The Portal

The Portal: 27 October 2025

On this week’s edition of The Portal we’re starting off by paying tribute to two pioneers of the 1980s. As most of you will know, Dave Ball of Soft Cell and The Grid sadly passed away last week – you can read Soft Cell biographer and tQ deputy editor Patrick Clarke’s obituary here. From the archive, we’ve a 2020 interview with Ball, plus an oral history of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, featuring contributions from Ball, Marc Almond and many more. This past weekend, Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder opened the formidable live return of Cabaret Voltaire (read our live review here) by dedicating the set to the late Richard H Kirk. We’ve got the Cabs co-founder’s Baker’s Dozen below. Also in the Baker’s archive slot is Tyler Hyde of Black Country, New Road – the band are on tour in the UK this week, as is the similarly featured Moor Mother. On the live front, Attila Csihar sometime of the Sunn O))) parish is playing for our pals at Baba Yaga’s Hut on Thursday – you can read an interview with him below. There’s also Marc Burrows on Nirvana Unplugged, Aida Amoako on the radical politics of Black Eyed Peas, and we’re marking Halloween week with our Low Culture Podcast on the ghost stories of M.R.James.