808 State

There at the heart of Manchester's Acid House rave scene in the late 1980s, dance pioneers 808 State produced some of the anthems of the era and inspired the likes of Aphex Twin, Chemical Brothers and Orbital. Formed by record shop owner Martin Price and DJ/producers Graham Massey and Gerald Simpson initially as hip hop crew Hit Squad Manchester, they renamed themselves after a drum machine and turned to dance music, with their remixes becoming favourites at legendary club The Hacienda. Signed to Paul Morley and Trevor Horn's label ZTT Records, debut Newbuild (1988) influenced a generation of electronic producers while single Pacific State became a landmark of the scene and one of the first Acid House records to cross over into the charts when it reached Number 10. Simpson left the group to become A Guy Called Gerald and score the classic Voodoo Ray, but was replaced by the Spinmasters - Darren Partington and Andrew Baker - who helped create the cult classics Ninety (1989) and Ex:el (1991), which featured vocals from Bjork and Bernard Sumner, produced the Top 10 hits Cubik/Olympic and In Yer Face and reached Number 4 in the UK album charts. They went on to work with UB40 and Ian McCulloch on Gorgeous (1993), James Dean Bradfield and Lou Rhodes on Don Solaris (1996) and Guy Garvey and Alabama 3 on Outpost Transmission (2003), and remain hugely respected figures in the British dance scene.