This from Glastonbury's Website, after our first ever show there...

The Grid

Dance West

Saturday

It seems hard to believe in this day and age, but there was a glorious period when out-and-out dance music actually used to bother the charts. One of the outfits at the forefront of that glorious, if short-lived, movement was The Grid. Consisting of Richard Norris, one of dance music's unsung heroes with a list of production credits as long your arm (including Glastonbury royalty like Joe Strummer) and Dave Ball who as the pioneering synth-stroking other half of Soft Cell needs no introduction, The Grid had two big hits in 'Texas Cowboys' and 'Swamp Thing', became particularly huge in Japan and then split up in 1996. But on the quiet, they have been making a recent come-back, playing a few gigs and recording a new album, Doppelganger, now out on the legendary indie label Some Bizzare.

And here, in Dance West, they are – playing their first ever Glastonbury gig, even though they started making music in 1990. Ball and Norris stand in front of their keyboards, either side of a projector screen featuring seriously good visuals courtesy of occasional grid member Kieran. Physically, Dance West isn't the best place to play live – there's a huge amount of space between the front of the stage and the audience, and The Grid have been pushed towards the back of that stage. But the audience are there to dance to electronic music, and that's what The Grid provide.

Properly electronic music, that is. Throughout proceedings, Ball wears a shit-eating grin, as he coaxes some seriously squelchy analogue sounds from a synth augmented by one of those chaos-pad-type objects which responds to a hand being waved above it. Norris, in an acid house Shoom t-shirt, also beavers away at a synth, and is clearly enjoying himself, jumping up and down and waving his hands in the air. Everyone is instantly transported back to those heady early 90's.

Except that the music they make certainly doesn't sound dated – they kick off with a couple of new tracks, which would best be described as tough, muscular electro-tech-house. Then they launch into 'Crystal Clear', a shiver of recognition passes through the crowd and the intensity of the dancing ratchets up several gears. It helps that it's a seriously hard, squelchy take on. They showcase a fair amount of new material, including 'Slammer', a throbbing electro monster which particularly strikes a chord with the crowd, even though it's a track which was available on limited vinyl press but unaccountably left off Doppelganger. Near-meltdown greets the fun, bleepy stomp that is 'Texas Cowboys', but perhaps the most euphoric moment of their set is the last track, 'Flotation', a much-loved slab of pure balearica.

The Grid are well and truly back, and thank God they have signalled that fact by playing Glastonbury – Doppelganger has been out for a few months now, without attracting much attention (partly due to a depressingly low-key album launch campaign), but it marks a band that are still in fine form, and now have the benefit of 21st century studio techniques to add to their synth wizardry. Now they've played Glastonbury, we know they're back, so can we stop ignoring them, please?

After the gig, Ball reveals that not only is it the first time he has played Glastonbury, but it's the first time he has been here. An avuncular, jovial figure, he definitely seems to be enjoying the experience, though. Norris reminisces about the first time The Grid played in Japan: "We knew we were huge there and were going to be mobbed, and we were. But, disappointingly, we weren't greeted by hordes of screaming girls, but by guys who looked like bank clerks and wanted to talk about synths." Such are the hazards of being an electronic band…

Steve Boxer

We'll be at The Great Escape Festival on May 16th in Brighton with Phil Hartnoll (Orbital/Long Range) & Nick Smith (Long Range) talking about the "20th Anniversary Of Acid House" on a panel being hosted by TV & Radio personality John Robb.

Tickets are available via The Great Escape Website!

http://www.escapegreat.com/

We've been confirmed to play the Dance tent at this years Glastonbury Festival on 23rd June.

This will be the first time that The Grid have played this legendary festival so we are really looking forward to rocking it!

Get your tickets now!

We have been confirmed to play the Main Stage at this years Glade Festival on 20th July.

We should be playing some of our classics such as Swamp Thing, Texas Cowboys & Flotation as well as some new tracks from our new Doppelganger album on Some Bizzare now!

Buy your tickets from all the usual ticket sellers!

The first review of ’Doppelganger’ we’ve seen is from Simon Price in the Independent. You can read it here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-the-grid-doppelganger-some-bizarre-799484.html?r=RSS

if you see any more reviews we may have missed, please let us know!

We have supplied two remixes for the forthcoming Soft Cell remix album "Heat - The Remixes" due out this year on Mercury/Universal.

They are as follows: "SO" & "SEX DWARF".....

We'll let you know when the album is out, or even go to the website for news on the album.

Grid

We have just completed a day's photography shoot in deepest Sussex. We will put up some more for you to see as & when....

Grid

Wednesday 26 March 2008
SJM CONCERTS PRESENTS
THE GRID
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
Dave Ball and Richard Norris a.k.a The Grid are widely recognised as dance music innovators. They released 3 successful albums between 1988 and 1995, 'Electric Head', '456' and 'Evolver' and 10 singles during this period, all of which made the UK charts, including the million-selling 'Swamp Thing', which crashed into the UK Top 3 in 1994. They personified the revolution taking place in UK music and their live act was a spectacular coming together of music and visuals.

The Grid first played live in 1992 at Nation before it became known as the home of Cream (where they also played numerous times). They toured the festivals, performing the final set at Roskilde in '94 straight after New Order, to a sea of campfires and ravers. They played Reading, Phoenix and T In The Park, and headed overseas where they played to 10,000 in Auckland, toured Australia, Bangkok, Singapore… the list goes on. Between 1992 and '94 The Grid rocked it from Brighton to Aberdeen and everywhere in between.

Now in March, The Grid will perform live once again, giving a rare opportunity to see why they are held in such high esteem by electronic music lovers worldwide.

www.myspace.com/gridmusic

Time: 7.30pm
Admission: £12.00 in advance.If you buy your tickets online and chose to pick them up from the venue they are only available once the doors open

The Grid play their first gig in 10 years at SOVIET 2, an all night party in a converted cinema at The Coronet, Elephant and Castle, London.

4 floors, cinema, and a line up as follows:
THE GRID
PHIL HARTNOLL (ORBITAL) DJ SET
KENNY LARKIN (PEACEFROG / WARP)
CRISTIAN VOGEL (TRESOR / NOVAMUTE)
B12 (WARP / B12 / SEED)
BRITISH MURDER BOYS (SURGEON & REGIS)
NEIL LANDSTRUMM (SCANDINAVIA / TRESOR)
CURSOR MINER (LO / UNCHARTED AUDIO / SEED)
ARDISSON (SEED)
OLA BERGMAN (NEW SPEAK / SKAM / SEED)
BAURI (spa.RK / CACTUS ISLAND)
THE DOUBTFUL GUEST (SEED / PLANET MU)
KANSAS CITY PROPHETS (CONTROL TOWER / SEED)
VIRUS SYNDICATE (PLANET MU)
MILANESE (WARP / SEED / PLANET MU)
dDAMAGE (PLANET MU)
SNAPMOUTH (SEED)
DOWNSHIFTER (HYPONIK)
QUALIA SYSTEMS (SEED)
MATKORE (DIGITAL PENETRATION)
KONX-OM-PAX (ESKRIMA)
THE SEED DJ'S

Tickets £16, £20 on the door. See www.sovietlondon.com for more details...

The Grid have just completed a mix of a song featuring martial arts legend Jackie Chan on vocals. The song, written by film idol Chelsia Chan, is to be released in Asia as part of an album of artists covering Chelsia's songs.

 

More release info soon.