The Chemical Brothers are Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands, two men in their early 20s living and working in London, UK. Thousands of people all over world know what they're doing now, so here's some info about them before they made it big. All the material on this page came from UFO, but if you'd like to add something e-mail me at chemical@edinburgh.almac.co.uk.

Mr. Ed Simons

Was born in 1970 in South London.

His mother is a barrister, his dad wasn't around much.

As a child had two interests... Aeroplanes and music.

School was Allayns in south London.

Excelled in English, History, Sport.

Gained 11 'O' levels, three 'A' Levels

Musical tastes at younger age was The Smiths and New Order.

Did Medieval history at Manchester University, and sat down to first tutorial in 1989 on the same day as Tom Rowlands...

Mr. Tom Rowlands

Tom was born 1971, in Kingston-Upon-Thames.

As a child had an obsession with Scotland.

Musical tastes at younger age was Heaven 17, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, then Jesus & Mary Chain.

Heard Public Enemy's 'My Uzi Weighs A Ton' at age 16, which he thought was the most amazing record he'd ever heard.

Left school with nine 'O' levels, and 3 'A' levels

Main reason for going to Manchester University: Music scene, The Hacienda.

General Facts

Their first Band was called "Ariel", released two singles: "Sea of beats" then "Let It Slide".

They both started DJing in Naked Under Leather, a mates club.

"Song to a Siren" was produced in Tom's bedroom, using a Hitachi Hi-Fi, a computer, sampler, and a keyboard. It sampled Meat Beat Manifesto and This Mortal Coil. Was later released on their first album, "Exit Planet Dust".

They both left Uni with respectable degrees (2:1s each).

Recorded "14th Century Sky" EP.

Took up residency at Heavenly Sunday Social.

Recorded Exit Planet Dust which sold over 100,000 copies.

They asked Tricky to do a stint at the Social's last night, but he was so crap at DJing that they stopped him early.

The truth about Dust Brothers/Chemical Brothers

Contrary to popular belief the two are not the same. Tom and Ed were huge admirers of the Dust Brothers and thought it would be a nice tribute to them if they used their name whilst they were messing around in their bedrooms and DJing at local venues, after all, where was the harm, it's not like they would be famous or anything.... Well, the inevitable happened and people started to take note of the new Dust Brothers, especially the original Dust Brother's lawyers, so much so that they contacted Tom and Ed and explained the various reasons why they could not use the name. So, the Chemical Brothers came to being and their first album, Exit Planet Dust, was released. It has been rumoured for a long time that the Dust Brothers and the Chemical Brothers had something of a feud going on, and all indications pointed to that being true, until recently when the Dust Brothers remixed Elektrobank on the Chemical Brother's newest release.

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This page was written by Al Angus of , April 1998, using Computers.
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