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Studio Electrophonique: The Sheffield space age, from The Human League to Pulp
The amazing story of the home studio that helped launch some of Britain’s most beloved bands.
The Sheffield space age began in 1961, when local mechanic Ken Patten won a tape-recording competition by recreating the sound of a rocket launch using a pencil and a bicycle pump.
In the decades that followed, the makeshift home studio he constructed became the launch pad for a group of young musicians who would shape the futuristic sound of 1980s pop. The Human League, Heaven 17, Pulp, ABC and others made their early recordings with Ken, whose DIY ethic was the perfect fit for a city facing industrial decline but teeming with ideas.
Studio Electrophonique tells the story of a generation seeking new frontiers in music, using everything they could lay their hands on – from science fiction novels to glam rock, Dada art and cheap electronics – to get there. Drawing on original interviews with Jarvis Cocker, Martyn Ware, Mark White and others, it brings to light a world of humour, charm, creativity and unfounded yet undaunted self-belief.
The Sheffield space age began in 1961, when local mechanic Ken Patten won a tape-recording competition by recreating the sound of a rocket launch using a pencil and a bicycle pump.
In the decades that followed, the makeshift home studio he constructed became the launch pad for a group of young musicians who would shape the futuristic sound of 1980s pop. The Human League, Heaven 17, Pulp, ABC and others made their early recordings with Ken, whose DIY ethic was the perfect fit for a city facing industrial decline but teeming with ideas.
Studio Electrophonique tells the story of a generation seeking new frontiers in music, using everything they could lay their hands on – from science fiction novels to glam rock, Dada art and cheap electronics – to get there. Drawing on original interviews with Jarvis Cocker, Martyn Ware, Mark White and others, it brings to light a world of humour, charm, creativity and unfounded yet undaunted self-belief.
304 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 11, 2025
This is an excellent read. The author captures Sheffield in the seventies and early eighties perfectly , certainly as I remember it and his well researched writing on the bands of the time is well worth reading
March 18, 2025
Really enjoyed this. Review to come
January 24, 2026
A book fundamentally about the secrets that can be hidden behind ordinary terrance houses. About ordinary folk doing extraordinary things, often away from the cultural gaze, and without formal education or training, but driven on by hard work and creativity.
Foremost amongst these ordinary folk, was Ken Patten who, from his living room in a normal terraced house, in normal street in Handsworth, built a record studio which would provide the launch pad for much of Sheffield’s cultural exports in the late 1970s and 1980s - later dubbed ‘Patten’s Platter’ by the Sheffield Star.
Dubbed ‘Studio Electrophonique’ (because the French made it seem cooler), from Patten’s living room, and often under his guidance & advice, a wave of bands were launched who went interstellar and eclipse Patten’s fame. Bands like Pulp, The Human League, Heaven 17, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire, and Clock DVA, but also many more for whom Studio Electronique provided them with the opportunity to try out music. Alongside Patten, an utterly insane amount of these bands also appeared to form at — or play early gigs at — Psalter Lane Art College.
The book is also beautifully interspersed with social commentary from the time, which pushed bands on through escapism and a futurist fever that seems so incongruous to Sheffield at this time - industrial decline, the miner’s strike, as well as general neglect from the South (aka Thatcherism), but pushed on by advances in technology.
This was the Sheffield space age and Ken Patten was their launchpad from which the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Phil Oakey, and Martyn Ware became musical astronauts.
The book ends with a valedictory cry from the author, Jamie Taylor, to the importance of people continuing to remember, and re-tell, these kind of stories: “ordinary people like us need to remember that art is not some far-off place. Dada and surrealism are rightly held aloft today as movements of high-concept art but they were - like Meatwhistle, Gun Rubber and the work of the bands that forged the golden age of Sheffield music - just young people pissing about with ideas that would alarm and bewilder the cultural guardians of the day.”
Foremost amongst these ordinary folk, was Ken Patten who, from his living room in a normal terraced house, in normal street in Handsworth, built a record studio which would provide the launch pad for much of Sheffield’s cultural exports in the late 1970s and 1980s - later dubbed ‘Patten’s Platter’ by the Sheffield Star.
Dubbed ‘Studio Electrophonique’ (because the French made it seem cooler), from Patten’s living room, and often under his guidance & advice, a wave of bands were launched who went interstellar and eclipse Patten’s fame. Bands like Pulp, The Human League, Heaven 17, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire, and Clock DVA, but also many more for whom Studio Electronique provided them with the opportunity to try out music. Alongside Patten, an utterly insane amount of these bands also appeared to form at — or play early gigs at — Psalter Lane Art College.
The book is also beautifully interspersed with social commentary from the time, which pushed bands on through escapism and a futurist fever that seems so incongruous to Sheffield at this time - industrial decline, the miner’s strike, as well as general neglect from the South (aka Thatcherism), but pushed on by advances in technology.
This was the Sheffield space age and Ken Patten was their launchpad from which the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Phil Oakey, and Martyn Ware became musical astronauts.
The book ends with a valedictory cry from the author, Jamie Taylor, to the importance of people continuing to remember, and re-tell, these kind of stories: “ordinary people like us need to remember that art is not some far-off place. Dada and surrealism are rightly held aloft today as movements of high-concept art but they were - like Meatwhistle, Gun Rubber and the work of the bands that forged the golden age of Sheffield music - just young people pissing about with ideas that would alarm and bewilder the cultural guardians of the day.”
August 26, 2025
Really good overview of the Sheffield music scene from the late 70s/early 80s, and how a DIY recording studio in a council house helped launch several groups that went on to sell millions (and millions) of records (ABC, Cabaret Voltaire, Human League, Heaven 17, Pulp).
Thought the early chapters were a little scattergun and tended to drift a bit - I wasn't always totally sure why certain things were getting referenced and why we were being taken on this particular tangent. But moved along much better once the groups came into focus and there was more of a fixed timeline to work from. Enjoyed!
Thought the early chapters were a little scattergun and tended to drift a bit - I wasn't always totally sure why certain things were getting referenced and why we were being taken on this particular tangent. But moved along much better once the groups came into focus and there was more of a fixed timeline to work from. Enjoyed!
October 19, 2025
Encapsulates the vibe and feeling of the 1970s and 80s Sheffield music scene, and what it meant to exist on the fringes of a burgeoning indie scene. A cohesive and well-collated archive of quotes and anecdotes from the people who were imperative to the creation of Sheffield as a culturally important musical site, like Martin Fry, Jarvis Cocker, Adi Newton, and Martyn Ware, all circumnavigating around Ken Patten's Studio Electrophonique.
September 10, 2025
“'Sheffield has always had a preoccupation with the future and escapism and stuff like that, coupled with a very down-to-earth, kitchen-sink mentality as well, so you kind of got the idea of spacemen who've still got to put the rubbish out.'”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews