Section 25

Section 25 began as a brooding post-punk outfit in the late 1970s before shifting toward an early form of indie-dance crossover during the 1980s; after a long hiatus the band resumed activity in the new millennium and issued a steady stream of new recordings. Initially signed to Factory Records, the group debuted in 1980 with a single produced by Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, after which its first albums, among them 1981’s Always Now, remained closely aligned with that band’s atmospheric style. The 1984 album From the Hip marked a decisive turn toward synth pop and electro textures; its track “Looking from a Hilltop” became an underground club favorite, and the record’s overall sound left a mark on later alternative dance acts including the Shamen and the broader Madchester movement. Following the belated appearance of the fourth album Love & Hate in 1988 the original lineup dissolved, yet the Cassidys revived Section 25 in 2001 and delivered a full return with the muscular post-punk of 2007’s Part-Primitiv. Further releases appeared, among them 2013’s Dark Light, which foregrounded bright techno-pop, and 2018’s Elektra, which restored prominent guitar work.

Brothers Larry and Vincent Cassidy formed Section 25 in Blackpool in 1978; guitarist Paul Wiggin joined soon afterward, followed by a drummer who departed within months. Early shows across England in 1979 established a sound reminiscent of Joy Division’s atmospheric post-punk, and the band’s debut single, “Girls Don’t Count,” produced by Ian Curtis, reached the shops on Factory Records in early 1980. Additional singles appeared on the Factory Benelux label before the full-length Always Now arrived on the main Factory imprint in 1981.

In 1982 the group recruited drummer Lee Shallcross, undertook its first U.S. tour, and issued the second album Key of Dreams on Factory Benelux. By year’s end the Cassidy brothers had grown disillusioned and briefly stepped away, yet they reassembled the band six months later with Shallcross plus new members, among them Larry’s wife Jenny Cassidy and Angela Flowers. The expanded lineup incorporated greater electronic elements on 1984’s From the Hip, an album that secured worldwide distribution, including the band’s sole American pressing on Factory U.S., and yielded the club hit “Looking from a Hilltop.” Although recorded in 1986, Love and Hate did not surface until 1988; by then the lineup had contracted to Larry and Jenny Cassidy alone.

Section 25 regrouped in 2001, but Jenny Cassidy succumbed to cancer a few years later. Larry and Vincent nevertheless sustained the project, aided by guitarist Ian Butterworth of Tunnelvision and multi-instrumentalist Roger Wikeley on bass and keyboards. The refreshed ensemble performed several concerts and recorded Part-Primitiv, which included two vocal tracks by Jenny Cassidy, for release in 2007. Steve Stringer later replaced Wikeley, and the band issued another studio album, Nature + Degree, in 2009; Larry and Jenny’s daughter Bethany supplied lead vocals on two songs. Larry Cassidy died of a blood clot on February 27, 2010. Retrofit, a collection of remixes and re-recordings already nearing completion at the time of his death, appeared that September, supported by U.K. dates that featured Bethany as vocalist.

After the 2011 digital EP Invicta, Section 25 returned with the upbeat electropop album Dark Light in 2013. The same year Klanggalerie released Eigengrau, an album of experimental remixes. A previously unrecorded 1980 composition titled “Mirror,” featuring Simon Topping of A Certain Ratio, surfaced as a Record Store Day single in April 2015. The following year the band issued the live album Alfresco, again timed to Record Store Day. Studio album Elektra followed in 2018, restoring original guitarist Paul Wiggin to the lineup; its closing track reinterpreted Kanye West’s “FML,” which itself sampled “Hit” from Section 25’s debut album.