The Chemical Brothers

The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.

Originally known as The Dust Brothers, they changed their name due to the existence of another band with the same name. Their first album Exit Planet Dust sold over one million copies and debuted at No. 9 on the UK Albums Chart. After attracting Virgin Records, the duo achieved further success with their second album Dig Your Own Hole (1997), which topped the UK chart. They have had six No. 1 albums and 13 top-20 singles in the UK, including two chart-toppers. They have won six Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Best Dance Recording, and Best Dance/Electronic Album.

Ed Simons (born 9 June 1970) was born the son of a barrister mother and a father he described as "absent". After finishing at Dulwich College, an "expensive" public school with 11 O levels and three A levels, he studied history, at the University of Manchester.

Tom Rowlands (born 11 January 1971) was raised in Henley-on-Thames having attended Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning-On-Thames. He met Simons at the University of Manchester in 1989; they shared an interest in raves and club-going. Rowlands chose Manchester primarily to immerse himself in its music scene, particularly the Fac 51 Hacienda.

Rowlands was in a band called Ariel prior to meeting Simons. He formed Ariel in London with friends Brendan Melck and Mathew Berry. Their first single was "Sea of Beats", which was essentially a white label record. Before Philip Brown set up Echo Logik Records, their first promo was "Bokadilo". Other songs, released on 12-inch, included "Mustn't Grumble" and their best-known, "Rollercoaster". After a year on Echo Logik they signed to the record label deConstruction. They insisted on a female singer and they recruited former Xpansions frontwoman Sally Ann Marsh, and after some disappointing songs such as "Let It Slide" (Rowlands would later describe it as "a stinker"), the band fell apart. One of the last things Ariel did was the song "T Baby", which was remixed by the pair.

Rowlands and Simons started to DJ in 1992 at a club called Naked Under Leather, located in the back of a pub called the Swinging Sporran (later renamed Retro Bar and currently operated by the University of Manchester). There, they were known by the alias "237 Turbo Nutters", after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days. The pair would play hip hop, techno, and house. The two called themselves The Dust Brothers after the US production duo, famous for their work with the Beastie Boys. After a while, Rowlands and Simons began to run out of suitable instrumental hip hop tracks to use, so they started to make their own. Using a Hitachi hi-fi system, an Atari ST, a sampler, and a keyboard, they recorded "Song to the Siren", which sampled This Mortal Coil. "Song to the Siren" was released on their own record label, which they called Diamond Records (after Ed's nickname). At this point the Dust Brothers were the first-ever backroom DJs in the Sumptuous Locarno Lounge at The Job Club in Gossips night club in Dean Street, Soho from April 1992 till April 1993.

In October 1992, they pressed 500 white label copies and took them to dance-record shops around London, but all refused to play it, saying it was too slow (the track played at 111 BPM). They sent a copy to London DJ Andrew Weatherall, who made it a permanent fixture in his DJ sets. In May 1993 Steven Hall signed the duo and Junior Boy's Own released "Song to the Siren".

Around June 1993, the Dust Brothers recorded their first remixes. The first was "Packet of Peace" for Justin Robertson's Lionrock group, followed by songs from Leftfield, Republica, and the Sandals. Later in 1993, Rowlands and Simons completed work on their Fourteenth Century Sky EP, released in January 1994. It contained the groundbreaking "Chemical Beats", which epitomised the duo's genre-defining big beat sound. The EP also contained "One Too Many Mornings", which for the first time showed their less intense, more chilled-out side. Both "One Too Many Mornings" and "Chemical Beats" would later appear on their debut album. Fourteenth Century Sky was followed later in 1994 by the My Mercury Mouth EP. "Chemical Beats" was also part of the soundtrack for the first edition of the Wipeout video game series, having been featured in Wipeout for the PlayStation in 1995.