A ground-breaking producer who helped shape the lavish, orchestral synth sound of the UK's pop scene in the 1980s, Trevor Horn created the kitsch earworm 'Video Killed the Radio Star' before working on a long list of landmark hits for artists including Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Seal.
Born in Durham, Horn's father worked as an engineer in a dairy but played double bass in a big band in the evenings. Horn took to the instrument at eight-years-old and began learning to sight read music, performing with the local Youth Orchestra and also took up playing the recorder. He sat in with his father playing a repertoire of 1940s dance tunes and Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin standards in his teens, before later discovering The Beatles, Dionne Warwick and Bob Dylan and playing in a string of semi-professional bands. Moving to London at the age of 21, he got his first start as a session musician making jingles and albums that re-created the hits of the day, and his relationship with singer Tina Charles in the mid-'70s helped him learn production techniques from her producer Biddu. He had a huge distaste for both the punk scene and stadium rock acts of the time, but instead became enamoured with the early electro experiments of Kraftwerk and began creating tracks that captured his love of pop melodies but which were also futuristic, soulful and orchestral. It all led to him producing 'Video Killed the Radio Star' with old band mates Geoff Downes and Bruce Wooley under the name The Buggles, and after being picked up by Island Records, the weird, sci-fi, new wave, electro-pop gem went on to become a number one hit in the UK in 1979, topping the charts in 16 countries and being the first ever video played on the launch of MTV in 1981.
The Buggles went on to release two albums, 'The Age of Plastic' and 'Adventures in Modern Recording'. Horn was also a member of prog rockers Yes before his reputation as a producer sky-rocketed with his co-writing credit on two top ten hits for Dollar, his production of ABC's classic 'Lexicon of Love' and his boundary pushing 'Duck Rock' project with Malcolm McLaren. He was also part of avant-garde synth-pop outfit Art of Noise with journalist Paul Morley before producing Frankie Goes to Hollywood's number one album 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome' and their massive hits 'Relax', 'Two Tribes' and 'Power of Love'. His run of success continued with Grace Jones's 'Slave to the Rhythm', Pet Shop Boys' 'Left to My Own Devices' and the Simple Minds album 'Street Fighting Years', and in the 1990s his work with Seal led to his first Grammy Award for single 'Kiss from a Rose', which was used as the theme tune to blockbuster movie 'Batman Forever'.
He also worked on major albums with Cher, Charlotte Church, Tori Amos and LeeAnn Rhymes, causing a sensation in 2001 when he produced Russian duo Tatu's controversial smash hits 'All the Things She Said' and 'Not Gonna Get Us'. There was also film soundtrack work with Hans Zimmer on 'Toys' and 'Coyote Ugly', and Horn produced for Belle & Sebastian, Renato Zero and Jeff Beck before being awarded a CBE in 2011. He returned in 2019 with the album 'Trevor Horn Reimagines the Eighties', on which he covers some of his favourite hits from the era with the Sarm Orchestra and guest vocalists including Robbie Williams, Tony Hadley, Gabrielle Alpin, Seal and All Saints.
