Another one from Virgin on the Moor when it was the hip epicentre of Sheffield. Allegedly Ian Curtis could be found browsing the racks when he was working in the monolithic Manpower Services Commission building at the bottom of the road, but then again the same could probably be said of most of the musicians in the post-punk Sheffield scene.
Hot on the heels of the Human League's pop electronics and Cabaret Voltaire's art electronics came many other bands who picked up cheap synths and slapped on the eye shadow. Vice Versa were probably at the top of the second division before their miraculous tranformation into ABC but there were other bands who populated the pubs and venues with bright young folk emulating the Bowie and Kraftwerk influenced decadence filtering up from London: I'm So Hollow, Vendino Pact and Y? were all represented on the Sheffield/Barnsley compilation 'Bouquet of Steel' and there were others such as The Naughtiest Girl Was a Monitor and Hobbies of Today who put down the guitars and picked up the keyboards in response to those pale cyborgs and long haired baritones on Top of the Pops.
An Ordered Life did that too. They were named for a quote from James Anderton, notorious evangelical Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, and took their cues from Iggy and Bauhaus and I believe came from the west side of town. They were minimal, drummerless and swathed in effects and the tape sounds like it was recorded live in the rehearsal room - this was even in the days before the revolution of the Portastudio. They created a sufficient stir for their look and sound but only existed for three years before calling it a day.
I think I paid about £1.50 for the tape. The text looks like was printed on someone's Dad's office printer, probably harnessing the phenomenal power of a mainframe of the time, which would now run in emulation on your watch.
While doing a bit of quick Googling for the band I found that they had uploaded their output to IUMA at archive.org, so as well as my copy, here's their own.
Side One:
- Rebirth
- Ordered Life
- Flowers
- I
- Mass Production
Side Two:
