808 State was formed in 1988 in Manchester, England. Martin Price was the owner of a record store called Eastern Bloc, and was also the founder of independent label Creed. Customers Graham Massey of the band Biting Tongues, and Gerald Simpson, joined with Price to form a hip-hop group called Hit Squad Manchester. Soon after the band shifted to an acid house sound, recording the debut Newbuild in 1988, while using the name 808 State for the first time. The album was released on Price’s own record label. Graham had been a member of the hippy – fusion band Aqua in the 1970s along with violinist Graham Clark, a former pupil of Manchester Grammar School.
The band really began to find commercial success when their song “Pacific State” was picked up by Gary Davies in 1989 on his Radio 1 daytime show. The song was on a compilation album of many artists at the time, but the resulting attention Davies bestowed upon it, and its re-playing on his show over a number of weeks, led to the song being released as a single to chart success, with a peak of #10 on the UK Singles Chart. Coupled with the emerging Acid House scene at the time, 808 State had arrived.
Simpson left the group in 1989 to form his own solo project, A Guy Called Gerald. Voodoo Ray was his biggest song. At this point, the remaining personnel enlisted DJs. Andrew Barker and Darren Partington (known as the Spinmasters), recorded an EP called Quadrastate in 1989. Their next album, Ninety, was well-received by the rave culture.[citation needed]
MC Tunes (real name Nicky Lockett) was a Manchester rapper, who worked with the band on his 1990 album, The North At Its Heights. The album was a moderate success, reaching #26 in the UK charts, and also saw European and Japanese release. It spawned three UK singles, The Only Rhyme That Bites – featuring a sample of “The Big Country” performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic – (UK #10), Tunes Splits The Atom (UK #18) and Primary Rhyming (UK #67). Tunes later returned in 1996 to work with on a new track, Pump, taken from 808 State’s album Thermo Kings. It was due to be released as a single, but this never occurred.
808 State’s next album was released in 1991 Ex:el, which featured vocals from Bernard Sumner (New Order) and ex-Sugarcubes vocalist Björk, other hits include In Yer Face, Cubik, Olympic & Lift.
In 1992, Price left the group to perform solo producing, eventually forming his own label, Sun Text. The remaining members released a fourth album called Gorgeous, and after that, did some remix work for David Bowie, Soundgarden, and other performers, before returning with the album entitled Don Solaris in 1996. This album marked a change for the band who wanted to shake off their rave moniker and, with ‘Don Solaris’, they aimed to create a more beautiful, cinemascopic sound. The album featured contributions from James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers, who sung vocals on ‘Lopez’ which reached number 20 in the UK singles charts. This song was remixed by Brian Eno. The song ‘Bond’ featured vocals by Mike Doughty from the band Soul Coughing and ‘Azura’ featured Louise Rhodes from Lamb. They released a greatest-hits compilation named 808:88:98 in 1998-their last on record label ZTT and a 1998 remix of Pacific soared high in the charts. In 2000, their pioneering 1988 acid house album ‘Newbuild’ was re-released.
