The Buggles
Background information
Origin	UK
Genre(s)	New Wave
Years active	1977-1981
Label(s)	Island Records
Associated acts	Yes, Asia, The Producers
Former members
Trevor Horn Geoff Downes Bruce Woolley

Buggles (the official version of the band name, used on their albums, singles, and publicity material, omits the prefix "The")^{[citation needed]} were a New Wave band formed in 1977 consisting of Trevor Horn, born 1949 in Durham (bass guitar, guitar, percussion, and vocals), Geoff Downes, born 1952 in Stockport, Cheshire (percussion and keyboards) and Bruce Woolley. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in Western popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s inspired by the punk rock movement. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Island Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Asia is an arena rock/progressive rock group. ... The Producers is a band formed in 2006 by music producers and musicians Trevor Horn (bass and vocals), Lol Crème (guitar and vocals), Steve Lipson (guitar), Chris Braide (keyboards and vocals) and Ash Soan (drums). ... Trevor Charles Horn, born July 15, 1949 in Durham, England, is a British pop music record producer, songwriter and musician. ... Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born August 25, 1952 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is a rock keyboard player. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... New Wave is a term that has been used to describe many developments in music, but is most commonly associated with a movement in Western popular music, in the late 1970s and early 1980s inspired by the punk rock movement. ... Trevor Charles Horn, born July 15, 1949 in Durham, England, is a British pop music record producer, songwriter and musician. ... Durham (IPA: locally, in RP) is a small city and main settlement of the City of Durham district of County Durham in North East England. ... The electric bass guitar (or electric bass) is a string instrument played with the fingers by plucking, slapping, or using a pick. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ... In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ... Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born August 25, 1952 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is a rock keyboard player. ... Stockport is a large town in the north west of England. ... The Cheshire Plain - photo taken adjacent to Beeston Castle The Cheshire Plain - photo taken towards Merseyside The Cheshire Plain panorama - photo taken from Mid-Cheshire Ridge Cattle farming in the county Black-and-white timbered buildings on Nantwich High Street Cheshire (or, archaically, the County of Chester)[1] is a... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ... Piano, a well-known instance of keyboard instruments A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Early days

Horn and Downes had first met in the mid 1970s while members of the backing band of British singer Tina Charles of "I Love to Love" fame, though they did not actually play on that record. 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 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... Tina Charles (born Tina Hoskins on March 10, 1954, in Whitechapel, London) is an English singer, who achieved success as a disco artist in the late 1970s. ... The Apollo, Hammersmith, London has been a rock venue for decades, and was originally known as the Hammersmith Odeon. ...

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 "Buggles" because "It was the most disgusting name I could think of at that time", but the booklet for the CD remaster of "The Age of Plastic" says that it arose out of a private joke between Horn and Downes and was actually a pun on "Beatles".

Video Killed the Radio Star

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. What many people do not know is that this demo featured vocals by Tina Charles, who incidentally 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, which included Thomas Dolby and Hans Zimmer. The Camera Club also released a version of the song. Three months after the demo was sent to Island, "Video Killed the Radio Star" was at number one.^{[citation needed]} The female vocalists on the "proper" recording were Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, now known as Linda Allan. Video Killed the Radio Star is a New Wave song released in 1979 by the British group The Buggles that celebrates the golden days of radio. ... Island Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group and is operated through The Island Def Jam Music Group. ... Tina Charles (born Tina Hoskins on March 10, 1954, in Whitechapel, London) is an English singer, who achieved success as a disco artist in the late 1970s. ... Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson, on 14 October 1958) is an English musician, producer, and inventor best known for his 1982 synth pop hit She Blinded Me With Science. // Thomas was not born in Cairo, Egypt as his early biography from EMI suggested, but was actually born in London... Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer. ... US-born Debi came to England on a mission to photograph the fledgling super-stars of the 70s. ...

"Video Killed the Radio Star", released in late 1979, was the 444th number one in the UK charts, spending one week at the top and shooting Buggles to fame. At the time of the single's original release Buggles did not actually have an album's worth of material to record, and so they wrote most of the other tracks for their debut album The Age of Plastic (1980) while travelling around Europe promoting "Video Killed The Radio Star". “Megastar” redirects here. ... The Age of Plastic (1980) was the first album released by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes as The Buggles, themed as a series of songs about the effects of technology on human life. ...

Being largely a studio creation, Buggles never toured as such. There were a couple of Top of the Pops 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 in 1998.^[1] Later an appearance at a Prince's Trust concert celebrating Horn's career as a producer in 2004 was billed as the band's first-ever live appearance.^[2] Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, was a long-running British music chart television programme, made and broadcast by the BBC. It was originally shown each week, mostly on BBC One, from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. ... See also: 2004 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 2004 Record labels established in 2004 2000s in music. ...

The novelty value of the song led to the Buggles' being perceived as one-hit wonders (three subsequent singles also charted, although they were largely ignored by radio and did not perform well), but its success was sufficient to launch both members of the band onto successful careers. The video for the song, directed by Russell Mulcahy, was the first video aired on MTV North America two years later, at midnight on the 1st of August 1981. By this time, the Camera Club had released their version of the song. UK 45 rpm single for Mickey (1982) by one-hit wonder Toni Basil CD single of the Baha Mens Who Let the Dogs Out? In the music industry, a one-hit wonder is an artist generally known for only one hit single. ... A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... Russell Mulcahy (born January 1, 1953) is a film director, born in Melbourne, Australia. ... MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network headquartered in New York City. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... August 1 is the 213th day of the year (214th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ...

As with other songs from The Age of Plastic album, the songs were shortened in their music video versions and "Video Killed the Radio Star" lost the long instrumental coda found on the album. This also applied to their follow-up album, Adventures in Modern Recording — all of their videos were shortened from the length of their original recordings.

Merger with Yes

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 Buggles, and Horn in particular, had been long-standing fans of Yes, but felt that the quality of their recent music had been slipping. 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 fully fledged members of Yes. This they did, in one of rock music's more surprising shifts of personnel. For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Richard Christopher Wakeman (born May 18, 1949 in Perivale, London) is an English keyboard player best known as the keyboardist for progressive rock group Yes. ... Christopher Russell Edward Squire (born 4 March 1948), better known as Chris Squire is an English musician and the bassist and backing vocalist for the progressive rock group Yes, and is the only member of the group to appear on every album (co-founder Jon Anderson appeared on all but...

The fruit of their labours was the album Drama (1980, UK #2, US #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," 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' The Word Is Live CD set (2005), along with another unreleased Yes track from that era, "Go Through This." As a point of interest, another track from Drama, the somewhat brief "Man in a White Car," was extended in live performance to incorporate sections of "Video Killed the Radio Star," much to fans' amusement. Drama is the twelfth album by British progressive rock group Yes. ... 12 single for U2s Beautiful Day The 12-inch [30 cm] single gramophone record came into existence with the advent of disco music in the 1970s. ...

On the whole, the team-up of Yes and 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-look Yes a chance. The critics, however, were far less forgiving, especially in the United Kingdom, and poured scorn on the band. Nowadays, the general view seems to be along the lines of "It was good, but it was not Yes." In any event the band broke up, although temporarily, in early 1981, shortly after the Drama tour came to an end.

Downes after The Buggles

With the break-up of Yes, Geoff Downes, Chris Squire and drummer Alan White initially embarked on a project with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, ostensibly to be called XYZ (ex-Yes and Zeppelin), but when ex-Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant declined an invitation to come on board the project foundered. As a result Downes reunited with Trevor Horn to resume work on the second Buggles album. However, he left shortly afterwards, citing musical differences, going on to join his former Yes bandmate Steve Howe in "supergroup" Asia, together with John Wetton (ex-King Crimson), and Carl Palmer (ex-Emerson Lake & Palmer). There he remains to this day, the only member of Asia to have been in the band continually since its beginnings. He has still found time for other projects though, the most notable being a double album (single CD) which he issued in 1986 under the name New Dance Orchestra, titled The Light Programme. Yes drummer Alan White Alan White (born June 14, 1949 in Pelton, County Durham, England and now resident in Seattle, USA) is a rock and roll drummer best known for his 34 years of work with the progressive rock band Yes. ... Led Zeppelin were an English rock band who formed in 1968. ... James Patrick Jimmy Page, OBE (born 9 January 1944) is an English guitarist and record producer. ... XYZ was one of the first supergroups of the 1980s. ... Robert Anthony Plant (born August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, West Midlands, England) is an English rock singer and songwriter, most famous for his membership in the rock band Led Zeppelin, but also for his successful solo career. ... Stephen James Steve Howe (born April 8, 1947 in Holloway, North London, England) is a guitarist best known for his work with the progressive rock group Yes. ... Asia is an arena rock/progressive rock group. ... John Wetton in concert John Wetton (born June 12, 1949 in Derbyshire, England) is an English singer, bassist and guitarist. ... King Crimson are an influential English musical group founded by guitarist Robert Fripp and drummer Michael Giles in 1969. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... ELP can also stand for Extra Long Play, a format for the VCR tape. ...

Horn after The Buggles

Horn continued to work on the second Buggles album, Adventures in Modern Recording, with several new players, the most prominent being Simon Darlow. The album included "I am a Camera," brought to completion as a Buggles song as originally intended, and under its original title. Adventures in Modern Recording did not chart, nor did four singles released from it—the title track, "I am a Camera", "On TV", and lastly "Lenny." Shortly afterwards Trevor Horn brought the Buggles to an end, and finally embarked on his new career as a record producer, achieving enormous success, with bands like ABC, Dollar, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, and even 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, still producing, with Simple Minds, t.A.T.u., Charlotte Church, and most recently Captain among his many credits. Adventures In Modern Recording is the second and last record from the British synth-pop duo The Buggles. ... ABC is an English New Romantic band that charted eleven Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. ... United States one-dollar bill Canadian one-dollar coin (Loonie) One New Taiwan dollar Australian one-dollar coin 500 old Zimbabwean dollars The dollar (often represented by the dollar sign: $) is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions. ... Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH) was a UK New wave band that was popular in early 1980s. ... Art of Noise Close Up twelve inch single featured the iconic Art of Noise mask Art of Noise was an avantgarde synthpop group formed in 1983 by producer Trevor Horn, music journalist Paul Morley, and session musicians/studio hands Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, and Gary Langan. ... The Brit Awards are the annual United Kingdom pop music awards founded by the British Phonographic Industry. ... Simple Minds is a rock band from Scotland, which had its greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. ... This article is about the Russian singing duo. ... Charlotte Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed on 21 February 1986) is a Welsh pop singer and television presenter who rose to international fame in childhood as a popular classical singer. ... Captain were formed in London in late 2004. ...

In late 2006, Trevor Horn formed a new band, The Producers with other musicians and producers. The band is currently working on a new album, but at live performances, they mainly perform songs from each of the band members' pasts. At their first gig in Camden Town, November 2006, a clip can be seen on the official website of ZTT Records^[3] of Trevor singing lead vocals and playing bass on a performance of Video Killed The Radio Star. For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... The Producers is a band formed in 2006 by music producers and musicians Trevor Horn (bass and vocals), Lol Crème (guitar and vocals), Steve Lipson (guitar), Chris Braide (keyboards and vocals) and Ash Soan (drums). ... Camden Town is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Camden. ... 67 die and about 300,000 people are affected by floods in Ethiopias Somali Region of Ogaden after the Shabelle River bursts its banks. ...

In the 21st Century

In June 2005, Geoff Downes faintly hinted on his blog at an arrangement with Trevor Horn for a new Buggles album to coincide with MTV's 25th birthday, although the blog hasn't been updated for a while.^[4] With the expected worldwide re-release of Adventures in Modern Recording by Horn's own ZTT Records however, there is still a sign of Buggles activity. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in June June 27: Shelby Foote June 27: John T. Walton June 26: Richard Whiteley June 25: John Fiedler June 25: Chet Helms June 24: Paul Winchell June 21: Jaime Cardinal Sin June 20: Jack Kilby... ZTT Records is a record label founded in 1983 by NME journalist Paul Morley, record producer Trevor Horn, producer/engineer Gary Langan and businesswoman Jill Sinclair. ...

Horn's current band, The Producers, have covered Video Killed The Radio Star at all of their performances so far. A clip of one of these performances at Camden Town can be seen on the website for ZTT Records^[5]. The Producers is a band formed in 2006 by music producers and musicians Trevor Horn (bass and vocals), Lol Crème (guitar and vocals), Steve Lipson (guitar), Chris Braide (keyboards and vocals) and Ash Soan (drums). ... Camden Town is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Camden. ...

Discography

Singles

• Video Killed The Radio Star (1979) UK #1
• Living in the Plastic Age (1980) UK #16
• Clean Clean (1980) UK #38
• Elstree (1980) UK #55
• Adventures In Modern Recording (1981) (did not chart)
• I Am A Camera (1981) (did not chart)
• On TV (1981) (did not chart)
• Lenny (1981) (did not chart)

Video Killed the Radio Star is a New Wave song released in 1979 by the British group The Buggles that celebrates the golden days of radio. ... Living in the Plastic Age is a New Wave song by The Buggles recorded in 1980 and only available on the album The Age of Plastic. ... I Am a Camera was a 1951 play by John Van Druten, inspired by Christopher Isherwoods The Berlin Stories, which in turn went on to inspire the Cabaret (musical)|musical]] and film Cabaret. ...

Albums

• The Age of Plastic (1980) UK #27
• Adventures In Modern Recording (1981) (did not chart)

The Age of Plastic (1980) was the first album released by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes as The Buggles, themed as a series of songs about the effects of technology on human life. ... Adventures In Modern Recording is the second and last record from the British synth-pop duo The Buggles. ...

References

• Guinness Book of British Hit Singles 7th Edition - 1988
• Guinness Book of British Hit Albums 1st Edition - 1982

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Buggles

The cover of the 1989 7th edition of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles Guinness World Records - British Hit Singles & Albums is a music reference book, published in the United Kingdom, by Hit Entertainment, the company that owns such childrens entertainment brands as Bob the Builder and Thomas... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ...

External links

• US stations that have played The Buggles recently