1971–1979: Early work At 21, Horn relocated to London and took up work by playing in a band, which involved re-recording top 20 songs for BBC radio owing to the
needle time restrictions then in place. This was followed by a one-year tenure with Ray McVay's big band, He also worked as a
session musician for rock groups and
jingles. At 24, Horn began work in
Leicester, where he had a nightly gig playing bass at a nightclub and helped construct a recording studio. Horn formed Tracks, a jazz fusion band inspired by
Weather Report and
Herbie Hancock, with the future
Shakatak drummer Roger Odell, before he left to play in Charles's backing band. Also in the band were the keyboardist
Geoffrey Downes and the guitarist
Bruce Woolley, both of whom Horn later worked with in the band
the Buggles. Horn and Charles entered a short relationship, and Horn learned from her inspiring producer
Biddu. In the mid-1970s, Horn worked for a
music publisher on
Denmark Street, London, producing
demos. Among his first was "Natural Dance" by
Tony Cole and "Don't Come Back" by Fallen Angel and the T.C. Band, featuring Woolley as songwriter, which Horn produced under the name "T.C. Horn". He wrote "Boot Boot Woman", the B-side to the Boogatti single "Come Back Marianne". In 1978, Horn wrote, sang, and produced "Caribbean Air Control" under the pseudonym Big A, which features Horn pictured as a pilot on the front sleeve. In 1979, a full studio album,
Star to Star, by Chromium, a "sci-fi disco project", was released. It featured Horn and Downes as songwriters and producers, and Horn's future
Art of Noise bandmate
Anne Dudley on keyboards. Other artists that Horn worked with included Woolley,
John Howard,
Dusty Springfield ("Baby Blue"), and
the Jags ("
Back of My Hand"). Horn achieved his first production hit when "
Monkey Chop" by
Dan-I reached No. 30 on the
UK singles chart in 1979. In August 1981, "Video Killed the Radio Star" became the first music video to air on
MTV.
1980: Yes The Buggles secured management from
Brian Lane, who was also managing the progressive rock band
Yes. Yes sacked Horn after the tour. He spent £18,000 on a
Fairlight CMI, an early
digital synthesiser, one of four in the UK at the time. He said later: "I knew what it was capable of, because I understood what it did. Most other people didn't understand at the time – sampling was like a mystical world." In 1981, Horn completed a second Buggles album,
Adventures in Modern Recording, largely on his own following Downes's decision to form
Asia. Horn produced a string of hit singles by the pop duo
Dollar, writing the songs "
Mirror Mirror", "Hand Held in Black and White", "
Give Me Back My Heart" and "
Videotheque". All four became top 20 hits in the UK. Though Dollar were a
middle-of-the-road band with little credibility, Horn saw an opportunity to combine the electronic music of
Kraftwerk and the crooner
Vince Hill. He dramatically restructured the lead single, "
Relax", described by
Sound on Sound as a "
hi-NRG brand of dance-synth-pop" that "broke new sonic ground, while epitomising '80s excess in all its garish, overblown glory". He left the project to work on the follow-up Frankie Goes to Hollywood single "
Two Tribes" and their debut album,
Welcome to the Pleasuredome, which produced two more hit singles, "
The Power of Love" and "
Welcome to the Pleasuredome". In 1983, Horn co-formed the band the
Art of Noise, co-writing hits including "
Close (To the Edit)", "
Beat Box", "Moments in Love", and "Slave to the Rhythm". "Slave to the Rhythm" was intended as Frankie Goes to Hollywood's second single, but was instead given to
Grace Jones. Horn and his studio team reworked it into six separate songs to form Jones's 1985 album
Slave to the Rhythm. It features the
Pink Floyd guitarist
David Gilmour. In 1984, Horn was asked by
Bob Geldof to produce the song "
Do They Know It's Christmas?", a
charity song to raise money for the
1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. Horn was receptive but said he would need at least six weeks, which would make it impossible to release by Christmas. However, he allowed the team to use his studios,
Sarm West Studios in
Notting Hill, London, free for 24 hours on 25 November. Horn later remixed and co-produced the
12" version and remixed it for the 1985 re-release, and again in 2024 for a fortieth anniversary mix. In the late 1980s, In 1995, Horn produced "The Carpet Crawlers 1999", a rerecording of "
The Carpet Crawlers" by
Genesis, which featured vocals from their former singers,
Peter Gabriel and
Phil Collins. It was released on the compilation
Turn It On Again: The Hits (1999). In 1996, Horn produced the multi-platinum album
Wildest Dreams by
Tina Turner. According to the duo
Wendy & Lisa, Horn produced an album for them in the late 1990s that went unreleased.
Lisa Coleman said Horn and Sinclair objected to their homosexuality as sinful.
2000s: t.A.T.u., LeAnn Rimes and Belle and Sebastian In the 2000s, Horn was hired by
Interscope Records to create English-language versions of songs by the Russian pop duo
t.A.T.u. He wrote new lyrics for "
All the Things She Said" and "
Not Gonna Get Us" and coached t.A.T.u. to sing them in English. He also rerecorded the instruments, as he did not have access to the original
multitracks. "All the Things She Said" reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart. In 2020,
The Guardian named it Horn's greatest work since the mid-80s. For the 2000 film
Coyote Ugly, Horn produced "
Can't Fight the Moonlight" by the American singer
LeAnn Rimes. It sold more than two million copies worldwide and reached No. 1 in the UK and Australia. Horn co-wrote "Pass the Flame" (the official torch relay song for the 2004 Olympics in Athens) in collaboration with Lol Creme and co-wrote the title track from
Lisa Stansfield's 2004 album
The Moment. Horn co-wrote "Sound the Bugle", performed by Bryan Adams and featured on the
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack and produced 3 tracks (La Sombra del Gigante, Un Angel No Es and Mujer Amiga Mia) of Stilelibero (Freestyle)
Estilolibre by
Eros Ramazzotti, released on 29 May 2001. Horn produced the 2003
Belle and Sebastian album
Dear Catastrophe Waitress. Horn, known for using electronic equipment to transform music, was seen as a surprising choice for Belle and Sebastian, who were described by the
Guardian as "the last living purveyors of arts-and-crafts indie values". On 11 November 2004, a
Prince's Trust charity concert celebrating Horn's 25 years as a record producer took place at
Wembley Arena, featuring performances from Horn and many acts he produced. It was released on DVD as ''Produced By Trevor Horn: A Concert For The Prince's Trust – Live At Wembley Arena London 2004
(2005) and Trevor Horn and Friends: Slaves to the Rhythm
(2008), and accompanied by a compilation album, Produced by Trevor Horn'' (2004). In 2006, Horn co-formed the supergroup the
Producers, with the singer
Lol Creme, the producer
Steve Lipson, the drummer
Ash Soan and the singer-songwriter
Chris Braide. They performed their first gig at the
Camden Barfly in November 2006. They continue to perform under the name the Trevor Horn Band. Horn produced the ninth album by the synth-pop duo the
Pet Shop Boys,
Fundamental, released in May 2006. It reached No. 5 in the UK chart. In the same month, he featured in a Pet Shop Boys concert specially recorded for
BBC Radio 2. Horn produced an album version of the event,
Concrete, released on 23 October 2006. Horn also produced
Captain's debut album,
This is Hazelville, released in late 2006. In the same year, he also worked with British band
Delays on their song "Valentine", which was released as the lead single from their album
You See Colours. He has also worked with
John Legend and
David Jordan. In 2007, Horn sold his Sarm Hook End residential studio for £12 million and relocated to
Primrose Hill, London. In 2009, Horn produced
Reality Killed the Video Star, the eighth album by
Robbie Williams. The album title references the Buggles song and Horn and Williams' mutual disdain for reality television and music contest programmes. It reached No. 2 on the UK Album Chart and was Williams' first studio album not to reach No. 1.
2010s–present Horn was the executive producer of
Jeff Beck's 2010 album
Emotion & Commotion. He returned to work with Yes again, producing their new album from October 2010. That album, 2011's
Fly From Here, is a reunion of sorts for Horn's former bandmate
Geoff Downes; not only is Downes a member of the band's current incarnation, but the album also takes its title from a song written by Horn and Downes and performed by Yes during their original stint with the band in 1980. In 2017, Horn wrote the music for the
Stan Lee co-produced anime
The Reflection, the soundtrack being released as the first album under Horn's name. Horn remixed 2011's
Fly From Here with Yes, adding new vocals and editing parts. The album is called
Fly from Here – Return Trip and was released in March 2018. He has also been working on musicals, including one called "The Robot Sings". In November 2018, Horn performed a one-off concert at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Horn's new album,
Trevor Horn Reimagines the Eighties, was released on 25 January 2019. A single, "
Everybody Wants to Rule the World", with vocals by
Robbie Williams, was released on 24 October 2018. Further guests include
Rumer,
All Saints,
Simple Minds and
Gabrielle Aplin. In late 2017, Horn's Sarm West Coast residential studio in
Bel Air, Los Angeles, was destroyed in the
Skirball Fire. Horn was not present at the time of the fire. Horn toured as the bass player in
Dire Straits Legacy in 2018–2020. In late 2022, he published a memoir,
Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZTT. He joined Seal's 2023 tour, playing bass in Seal's band and reviving the Buggles as an opening act. In December 2023, Horn released
Echoes: Ancient and Modern, another album of covers with guest singers. ==Influence==