that.” In his book How Soon Is Now? The Madmen and Mavericks Who Made Independent Music 1975–2005 , Richard King writes: “FON [was] a bridge between the dystopian futurism of the Sheffield of Cabaret Voltaire and Human League and the city’s next generation.” FON’s studio engineer was a sonic genius and electronic prodigy by the name of Robert Gordon. By the time he was fourteen, Gordon was already building dub boxes, sirens, and effects units while playing drums with various reggae bands. After leaving school, he moved into music production, thanks to a community music initiative. It was through one of the recordings made on the scheme that he was introduced to Mark Brydon. In one of his few interviews, Gordon told Matt Anniss: “Mark reckoned the results I was getting sounded better than his brand new twenty-four-track studio they’d been working on with Sly and Robbie (at FON Studios on Chakk’s 1986 LP 10 Days in an Elevator ). They needed an engineer, so I was introduced to them.” Gordon went on to work on chart records at FON by the likes of Yazz, Age of Chance, Erasure, and Joyce Sims. But his love of reggae rhythms and sonic experimentation at the mixing desk was just waiting for a more experimental outlet. “Rob [Gordon] was like this genius kid who just knew how to do stuff,” says Brydon. “He had this inherent instinct of how to line up a tape machine or to get that kick drum sound.” In the autumn of 1985, Sheffield’s dance community would have the home they had been waiting for when Barratt and
of industrial electro that sat comfortably next to other Cabaret Voltaire releases on Doublevison, who also reissued the 1981 LP Thirst by Clock DVA (Sheffield’s most radical electronic music group to emerge from the DIY post-punk scene). Things took a far more commercial course in 1985 when Chakk released their second 12-inch on their own FON Records label, set up with their manager, NME journalist Amrik Rai. The dance-orientated “You” b/w “They Say” reached the U.K. Top Ten Indie Chart, which led to a recording and publishing deal with MCA Records. They used the money to start the state-of-the-art FON (that stood for Fuck Off Nazis) Studios, designed by Brydon. “We were militantly self-supporting and kind of followed the whole DIY Western Works model,” he recalls. “So at least we knew when the deal [with MCA] was over we could continue to build things up.” Located above one of the city’s many old metal works, FON quickly became a hub for the local music scene and a place of exchange. “You had the studio but also a very fluid writing room and people would just come in and hang out, and so all these things started to happen between people,” recalls Brydon. “I really think of it as a uniting space—a very supportive environment and the place that brought all these different things together.” Richard Barratt was one of those hanging out there. “The Cabs were the figureheads, but FON was the really important place,” he says. “They were all really into that Compass Point sound down there—with Sly and Robbie, Gwen Guthrie, and all
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( above ) Mark Brydon and engineer Rob Gordon at the mixing board in FON Studios. Originally shot for NME , 1987.
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