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The Grid
The Grid
Origin	London, England
Genres	House
Years active	1988–1996; 2003–present
Labels	East West, Virgin, Deconstruction, Some Bizzare
Members	Richard Norris; David Ball
Past members	Sacha Rebecca Souter (vocals)

The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell) and Richard Norris,^[1] with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Texas Cowboys", "Crystal Clear", "Rollercoaster" and "Floatation".

Band members

Richard Norris – keyboards, drum programming
David Ball – keyboards, programming
Sacha Rebecca Souter – vocals

History

The Grid formed in 1988, after both Ball and Norris had worked with Psychic TV on the Jack the Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One album. They recorded the track "Meet Every Situation Head On" together as "M.E.S.H.". The Grid had their first success with their debut single, "Floatation", released on East West Records in 1990. They went on to release a string of ten UK hit singles and four albums,^[1] and toured the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. The group's 1994 album Evolver reached No. 14 in the UK Albums Chart.^[1] The lead single from this album, "Swamp Thing", features elaborate banjo lines played by Roger Dinsdale. "Swamp Thing" proved to be a commercial success in the UK, Europe and Australia, reaching No. 3 in the UK^[1] and Australia,^[2] and selling a total of one million copies.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, Norris and Ball agreed to a hiatus in order to pursue individual music interests. Norris formed The Droyds with Andy Chatterley, who went on to remix tracks by musicians including Armand Van Helden and Siobhan Fahey. Norris also wrote the official biography of Paul Oakenfold, published in 2007. Ball reformed Soft Cell with Marc Almond, and also wrote music scores for films.^{[citation needed]} Norris has since formed the psychedelic duo, Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, with DJ Erol Alkan, and has released a number of solo records and remixes under the name The Time and Space Machine.

The duo reunited in 2005, initially playing two gigs under the name GDM with female singer Misty Woods, before writing and recording new material as The Grid. A single, "Put Your Hands Together", was released in 2007 and an album, Doppelgänger, followed in 2008. Both were released on the Some Bizzare label. The album featured vocals by the British musician, Chris Braide.

In 2018, during the second reunion of Soft Cell, Ball and Norris released a new album as the Grid, One Way Traffic, which was recorded as part of Moog Music Inc.'s "The Moog Sound Lab" program, using Moog modular synthesizers.^[3]

In 2021, Ball and Norris collaborated with Robert Fripp on a new album, Leviathan.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	UK ^[4]	AUS ^[2]^[5]	SWE ^[6]	SWI ^[7]	Label
1990	Electric Head	–	–	–	–	East West Records
1992	456	–	199	–	–	Virgin Records
1994	Evolver	14	51	27	46	Deconstruction Records
1995	Music for Dancing	67	–	–	–	Deconstruction Records
2008	Doppelgänger	–	–	–	–	Some Bizzare Records
2018	One Way Traffic	–	–	–	–	Moog Recordings Library
2021	Leviathan (with Robert Fripp)	–	–	–	–	Discipline Global Mobile

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions										Certifications (sales thresholds)	Album
Year	Single	UK ^[4]	AUS ^[2]^[5]	AUT ^[8]	BEL (Fla) ^[9]	GER ^[10]	IRE ^[11]	NED ^[12]	NOR ^[13]	SWE ^[6]	SWI ^[7]	Certifications (sales thresholds)	Album
1989	"On the Grid"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Single only
1989	"Intergalactia"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Electric Head
1990	"Floatation"	60	102	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"A Beat Called Love"	64	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Origins of Dance"	96	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Single only
1991	"Boom!"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		456
1992	"Figure of 8"	50	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1992	"Heartbeat"	72	188	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1993	"Crystal Clear"	27	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1993	"Texas Cowboys"	21	—	—	—	—	18	—	—	36	—		Evolver
1994	"Swamp Thing"	3	3	4	4	13	4	7	2	4	6	UK: Silver^[14] AUS: Platinum^[15]
	"Rollercoaster"	19	59	—	45	—	11	—	—	31	—
	"Texas Cowboys" (re-release)	17	74	—	40	—	18	—	—	—	—
1995	"Diablo"	32	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Music for Dancing
2006	"Slammer / Slinker"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Doppelgänger
2007	"Put Your Hands Together"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—		Doppelgänger
"—" denotes releases that did not chart