808 State

808 State are an English electronic music group, formed in 1987 in Manchester,[4] taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson, and they released their debut album, Newbuild, in September 1988. The band secured commercial success in 1989, when their song "Pacific State" reached the top ten of the UK singles chart and was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies.

Links To Peel
According to the 808 State official website, the band was close to having a session with Peel's show in one of the Sessions That Never Happened. According to Graham Massey of the band, the group wanted to do the session in Manchester in their own home studio rather than the BBC's choice at Maida Vale in London:

''"It was actually down to John Peel that 'Quadrastate' came about. "He used to come up to Manchester to scout out new records and we had a meeting with him in a café near [legendary student/boho hangout] Afflecks Palace. We'd already had word that they wanted us to do a session and so we'd already been working on some ideas. We said to him we'd do it, but could we do it at home, because we didn't really think we could do what we wanted to do at the BBC. But the BBC said we had to do it there or not do it at all, so in the end it never actually happened!"''

808 State were predominatly played during the popularity of the acid rave scene in the late 80's on Peel's show. Peel mentioned on his 27 September 1988 show that the group's material was a subject of most calls and letters to him over the past couple of weeks and in 1989 listeners voted their track Pacific state at number 22 in the 1989 Festive Fifty.

Festive Fifty Entries
1989
 * 1989 Festive Fifty: Pacific State #22

Shows Played
1988 1989
 * tbc
 * tbc