Hula are one of the Bureau's Tier-II entries in the Sheffield post-Cabaret-Voltaire cluster. Formed November 1980 in the Hula Kula villa shared with Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire and Paul Widger of They Must Be Russians / Clock DVA / the Box, the band's opening-period position was shaped by the shared-house geography rather than by a deliberate band-formation programme. The villa's name derived from an obscure Roxy Music track that the Sheffield post-Cabaret-Voltaire cluster orbited; the band later took the same name when they settled on a public identity. The catalogue's active 1980–1987 period produced the albums Cut From Inside (December 1983), Murmur, and 1000 Hours, bracketing the band's development from the opening-period rotating-bass-chair line-up through the Nort-era settled-line-up position to the later post-Nort dissolution.
The founding configuration was a trio of Mark Albrow (keyboards), Alan Fish (drums, also Fisch) and Ron Wright (guitar, tape experimenter), all three resident at the Hula Kula villa. Per the catalogue's later biographical record, the band rehearsed before they had a name, drafted in two girls (girlfriends of band members) to sing for the first-ever gig, and only settled on Hula after Mark Albrow joined. The rotating-bass-chair early period documents the overlapping personnel of the Sheffield cluster: the band tried Alan Watt, then Chris Brain (later of Tense and NOS; described in the catalogue's later record as "the notorious" Chris Brain), then Mark Brydon (of Chakk; later of Moloko in the post-1995 mainstream-electronica catalogue). The opening-period working vein was shaped by Stephen Mallinder's production work on the catalogue's first single Black Pop Workout; per the catalogue's later biographical record the position included "bass-heavy, extreme howls, distorted sample-bites, dissonant guitar on full gush."
The Nort drum-chair replacement of Alan Fish was the catalogue's most significant early-period line-up change. Nort had previously drummed for Cabaret Voltaire on the 1982 2x45 and on the Pressure Company benefit; later a much in-demand session-drummer on the Sheffield circuit including roto-toms on the UV Pop 12 inch Anyone For Me and on Ian Elliot's 1984 Belgian single Again I Lift You To My Heart Again. The Nort drum-chair join brought the direct-Cabaret-Voltaire personnel crossover into the Hula catalogue alongside Mallinder's production work; later the band recorded Murmur, the Nort-period album, with the cut-ups, steady rhythms, and paranoia-vocals method that the catalogue's later biographical record describes as "a unique white funky sound."
John Avery joined as bassist later the Murmur recording, settling the rotating-bass-chair early-period configuration. Avery joined in time for the Dutch tour dates and the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) London appearance, the latter of which gained positive press notices in 1984. The catalogue extended into international touring (the Dutch dates) alongside the studio work; the live shows operated as cluttered media-overload performance, with at least a dozen film projectors deployed under Peter Care's video direction. Care had directed the 1982 Cabaret Voltaire / Stephen Mallinder collaborative film Johnny YesNo and later directed 1980s music videos before relocating to Hollywood for feature-film work.
In 1984–1986 Hula supported Depeche Mode on portions of the 1980s tours including the Wembley Arena dates. Parallel to the touring the catalogue recorded John Peel BBC sessions plus Dutch VPRO radio sessions (per Ron Wright's December 1984 NME interview, the VPRO session gave more recording time than the BBC; the VPRO relationship was facilitated by Marylou, the catalogue's VPRO contact who was a key figure in getting Sheffield bands gigs in Holland and Europe across the period). The indie-hit single Fever Car consolidated the catalogue's commercial position; the working manner across the post-1984 catalogue shifted toward less-experimental industro-funk per the catalogue's later reception record.
The catalogue's active period ended in 1987. Nort had left the band in 1986; Mark Albrow later quit after Nort's departure, eroding the working line-up. The 1987 dissolution closed the catalogue at the same period that the Sheffield post-Cabaret-Voltaire cluster shifted toward the Warp / bleep-techno method that later characterised the city's post-1988 release. Later the catalogue's archival reception has been preserved through the Sheffield Tape Archive (the 11 June 1983 Leadmill recording released on Bandcamp on 11 June 2016) and Martin Lilleker's Sheffield-music book Beats Working for a Living, the documentary reference for the catalogue.
Filed by Bureau editor · VAGO · c. the Pleistocene era · last revised c. the Edwardian era