Hula

Hula were founded in Sheffield in 1981. Three members (Mark Albrow, Alan Fish and Ron Wright) lived with Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) and Paul Widger (They must be Russians, Clock DVA, The Box) in a villa called Hula Kula. After trying the bass players Alan Watt and Chris Brain (Tense, NOS) Hula recorded the impressive debut album Cut From Inside with Mark Brydon (Chakk, Moloko). Ingredients like cut ups, steady rhythms, and paranoia vocals blended together into a unique white funky sound. Murmur was the band's second album and came out on Red Rhino in 1984. This was also the time of Hula's great singles - Fever Car, Get the Habit and Walk on Stalks of Shattered Glass were all released around that time. In 1986, a more ambient sounding live album was released: Shadowland. The same year saw the release of 1000 Hours - a specially priced double album containing a live concert from Amsterdam, and a whole LP full of new songs, partially recorded in The Netherlands, and partially in the band's hometown Sheffield. As usual, this was remastered by Martin Bowes for this first ever release on CD