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A Certain Ratio

A Manchester group on Factory Records who set post-punk against funk and Latin rhythm, and whose cover of "Shack Up" in 1980 cost 50 pounds to record.

Origin
Flixton, Greater Manchester
Years active
1977-present
Genres
post-punk, funk, dance-punk, new wave
Labels
Factory, A&M, Rob's Records, Mute
Also known as
ACR

Origins and Factory

A Certain Ratio formed in 1977 in Flixton, Greater Manchester; MusicBrainz lists Wythenshawe. The name comes from a lyric in Brian Eno's "The True Wheel" (1974). Simon Topping and Peter Terrell began as a duo, with Jez Kerr on bass and Martin Moscrop on trumpet and guitar joining, and the band had no drummer for about a year until Donald Johnson joined by October 1979. Kerr says he first saw an early version at Pips Disco.

Their first single, "All Night Party", came out on Factory in September 1979, produced by Martin Hannett, with 5,000 copies pressed and sold. Their first Peel session was recorded on October 1, 1979, and they supported Talking Heads on a UK tour in December. The cassette The Graveyard and the Ballroom followed in January 1980, with a cover by Peter Saville. Tony Wilson said that year the band were beginning to forge links between post-punk industrial and dance-floor funk, and Moscrop said of dropping Hannett that they thought he was making them sound too much like Joy Division.

The Factory records

To Each... (1981) topped the UK independent albums chart, and Sextet (January 1982) was self-produced and also reached number one on the indie chart. "Flight" (November 1980) was their first UK independent chart entry, at number seven. Martha Tilson sang around 1980 to 1982, Topping and Terrell left in late 1982 after I'd Like to See You Again, and Andy Connell, who joined in November 1982, left in 1985 to form Swing Out Sister. The NME wrote in 1982 that they no longer sounded like ACR so much as the latest New York disco imports.

Force (November 1986) was their last album for Factory, and in 1989 they signed to A&M, releasing Good Together and acr:mcr, whose "Won't Stop Loving You" reached 55 in the UK, before being dropped. Up in Downsville (1992) and Change the Station (1997) came on Rob's Records, run by Rob Gretton.

The return

On November 16, 2008 they headlined Part Time Punks at the Echo in Los Angeles, their first US show since 1985. Mute began reissues in 2018, followed by acr:box (53 songs) in May 2019, ACR Loco (September 24, 2020, UK 69), 1982 (March 31, 2023) and It All Comes Down to This (April 19, 2024), produced by Dan Carey. Moscrop retired from his job as head of campus at Manchester College so the band could work full time. Johnson told Far Out in 2024 that a reunion tour was absolutely, positively, 1000% out.

They appear in 24 Hour Party People (2002), for which Moscrop was musical supervisor, and Wilson's line that they had all the energy of Joy Division but better clothes is attached to them. Setlist.fm logs 396 setlists. Offshoots include Kalima, Swing Out Sister and T-Coy.

Members

Records

Songs

Brian Eno

Where to go next

Reference

Discography and data

Interviews

Sources

  1. A Certain Ratio, Wikipedia
  2. A Certain Ratio discography, Wikipedia
  3. A Certain Ratio, Electronic Sound (2019)
  4. A Certain Ratio: marketing team's nightmare, Far Out (2024)