The Buggles

The Buggles
Geoff Downes (left) and Trevor Horn (right)
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	New Wave Synthpop
Years active	1977–1981, various reunion performances from 1998
Labels	Island, Carrere, ZTT Records
Associated acts	Yes Art of Noise Asia Producers
Members
Geoff Downes Trevor Horn

The Buggles were an English New Wave band consisting of Trevor Horn (vocals, bass guitar, guitar) and Geoff Downes (keyboards). The female vocalist was Linda Jardim, now known as Linda Allan. They are best-known for their 1979 debut single Video Killed the Radio Star that was #1 on the singles charts of sixteen countries. Its music video was the first to be shown on MTV in the U.S. at 12:01 on 1 August 1981.

History

Early days (1977–78)

Horn and Downes first met in the mid 1970s, while members of the backing band of British singer Tina Charles, though they did not actually play on her studio releases. They also worked with her producer Biddu, whose backing tracks had an influence on their early work. After this stint they briefly went their separate ways, Horn playing bass guitar in the house band at Hammersmith Odeon for a while, where he met Bruce Woolley. During this period Horn yearned to become a record producer, but was frustrated by not being able to find ideal songs or artists to work with. As a result he reunited with Geoff Downes, and the trio of Horn, Downes and Woolley began writing their own songs to record themselves as a studio band.

The Buggles' sound was characterised by a deliberately synthetic quality in keeping with the technological subject matter of their songs. Two different stories are claimed for the origin of the band's name. Horn said he chose "The Buggles" because "It was the most disgusting name I could think of at that time"^{[citation needed]}, while Downes claims that it arose out of a joke and was actually a pun on "The Beatles":

It was originally called The Bugs. The Bugs were studio insects—imaginary creatures who lived in recording studios creating havoc. Then somebody said as a joke that The Bugs would never be as big as The Beatles. So we changed it to The Buggles.

"Video Killed the Radio Star" (1979)

Their first song was Video Killed the Radio Star, and in the summer of 1979 a demo recording was submitted to Island Records, who signed them immediately. This demo featured vocals by Tina Charles, who also helped fund the project. Although the song was chiefly a Bruce Woolley composition, he left shortly before its release to form a new band, "The Camera Club". Released in September 1979, it was the 444th number one in the UK charts, spending one week at the top and shooting The Buggles to worldwide fame. All in all, the song reached #1 on the singles chart in 16 countries.

The video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, was the first video aired on MTV two years later, at midnight on 1 August 1981. By this time, the Camera Club had released their version of the song on their only studio album, English Garden. Award-winning film composer Hans Zimmer makes a brief appearance in the video.

Debut album and follow-up singles (1980)

At the time of the single's original release, The Buggles didn't have an album's worth of material to record, and so they wrote most of the other tracks for their 1980 debut album The Age of Plastic while travelling around Europe promoting "Video". Three subsequent singles were released from the album: (Living in) The Plastic Age, Clean, Clean and Elstree, which also charted in the UK, but were overshadowed by the success of "video".

During this period, the band performed live on BBC Radio 1: The Plastic Age on 2 July 1980 and "Clean Clean" on 4 October 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Stint with Yes (1980–81)

Later in 1980, Horn and Downes began work on a second album, working in a studio next door to progressive rock band "Yes", who had recently lost vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Both members of The Buggles, and Horn in particular, had been long-standing fans of Yes. The Buggles offered a song to Yes, We Can Fly from Here, but at the suggestion of Brian Lane, manager of both bands, Yes' bassist Chris Squire invited them to actually replace Anderson and Wakeman as members of Yes.

Horn and Downes accepted the offer, and joined Squire, Steve Howe, and Alan White to record the Drama album (1980, UK #2, U.S. #18). A track called Into the Lens was released in its full eight-and-a-half-minute form, on a limited-edition one-sided 12-inch single. Essentially it was an unfinished Buggles song originally titled I Am a Camera (song)|I Am a Camera, re-worked and completed by Yes. We Can Fly From Here did not in fact appear on Drama, but the band did perform the song on the Drama tour, and a 1980 performance can be heard on Yes's The Word Is Live CD set (2005), along with another unreleased Yes track from that era entitled Go Through This.

On the whole, the team-up of Yes and The Buggles was well received by fans both on record (the UK chart position for Drama is testament to that), and on stage. Trevor Horn was the first to admit that he did not have Jon Anderson's vocal range or style, and many fans missed this, but most were still keen to give the new incarnation Yes a chance. The critics and some fans, however, were far less forgiving, especially in the United Kingdom. Yes officially disbanded, although temporarily, in early 1981, shortly after the Drama tour came to an end.

Second album and breakup (1981)

After Yes broke up, Downes and Horn resumed work on a second Buggles album, entitled Adventures in Modern Recording. As originally intended, I Am a Camera was brought to completion as a Buggles song under its original title. However, Downes left the group during the recording of the album, citing musical differences, and Horn completed the album with several new songwriting partners and musicians. Adventures in Modern Recording was released in late 1981. The album and the five singles released from it (I Am a Camera, Adventures in Modern Recording, On TV, Lenny and Beatnik) did far less well on the record charts than the first album and its singles, and shortly after its release, Trevor Horn brought The Buggles to an end.

After leaving The Buggles, Downes joined his former Yes bandmate Steve Howe in forming the supergroup "Asia", together with John Wetton (ex-King Crimson), and Carl Palmer (ex-Emerson, Lake & Palmer), which made its name with the 1982 hit, Heat of the Moment. Downes remains a member of Asia today, being the only member to have stayed with the group since its beginning. In parallel with Asia, he also worked on other projects, including several solo albums and production of acts such as GTR.

Horn embarked on a very successful career as a record producer, achieving success with bands like ABC, Dollar, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, and even the albums 90125 and Big Generator from a re-formed Yes, with Jon Anderson back on vocals. In 1985, Horn won the Best Producer BRIT Award. More than twenty years on, he is still active, producing with Seal, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Cher, Simple Minds, Belle and Sebastian, t.A.T.u., Charlotte Church, Captain, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams among his many credits.

Activity after breakup (1998-present)

Being largely a studio creation, The Buggles never toured. There were some Top of the Pops playback appearances, and later some performances for promotional purposes in support of the second album, but the first live outing by the original duo came in a low-key appearance on 3 December 1998.

In 2004, The Buggles reunited (including Linda Allen and Bruce Wooley) at the Wembley Arena to perform Video Killed the Radio Star and "Living in the Plastic Age" as part of a Prince's Trust charity concert celebrating Horn's career as a producer. Due to the success of the performance, Horn stated that he'd considered "getting the band back together"^{[citation needed]}. Whether Horn was referring to a potential studio album, a tour, or perhaps the one-off concert that would take place in 2010 is unclear.

In 2006, Horn teamed up with other record producers and musicians including Lol Creme of 10cc, to form the supergroup, Producers. As well as producing an original studio album, the Producers play the songs that have made its members famous, including Video Killed the Radio Star for Horn. In 2009 Horn produced the album Reality Killed The Video Star for British singer Robbie Williams. The album title pays homage to Horn's first single with The Buggles, and he performed the song with Williams (Horn on bass, Williams on vocals) at the BBC Electric Proms on 20 October 2009.

The Buggles reunited again to play their first full-length live concert on 28 September 2010. The event, billed as The Lost Gig, took place at "Ladbroke Grove's Supperclub", Notting Hill, London, and was a fund raiser with all earnings going to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. The Lost Gig saw the first live performances of all songs from The Age of Plastic (except "Video" and "The Plastic Age", which were performed in 2004), and had Bruce Woolley performing vocals with Horn on Clean, Clean, the song that The Buggles wrote fully as a trio. Guest performers also included original 10cc guitarist (and Horn's bandmate from Producers) Lol Creme for a version of "Rubber Bullets", followed by "I'm Not in Love" sung by Chris Braide and a version of "Slave to the Rhythm" with vocals by Alison Moyet. The concert also included a guest appearances by Gary Barlow singing "Hard to Handle" as well as Richard O'Brien. Johnny On The Monorail was played as Johnny On The Monorail (A Very Different Version), a reprise released on the 2000 re-release of The Age of Plastic. The concert finished off with an encore of Video Killed the Radio Star featuring lead vocals by a member of the audience that won an auction. The opening act of the night were Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Following 2010 discussions with Chris Squire, Horn produced the 2011 Yes album Fly From Here, the bulk of whose forty-seven-minute duration comprises unused or incomplete Buggles material from the early 1980s, reminiscent of the use of the Buggles' I am a Camera for Into the Lens on Drama during their first stint in 1980. He thus insisted that Downes play keyboards on the album (replacing Oliver Wakeman once again) and Horn himself played and sang (backing vocals) on the album. The album's group photograph prominently features Horn standing centre, signifying that to all intents he was considered the 6th band member for the recording. The Fly From Here tour has not featured Horn.

In October 2011 a reunited Buggles performed at the British Music Experience at the O2 Bubble, London. They were be joined by Steve Lipson and Lol Creme to take part in a Q&A session, and Alison Moyet appeared as a guest vocalist. The band performed a number of their own songs, including the first live rendition of I am a Camera, making it the first song from Adventures in Modern Recording to be performed live. The band also performed a version of David Bowie's 1969 hit, Space Oddity, as well as a tongue-in-cheek cover of Check It Out, a 2010 song by Nicki Minaj and will.i.am which heavily sampled Video Killed the Radio Star. Kirsten Joy, Holly Petrie and Kate Westall took on the role of providing female vocals, and would go on to join the Producers' 2012 university tour, the gigs of which borrowed heavily from this concert.

Future

As of 2012, Horn is working with the Producers on their début album, and Downes continues to work with both Yes and Asia. The Buggles are no longer officially active, but in light of the recent reunion shows, Horn's new-found interest in performing live (especially "Video Killed the Radio Star"), and his recent cooperation with Downes (on Yes' Fly From Here album, and Downes' one-off performance with the Producers), future projects between the duo are more likely now than they've been in the past thirty years.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Title	Peak chart positions
		UK	CAN	NOR	SWE	USA
1980	The Age of Plastic	27	83	23	24	—
1981	Adventures in Modern Recording	—	—	—	50	161
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions												Album
		UK	AUT	CHE	FRA	GER	IRL	ITL	NLD	NZL	SWE	USA	ZAF
1979	"Video Killed the Radio Star"	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	16	2	1	40	6	The Age of Plastic
1980	"Living in the Plastic Age"	16	—	—	5	29	—	—	29	—	—	—	—
	"Clean Clean"	38	—	—	—	60	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Elstree"	55	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1981	"I Am a Camera"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	46	—	—	—	—	Adventures in Modern Recording
	"Adventures in Modern Recording"	—	—	—	—	—	—	27	—	—	—	—	—
1982	"On TV"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Lenny"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	17	—	—	—	—
	"Beatnik"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Music videos

• "Video Killed the Radio Star"
• "Living in the Plastic Age"
• "Clean Clean"
• "Elstree"
• "I Am a Camera"
• "Adventures in Modern Recording"

External links

• Buggles discography on The Art Of Noise Online
• Fan site