I got an email a few days ago from a commenter here at PPM. Shelf, a.k.a. DJ Shelf has been a part of this community for years now but he’s now doing it from over 1600 east of his former Philadelphia environs in his new home in Manchester. He told me that he had managed to see Cabaret Voltaire at their show last month at Gorilla, Manchester on the 18th of November.
I should have seethed with jealousy, but I was too busy feeling the pulse pounding excitement of the mere notion of Cabaret Voltaire playing that catalog live, and in a space “the size of my living room,” as Shelf put it. Actually it’s at least three times the size of my living room, but you get the picture. And I was grateful that at least a friend had touched The Grail!
What was happening was a masterclass in Electro-Paranoid-Doomfunk right in the faces of the audience. And like DEVO, Cabaret Voltaire were almost a decade ahead of any so-called competition and have only seen the passage of the decades render their cold-eyed probings of the darker side of human nature via The Control Process more painfully validated than they would probably care to feel at this time.
The shows were planned to have Benge as part of the quartet with original members Chris Watson, Stephen Mallinder, and adjunct member Eric Random, but illness meant that Oliver Harrap of The Moonlandingz was on the rhythm pads instead. Shelf has captured the performance of top Cab Volt jam “Just Fascination” and even though it’s on YouTube [Monk twitches slightly] we have to embed this here anyway. Hit the play button.
Yow! That is still a monster of a track! It’s incredibly funky yet with an undercurrent of loathsomeness that manages to attract and repel in equal measures! Hearing this made me want to stay up all night and compulsively play their 12″ singles. I’d be thrilled to have this music simply played in a club. To be in a club where the band was playing it is beyond the pale for me!
But the further news, is that next year will see Cabaret Voltaire embark on another “final tour” of the UK and Europe. So that more ears and eyes will receive the transmission. Minus 20 points for “reneging” on the “last tour pledge” faster than even Soft Cell, but plus 3,000 points for giving us another chance to experience the magic. Here are the date that have been announced thus far. With more to come, so sayeth the band.
CABARET VOLTAIRE | EUROPEAN TOUR | 2026
- Mar. 6 | Elevate Festival | Graz, Austria
- June 2 | Betonhalle | Berlin, Germany
- June 5 | Elysée Montmarte | Paris, France
- June 12 | AB | Brussels, Belgium
- June 13 | Paradisio | Amsterdam, Netherlands
- June 19 | Docks | Lausanne, Switzerland
- June 20 | Sónar Festival | Barcelona, Spain
CABARET VOLTAIRE | UK TOUR | 2026
- Oct. 10 | Town Hall | Birmingham, England
- Oct. 11 | Arts Club | Liverpool, England
- Oct. 13 | Rock City | Nottingham, England
- Oct. 14 | Tramshed | Cardiff, Wales
- Oct. 15 | Forum | Bath, England
- Oct. 17 | Boiler Shop | Newcastle, England
- Oct. 18 | Barrowland | Glasgow, Scotland
- Oct. 19 | Albert Hall | Manchester, England
- Oct. 21 | De La Warr Pavilion | Bexhill, England
- Oct. 22 | Roundhouse | London, England
- Oct. 25 | Octagon | Sheffield, England
There’s a lot of dead space in between June and October, so here’s hoping that the quartet mount a US tour, since we need this music more than ever in the authoritarian hellhole America has descended into under The Fathead. That is, if they can get work visas from the endlessly corrupt and transactional Fathead administration.
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Post-Punk Monk 
Ahh, thanks for sharing all that, Monk :-) Never ever thought I would cross Cabaret Voltaire off my concert bucket list. And given the quality of the show, you wouldn’t think that these are former bandmates who hadn’t performed together in decades. However, it’s sad that it took Richard H. Kirk’s passing to make it happen. Fortunately, Mallinder and Watson are upholding the CV legacy most admirably.
I’m planning to attend the Albert Hall show on October 19 next year – should I get two tickets? ;-)
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Shelf – Oh, does your loved one also like Cabaret Voltaire?! I jest. We made our excursion to England’s green and pleasant land last year, so I think we have to give it a while longer before mounting another campaign. As much as a Cab Volt tour in 2026 is an Organ Auction Live Event®!
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Ticket purchased for Bath! Lots of tours these days seem to get announced 10-12 months ahead, a bit strange but nevermind.
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SimonH – The long lead times for ticket sales are perhaps down to promoters realizing that there’s a lot of information competing for mindshare in their audience these days. I’d rather have a year than a month or two to twitch and pivot, personally.
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Or the opportunity to earn interest on ticket sales for a year, pretty sure that’s a significant motivation.
If it’s a seated venue you can’t hang around. I’m not mad on it. I saw the Chameleons last month and a week later they announced a Bristol gig for a years’ time!
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SimonH – Here’s another thought…who gets all of that compound interest that our ticket purchase makes before the actual concert happens? When and where does our money exchange hands; and with whom? I’m guessing it’s some very creative accounting and that the artist gets only their original percentage from the sale.
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Agree, I bet it’s not the artist!
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SimonH – My cynical mind is imaging money collected and shunted off to offshore accounts for the agency/promoter right up front. Finance will destroy us all.
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I strongly suspect you’re right!
And yes, it will sadly.
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Ugh. That’s a depressing, and likely true theory about advance ticket sales lining the pockets of promoters with earned interest. Almost as big a scam as the secondary selling market (legalized touts). It’s impossible to not be cynical about the live entertainment industry.
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