We were working in entertainment, in the music industry, with popular music, it was important, but it was something that we also felt was a responsibility.

I don't think it had a name when we started. If punk has any roots, Dada is part of it. And we saw ourselves as part of a kind of Dada tradition.

We were sort of coming from an angle where we wanted to break rules.

Even if that statement was ambiguous, we kind of wanted to cause a stir. We thought that by having the name "Cabaret Voltaire", that with it came a certain responsibility. It wasn't meant to be purely entertainment; it was meant to be something a little bit more serious - and to provoke people - wrapped within an outer wrapping of entertainment.

I think that's the fascinating thing that exists now. This contrasts with a celebrity art and celebrity music culture.

We were responding to a period in the 70s when we started that it was very much you cannot be involved in music unless you studied to do music.

I think we saw our reaction coming from Dada, but at the same time, it formed into punk, which was very much a reaction to the social conditions. That was part of it for us as well, and that's why we were kind of swept along with punk.