About A Certain Ratio
A Certain Ratio are an English post-punk band formed in Greater Manchester in 1977 by Peter Terrell , Simon Topping , Jez Kerr , Martin Moscrop and Donald Johnson , with Martha Tilson joining soon after.
One of the first white indie groups to draw heavy influence from funk as well as disco and Latin percussion, the band were among the first to debut on Tony Wilson's Factory Records in 1979 with "All Night Party," produced by Martin Hannett. During ACR's early years with Factory, they scored seven Top Ten UK independent releases, highlighted by "Flight" and "Waterline," and released five studio albums beginning with The Graveyard and the Ballroom .
Following late 1980s and early 1990s phases with A&M Records and Rob Gretton's independent Robs Records, ACR were intermittently active. They returned to the studio for their ninth studio album Mind Made Up and since then have continued to perform, with their back catalogue recirculated through an arrangement with Mute Records.
They released their first new studio album in twelve years, ACR Loco in September 2020, followed by three EP's A, C and R in 2021, and eleventh studio album, 1982, in 2023. Their twelfth studio album, It All Comes Down to This will be released in 2024.
The band was formed by vocalist Simon Topping and guitarist and electronics player Peter Terrell, who after initially performing as a duo, were soon joined by bassist and vocalist Jez Kerr and then guitarist and trumpeter Martin Moscrop, the band played without a drummer for a year. The band's name is taken from the lyric of Brian Eno's song "The True Wheel" from his solo studio album Taking Tiger Mountain . Their early influences included the Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, the Pop Group, Pere Ubu, Wire, Brian Eno, Parliament, Funkadelic, and Earth, Wind & Fire. A Certain Ratio, by early 1979, were "beginning to forge links between post-punk industrial and dance-floor funk" .
ACR's line-up, with a dark bass-heavy industrial and funk sound, recorded the group's debut single, "All Night Party", released by Factory Records in September 1979 , with Factory label boss Tony Wilson also becoming their manager, proclaiming the band to be "the new Sex Pistols". The 5,000 copies that were pressed soon sold out.
Map & Directions To Venue
