808 State set to reunite?

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 14:42

Well, this was reported in today's Guardian!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/fe ... nal-lineup

The original lineup of 808 State is set to reunite, according to co-founder Gerald Simpson. More than 20 years after the group's debut, Simpson and Graham Massey reportedly plan to return to their acid-house roots for a tour and even new recordings.

Simpson, better known as jungle legend A Guy Called Gerald, reportedly revealed his plans in an interview at London's Red Bull Music Academy. According to Exclaim, he and Massey had a "serious discussion" about reuniting the original 808 State and will make an official announcement "in the months to come".

Simpson, Massey and Martin Price founded 808 State in 1988, but Simpson quit the group after their first album, Newbuild. While 808 State eventually embraced the melodic dance music of 90s contemporaries such as Orbital, Simpson had a huge solo hit with the acid-house single Voodoo Ray. Price left in 1992, and 808 State's revised lineup of Massey, Andrew Barker and Darren Partington released four more albums, most recently 2003's Outpost Transmission.

Although Newbuild was out of print for several years, the acid-techno revival saw an increased interest in 808 State's initial work and the LP was reissued by Rephlex Records in 1999. Rephlex later released a compilation of the group's unreleased early tracks.

Pob · Post by **Pob** » 18 Feb 2010 14:56

Is it April 1st already?

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 14:57

Pob wrote:

Is it April 1st already?

Well, quite...

There is *some* truth (but not much!) in the article above, however...

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 17:30

Oh, and I've listened to the radio interview (Red Bull Music Academy) mentioned above - either my hearing needs to be examined, or the journalists of the Exclaim and Guardian articles listened to a different interview than me!

newbuild · Post by **newbuild** » 18 Feb 2010 17:55

I thought they did reunite, but as Rebuild at the Wang party in October 2007.

Wasn't the performance recorded/filmed?
I remember seeing the camera's...

Really burns my biscuits!

Has anyone got an update?

I would have thought Rebuild to have been the closest thing to this possible 808 State reunion...

graham · Post by **graham** » 18 Feb 2010 19:07

Phones been going off all day with this.
The Interview is here
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lond ... st/?id=162
The subject is covered at 1 hour 12 mins.
You can see that its just been lifted out of context.
We were talking about doing another Rebuild gig.through Nathan at Wang ,but so far the original date was postponed and Im waiting to hear about another one..Modern Journalism is a bit like chinese whispers,
It s not going under the 808 State name,that would be silly at this point ,lifes confusing enough.

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 19:12

graham wrote:Phones been going off all day with this.
The Interview is here
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lond ... st/?id=162
The subject is covered at 1 hour 12 mins.
You can see that its just been lifted out of context.
We were talking about doing another Rebuild gig.through Nathan at Wang ,but so far the original date was postponed and Im waiting to hear about another one..Modern Journalism is a bit like chinese whispers,
It s not going under the 808 State name,that would be silly at this point ,lifes confusing enough.

Yup, that's the interview I listened to on Monday - no idea why they decided to make 2+2 equal 5!

dee3 · Post by **dee3** » 18 Feb 2010 19:18

A link to exclaim's article is splashed on the feed at residentadvisor.net's website.

I've taken the liberty to comment on this by pointing to this thread's link.

d.

graham · Post by **graham** » 18 Feb 2010 19:20

Yes you think they d check it out 1st.

graham · Post by **graham** » 18 Feb 2010 20:08

http://exclaim.ca/articles/generalartic ... fid1=44430
original article here I think -
You can see how modern internet journalism ,strips out some detail as it goes

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 20:14

graham wrote:http://exclaim.ca/articles/generalartic ... fid1=44430
original article here I think -
You can see how modern internet journalism ,strips out some detail as it goes

Yup, the Exclaim article is only relatively inaccurate, the Guardian article, however, takes the biscuit!

Post by **nickking** » 18 Feb 2010 20:46

nickking wrote:Yup, that's the interview I listened to on Monday - no idea why they decided to make 2+2 equal 5!

Actually, it was the Red Bull Radio Show that I listened to - that link is another interview...

Post by **markus** » 19 Feb 2010 16:52

So to summarise for Sean Michaels who is the guardian.co.uk Music's north American news correspondent (and all other journo's who have jumped on the story) :

1) 808 State as a band couldn't really reunite as they have never broken up.
2) A reunite of the original line-up is highly unlikely given the relationship between Gerald Simpson and Martin Price (well pigs might fly).
3) Gerald and Graham already reunited in 2007 as Rebuild. Details here.
4) There are plans for another Rebuild gig happening this year, that's what Gerald was talking about at the Red Bull Music Academy.
5) There is a possibility Graham and Gerald will work together on some new material, again, this will not be under the name 808 State.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » 22 Feb 2010 14:56

I was excited for a brief moment.............

sean · Post by **sean** » 22 Feb 2010 21:50

Thanks everyone. There was obviously no malice here. I was unable to find the original interview Exclaim was citing and so thought they must have heard it in person.

I'm drafting a correction now.