45 SHEFFIELD 45s

Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen

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Sheffield might have been overshadowed by its nearS neighbour Manchester as a musical hub over the years, but it has been no less innovative. The Steel City's musical story is inextricably entwined with industrial music, a sonic mimicking of its fuliginous environment, in much the same way the three-fingered sheet metal worker Tony Iommi helped to birth heavy metal with Black Sabbath in Birmingham. In the late 70s and early 80s especially, Sheffield led the world in the sonically severe and synthetic, with artists like Cabaret Voltaire, The Human League and Heaven 17, and Clock DVA, I'm So Hollow and They Must Be Russians coming up the rear. (Throbbin