Born in Hamburg, Billie Ray Martin moved to Berlin in the Eighties to join the city's infamous music scene, before deciding to move again, this time to London where she placed an ad in Melody Maker: "Soul rebel searching for a genius". Among those who replied were Joe Stevens, Les Fleming, Rob Cimarosti and Brian Nordhoff, four men who were searching for a singer to bring alive the music they'd been busy creating in their studio in Birmingham. Electribe 101 was formed. Under the guidance of the legendary manager Tom Watkins the group signed to Mercury Records and released their first single 'Talking with Myself' in 1988.
Expectations for the band were enormous. Watkins, who previously had guided Pet Shop Boys and Bros to fame, was going to make them stars. Journalist David Stubbs summed up their sound when he called it "lush and sobely entrancing, the very shadow of soul." - 'Tell Me When the Fever Ended' and a re-released 'Talking with Myself' went into the UK charts a few weeks either side of the start of the Nineties.
When Electribe 101 got to support Depeche Mode on their World Violation tour success was supposed to follow automatically. But everything went wrong. Watkins gave the band a hard time when they didn't follow his orders to the letter. On the tour they were occasionally booed off by Mode fans throwing bottles.
In 1992 Electribe 101 split, leaving their second album unreleased. The boys formed The Groove Corporation, Billie went solo. Many of the unreleased tracks were re-recorded by Billie for her 1995/96 solo debut album 'Deadline for My Memories', while two songs ('Persuasion' and 'Wishing You Well') had already been released on her 1993 singles. 'Insatiable Love' was recycled by The Groove Corporation, as the title track on their 1993 album 'Co-operation'.
In recent years exclusive Electribe 101 material has surfaced: the group's promo videos on "1188880", the live "344676", and the original 8-track demo of "Talking with Myself".
Further unreleased Electribe 101 material is being released: the Frankie Knuckles remixes of 'Heading for the Night' in 2021, and the unreleased 1991/92 album "Electribal Soul" in early 2022.