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by K.M.
Whitehouse
 Trevor
Charles Horn was born on 15th July 1949 in Durham. The son of a double
bass player with the Joe Clarke Band inspired Trevor to become a
bass player and on occasion played alongside his father. He was also a
member of a youth orchestra at Johnston Grammar and played in a
selection of school bands. After finishing school Trevor moved to
Leicester to begin working as a professional musician playing in the
local ballrooms and began to build a home studio. Using his studio
equipment he was now showing another talent, that of constructing
records. This ability would lead him on his way to becoming a musical
director & record producer, starting out producing jingles and
unsuccessful records including some unsuccessful punk bands. His first
claim to fame was being musical director for Tina Charles as well
as being her bass player on her number one hit I Love
To Love (But My Baby Loves To Dance) and her the
follow up singles.
Teaming
up with her keyboard player Geoffrey Downes and guitarist Bruce
Woolley the trio formed The Buggles in 1977. They started off writing
and recording rough demos of songs, in between Trevor producing for
Chromium, The Killers, Lips and Gardner & Boult. After the Buggles
were turned down by various record labels in 1978 their big break
came in 1979 when Chris Blackwell signed them to Island Records. By this
stage the Buggles were just Trevor and Downes after Wolley had left to
pursue his solo career. With the help of engineer Gary Langan, the two
men recorded their first and only number one hit single, Video
Killed The Radio Star. After that they continued to
come up with songs for their debut album The
Age Of Plastic and released it along with
their second single The Plastic Age
in early 1980. The Buggles were on a sharp decline and the project was
abandoned when the two men joined the group Yes. Trevor became their new
vocalist on their album Drama and
also toured with them. After the two men left Yes they decided to
record a second Buggles album, but part way through Downes left to form
the group Asia. Trevor continued with the album as a solo
project with collaborations from other musicians. After the albumAdventures In Modern Recording
failed to chart, and on the advice of his wife & manager Jill
Sinclair, Trevor concentrated on becoming a serious record producer
rather than a performer.
 He
began to produce for the likes of Dollar, Spandau Ballet, Philip
Jap, before making a real impact as a producer on ABC’s The
Lexicon Of Love. By this stage Trevor had
gained a production team including Langan, Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik,
Bob Kraushaar, Andy Richards, Steve Lipson and Louis Jardim. The next
big project was Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock before returning to Yes as a
producer. At the same time Trevor was setting up his record label,
ZTT with his wife and ex-NME journalist Paul Morley. He &
his wife had already set up a publishing company called Perfect Songs
Ltd. in 1982 along with his own production company Trevor Horn
Productions and a label was the next logical step for his
activities, although they had no acts to sign until Langan played Trevor
a cassette of what he & Jeczalik had came up with. Trevor
soon became part of the Art of Noise along with Dudley &
Morley and launched ZTT with the Art of Noise. Trevor’s role in
the group was very different to that as how the media perceived it.
Because Langan & Jeczalik were part of his production team, the
press assumed it was Trevor who founded the group, ignoring the fact
that it was his engineer and his programmer who actually concieved it.
Trevor's part in the group was that of a mentor and having final say on
what was released on his label.
The
second act signed to ZTT were Frankie Goes To Hollywood and by producing
them made Trevor a household name. From 1983 onwards whatever Trevor
produced became a hit earning him no less than three BPI Brit
Awards for Best British
Producer (1983, 1985, 1992). His work with that
band resulted in three number one hit singles: Relax,Two Tribes and The
Power Of Love along with a number one album Welcome
To The Pleasure Dome in 1984. In that same year he
also produced for ZTT's third act, Propaganda as well as letting
Midge Ure & Bob Geldof use his SARM recording studio (that he had
purchased from Chris Blackwell) free of charge to record the charity
single Do They Know It's Christmas?
by Band Aid with Trevor remixing the 12" version of the single.
Trevor left the Art of Noise to continue on his productions after
their debut album was released where he went onto produce for
artists such as Godley & Creme and Grace Jones in 1985.
After
18 months success with ZTT, the first acts to leave were the Art
of Noise in 1985, Propaganda in 1986 and in 1987 Frankie Goes To
Hollywood split up. This left the label without a big name act as
it's three main artists had gone in addition to other acts such as Anne
Pigalle creating a dark period for the producer and his label.
Morley, ZTT's head of marketing had also left the label to continue
his own career before
Frankie Goes To Hollywood's ex-lead singer , Holly Johnson won a
courtcase against ZTT over his contract in 1988. After these set backs
the label signed the first of it's new big acts, 808 State
with Trevor producing for the likes of Simple Minds, Paul
McCartney and Pet Shop Boys for the remainder of the 1980s.
The
1990s saw Trevor produce and sign Seal to his label. This
collaboration went onto become a long term partnership and saw Trevor
win a 1995 Grammy Award for Record
Producer Of The Year for singer's hit Kiss
From A Rose in the United States. Working with
Seal saw the producer working with Dudley again. The label
began to sign up new acts: MC Tunes, Shane MacGowan, Shades Of
Rhythm, Lomax, Tom Jones and Kirsty MacColl to name but a few.
Throughout the 1990s Trevor produced for the likes of Rod
Stewart, Mike Oldfield, Marc Almond, The Glam Metal Detectives, Tom
Jones, Lomax, Betsy Cook, Tina Turner, Richard Marx, Gary Barlow and
Genesis amongst others. He also teamed up with Hans Zimmer to
create the score to the film Toys. In 1997 a newly reformed Art of
Noise, consisting of Trevor, Dudley, Morley and Lol Creme began work on
the concept album The Seduction Of Claude Debussy
based upon the music of his favourite composer. The album was released
in 1999 and was followed by a tour in 1999/2000 before disbanding.
The new
millennium has seen Trevor work with Lisa Stansfield, t.A.T.u.,
Belle & Sebastian, Captain, Leann Rimes, Faith Hill and Elton John.
In 2004 Trevor took to the stage with the Buggles, the Art of
Noise and various acts he had produced since 1979 including ABC, Seal,
Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Lisa Stansfield, Propaganda, Dollar, Yes,
Bell & Sebastian, t.A.T.u. before ending the show with a
reformed Frankie Goes To Hollywood for the Prince’s
Trust Concert – Produced By Trevor Horn in the
presence of H.R.H. Prince Charles. To tie-in with the event ZTT
released a double CD entitled Produced By Trevor Horn
featuring 25 years of hits as a record producer. The concert was
released on DVD as Slaves To The Rhythm
in 2008 featuring behind the scenes footage and interviews. 2006 saw
Trevor contribute towards the making of the Art of Noise archive boxset And
What Have You Done With My Body, God? Later that year
saw the producer form yet another band along with Creme, Steve
Lipson, Chris Braide and Ash Soan called The Producers. This new
group has played several live shows and released their debut single Barking
Up The Wrong Tree in August 2007. The band’s first
album Watching You Out There has
still to be released. In addition to ZTT Trevor owns Stiff Records, the label
is home to The Producers, along with an impressive back
catalogue.
2008
saw the 25th anniversary of ZTT and a boxset containing the best of the label’s
back catalogue was made available to buy in later October 2008. The
last quarter of a century has seen a wide range of other artists signed
to the label including: Act, Andrew Poppy, Adamski’s Thing,
David’s Daughters, David Jordan, Glenn Gregory & Claudia Brucken,
All Saints 1.9.7.5., Honky, Lisa Stansfield, Lee Griffiths, Raging
Speedhorn, The Frames, The Flood and The Marbles. Earlier in 2008 Trevor
and Langan were in the studio recording material for Escala’s
debut album. The following year Trevor indtroduced and played on some of
the songs when ABC performed their classic album The
Lexicon Of Love at the Royal Albert Hall in April
along with two other Art of Noise members, Dudley conducting with
the BBC Concert Orchestra along with Langan on sound duties.
© Copyright K.M. Whitehouse 2008-2009
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