Opening in 1986, Red Tape Studios was the first municipal recording studio in the UK (Wichelow 2023). Named in a council paper as the Sheffield Music Factory, it emerged in reaction to the decline of the steel industry in Sheffield, which faced 57,000 redundancies between 1979 and 1983 (Child and Paddon 1984). The realization of international trade in the 1970s and 1980s signaled a drastic decrease to the UK government’s direct control of industry, leading to the deindustrialization of many towns and cities that had been reliant on these industries. The downturn of steel manufacture in Sheffield was accompanied by a burgeoning music scene and a resistance to the newly elected Conservative government, both at the grassroots and through the socialist local government. Within Sheffield City Council, Councillor Bill Michie and principal development officer Paul Skelton were both fans of the local music scene. They discovered, through talking with bands, that the only suitable recording studios were in London (Jackson 2021).
This essay makes use of material from the Sheffield City Archives to uncover Red Tape’s story and understand the legacy of municipal socialism in light of its recent resurgence in the UK. In Sheffield, public institutions animated working-class creativity and created economic opportunities in an era when prime minister Margaret Thatcher declared, “there’s no such thing as society.”
The Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire
“The way our cities are rebuilt should reflect our social and economic priorities”
(Blunkett and Green 1983, p. 14).
Between 1980 and 1987, under the leadership of David Blunkett, Sheffield City Council attempted to implement a programme of municipal socialism, earning the moniker “the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire.” Adherents believed that the means of production could be successfully managed at a local level by both the state and the third sector, and sought to prove this could be scaled to a national and international level (Blunkett and Green 1983). Sheffield was not alone in this endeavor and various strategies for municipal socialism were undertaken by other left-wing local authorities; these authorities collectively became known as the “new urban” or, derisively, “loony” left (Payling 2023).
Speaking in the documentary The Beat is The Law (Wood 2010), musician Nick Banks of Pulp suggested that “[t]he dole culture of Thatcher’s Britain … was perhaps a great supporter of the arts.” Adi Newton of Clock DVA expanded, explaining that “you could sign on the dole and you wouldn’t be bothered … for months and years … you weren’t pressurised to get jobs, you could be in a band, or you could be a painter, or you could be a poet or whatever.”
The city council saw the opportunity created by mass unemployment, a burgeoning music scene, and a lingering welfare state. They formed the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) in 1980 with the concept of stimulating new growth for the creative industries. Found in conference notes penned by council development officer Paul Skelton, the proposal was for a 24‑hour cultural industry that would manage the decline in the 24‑hour manufacturing industry. It would be centered around music, with spaces for recording and rehearsal during the day and spaces for performance at night. The council did not intend to collect direct profit from the cultural industry in Sheffield and would not own the products of artists’ labour. The purpose was to reduce unemployment by allowing producers to own the products of their labour; this would stimulate wider urban renewal.
The epicenter for this regeneration was the Cultural Industries Quarter, the home of Red Tape. Situated in the southeast of the city center, the Quarter was initially a collection of abandoned industrial buildings, including works, warehouses, and garages with transport links locally and nationally through the bus and rail stations. The council started purchasing properties in this area in 1980, with the intention to renovate and invest in them to stimulate the creative industries. Skelton’s notes explain how the council achieved this through a local partnership steering group with the Leadmill arts center and the Yorkshire ArtSpace Society, two cultural community institutions already existing in the area. Council reports describe how the Leadmill received limited financial support from both the city and county councils, and hosted not only educational events on the arts but also “Dolebusters,” a series of gigs that supported unemployed musicians entering the Sheffield scene.
Source: Sheffield Archives: [CA1010].
Red Tape Studios
It is unclear whether Red Tape’s name refers to the bureaucracy of the music industry or of local government, or if it is a comment on the socialist production of music. Irrespective, the empty Autoways car sales building was identified as a suitable location for the studio, going to the council committee for approval in 1982 (Jackson 2021). A report titled Municipal Music Services and Recording Project noted that there were 6,000 musicians and 500 pop bands in Sheffield, yet only 25 had a recording contract. It pushed for state involvement to socialize an industry with a tendency to exploit workers through insecure employment and manipulation, and to exploit consumers through profit extraction (Blunkett and Jackson 1987). Expanding on this, the Sheffield Music Factory report stated that arts in the north of the UK faced marginalisation from a lack of funders.
In reaction to these conditions, the council brought together the local music scene, area universities, trade unions, and architects to design Red Tape. Describing it as a music factory foregrounded their understanding of political economy; hiring a cooperative builder (Jackson 2021) demonstrated their commitment to third-sector involvement, even in construction.
Source: Sheffield Archives: [CA1010].
From a technical standpoint, the recording and rehearsal spaces sat within the larger space as a noise and vibration attenuation strategy (Jackson 2021). The existing structure is delineated by the thicker line weights, and we can see how the proposal is a series of smaller interventions that sit away from the existing form (Figure 2). This requires less intrusive construction and was probably done as a measure to keep costs low, given the relatively small starting budget of £40,000.
The concept for Red Tape was to stimulate the local music economy which would provide indirect future revenue and increase employment. It provided both recreation and training for the unemployed and youth, educating on multiple professions in the industry, including sound engineers, musicians, and technicians. The Sheffield Star highlighted preference given to underrepresented groups to promote diversity (Trevena 1987). Although it was not designed to be commercial, and would need regular council subsidies, Red Tape was able to escape the stigma of a waste of public spending as it was based on commercial benefit for those who used it and aimed to develop connections in the music industry for workers at multiple levels of experience and success (Roskrow n.d.).
The success of Red Tape led to other unused spaces in the Autoways building being brought back into function using central-government funding (Beveridge and Cochrane 2023). FON (Fuck Off Nazis) studios, a recording studio opened by the band Chakk, relocated upstairs alongside the Audio Visual Enterprise Centre, a commercial media provision opened in 1988, and the Sheffield City Archives moved into the larger of the two showrooms. These expansions were part of Red Tape phases 2 and 3, incorporating both public and commercial ventures. In the adjacent Kennings building, Workstation—a space for small creative businesses—opened, and the Showroom cinema—a hub of independent film—was established in 1989 (Jackson 2021).
The legacy of municipal socialism
Red Tape succeeded in many ways. The Cultural Industries Quarter was celebrated within Sheffield and acknowledged as a model for postindustrial cultural regeneration (Roodhouse 2006), with Red Tape as its focal point. It proposed both a critique and alternative to exploitation within the music industry whilst demonstrating that the means of production could be managed by community groups and the local state. Despite this, the city council ultimately failed to achieve their—admittedly high—political aim of scaling socialism from a local to an international level. Following Blunkett’s election to parliament in 1987, the revolutionary zeal of the council was lost, along with members’ goal of international socialism. However, Red Tape continued. Conceived between the socialist council and local musicians; designed by local architects, universities, and trade unions; built by cooperative builders; used by Sheffield residents; and expanded by artists, musicians, and the council, it stands as a demonstration of defiance to the individualist message pushed by the Conservative government of the time. Red Tape has recently seen a change in ownership following reports of closure (Wichelow 2023). It is now part of Sheffield Music Hub, a larger initiative by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority that aims to bring music education to children.
Source: Sheffield Archives: [X129].
Today there is a renewed interest in socialism at a local government level in the UK. Councils such as Preston (in northwest England) and Barking & Dagenham (in London) have rediscovered and rebranded the concept of municipal socialism; scholars and journalists extol the “Preston model” and “civic socialism” (Cruddas and Rodwell 2019), alongside the more international “new municipalism” (Thompson 2020). In this context, Red Tape serves as a timely reminder that spatial interventions can demonstrate, by deed, that production can occur cooperatively through collaboration of the local state and the communities it serves. In collaborating and creating, community members and municipal officials build counternarratives that defy the policies of the central government.
Bibliography
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