808 State

Despite austerity hitting all but the most affluent, charity giving continues to rise.

“The bohemian soul of the scene makes for fertile ground when people come together and fight for what they think is right” — Bobby Connolly

From the start, the pair found it hard to get established producers to release on the label and, even more surprisingly, found that some within the dance music industry were strangely cynical about their motives. “At the beginning it was very hard for us,” Lucas says. “When we were trying to explain what we were trying to do, a lot of people were sceptical. They would say things like, ‘Nobody does this kind of thing for free’.

DEDICATED

“I first got involved because Andy Turner from Plaid had mentioned it to me,” he says. “The cause is important, and it is something that has affected people dear to me, but above all, Martin puts out great music. Touched is a great label, Martin is a great person and regardless of the cause, I would have worked with him.”

CAUSES WIN PRIZES

“In the case of Joe Goddard, he passionately wanted to support what we’re doing, but his manager was encouraging him to do it, too,” McIvor says. “Most managers or agents would tell their artists to shy away from anything that may in some way be controversial or divide opinion.” Most wouldn’t think that speaking out against fascism and racism would be controversial, but the Optimo Music founder has been surprised how divisive his new label venture has been.

Graham Massey and Andy Barker take their places at a table in the first floor restaurant at Manchester arts institution HOME, just a stone’s throw away from where local clubbing mecca the Hacienda once stood.

Famously, one of the founder members of the fluid collective that would become 808 State, Gerald Simpson — later to find fame as A Guy Called Gerald — had come through this scene, being a familiar figure not only on the North’s vibrant soul all-dayer circuit, but also on the dancefloor at the Hacienda in the club’s troubled early days.

“We were making a Biting Tongues record in the studio the night before, and Howard the sax player had left his soprano sax there,” Massey says. “I’d played wind instruments a bit but I was in no way a saxophone player. I could play the notes that fitted those chords.” It was, Massey says, included as a tribute to some of his favourite jazz musicians, specifically John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Pharoah Sanders.

It later became the de facto ‘final tune’ at the Hacienda for around six months, too. “It was like winning the World Cup,” Massey enthuses, before a daytime Radio 1 DJ, the much-maligned Gary Davies, began championing it on air in the summer of 1989. “He’d been out in Ibiza and heard it in a club, come back and thought, ‘I’m playing this daytime’,” Barker says.