are Human League's Phil Oakley and Pulp's Jarvis Cocker. Not even mentioned are important Sheffield acts like British Electronic Foundation. Where's Martin Fry (ABC) or Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17)?

This scattershot approach is underscored by the awful interview segments, in which mics are placed so far from subjects it's impossible to hear what's being said much of the time (and no captions are provided). Many interviews are chopped off in mid-sentence, and this lack of attention to detail derails the effort.

If you want to know how Human League came to add two dancer/singers to its line-up, Made in Sheffield is quite informative. As a passing glance into electronic pop music, it's adequate, but nowhere does a viewer get a sense of why these acts are so important today, how they related to each other (other than swapping members), and why we should care. If you're a fan of any of these bands, you'll be shocked at the many omissions and the amateurishness of the film, and if you don't know anything about the Sheffield scene at all, suffice to say, you'll find little enlightenment here.

Average customer rating:

A Music Video for Music Videos
A window into the phenomenon of the new wave art explosion
Focusing on what IS here...
Missed Opportunity

Made In Sheffield [Region 2]
Starring: John Peel , and Jarvis Cocker
Director: Eve Wood
Manufacturer: Phantom Sound & Vision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Moog
Human League - Live at the Dome
OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music
Ultimate Live
Haack: The King of Techno

ASIN: B00020JP8G
Release Date: 2004-10-05

Customer Reviews:

A Music Video for Music Videos.......2007-03-09

A window into the phenomenon of the new wave art explosion.......2007-02-11

Focusing on what IS here..........2006-03-06

Missed Opportunity.......2005-06-29

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