WHEN the definitive encyclopaedia of pop history is written, one of the most fascinating entries will be found under H. That chunky chapter will be concerned with the man who contributed the first vocal performance to MTV, the media behemoth that changed the face of the pop music industry, and then went on to spend much of the next four decades hunkered down in the bunker of a recording studio control booth.

 

The irony being of course that Trevor Horn was the driving force behind the creation of songs that would routinely fill hours of MTV programming.

 

On August 1, 1981, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles was the first video to air on MTV, a new sound for this new world. Or perhaps not.

 

“People are always surprised to hear that nothing was programmed on that record. Everything was played live, but because of my reputation, people seem to think everything was done electronically. I should say I was obsessed with everything sounding like it was done by a machine though. Even the vocal sound was easy to do. It was a simple hand microphone through a Vox AC30.”

 

For the pop geek, it’s nuggets like these and the fact that Tina Charles contributed the first “owah owah”s to give the backing vocals their distinctive 1950s America feel that make Horn fascinating.

 

Next month revellers at the Rewind Scotland Festival, the eighties extravaganza, will get the chance to see The Trevor Horn Band recreate not only that single but a selection from his time as producer, songwriter, and performer.

 

By the time he gets to Scone Palace, Horn will just have celebrated his 68th birthday. He first picked up a bass in his early teens, touring with bands throughout the 1960s and 1970s, also playing sessions for TV shows such as Come Dancing.

 

Despite the success of The Buggles, Horn’s late wife, Jill Sinclair was the driving force in his move from performance to production.

 

“Apart from The Buggles, I had had success when I joined Yes for a while, even playing Madison Square garden with them, so the confidence was there. There were no real qualifications for being a producer and when I started there was no education. It was almost like those years of experience gave me a diploma. I knew what people were going through – I understood how it felt on the other side of the glass.”

 

Horn and his wife met in 1977 when he was working at the same studio as Jill Sinclair. They became business partners and she brokered his first production deals with Dollar and ABC, the latter producing one of the most enduring albums of the period, The Lexicon of Love.

 

After fitting out their own studio, they formed a publishing company and subsequently ZTT records, along with writer Paul Morley. What followed was a run of hits, from Frankie Goes to Hollywood reaching number one with their first three singles, to hits with Grace Jones, Propaganda and Art of Noise. In the 1990s Seal would be the label’s most successful act.

 

This period forms the basis of what The Trevor Horn Band plays live. Frankie Goes to Hollywood hits, Slave to the Rhythm, Kiss from a Rose, along with The Buggles and Yes’s Owner of a Lonely Heart are staples of the set.

 

“I don’t make any money from it because it’s too big a band. These songs are layered but by having seven musicians and three singers we can get as close as possible without having to play it the same every time because we’re tied to a backing track.”

 

His wife’s death in 2014, following eight years of being unable to move or speak following an accident that caused brain damage, was another reason to get out of the dark and back in front of the lights.

 

“The accident obviously had a huge effect on me. When people play together it’s a great feeling and extremely therapeutic.

 

“I suppose another reason I wanted to go out with a band again was that I was getting annoyed with live shows… it was bullshit half the time – too many backing tracks.”

 

Despite being a producer who is aligned with pioneering use of technology, he says the musician always took over.

 

“I could always tell who were the great musicians. They still had to do the same stuff – the G to E minor – but what I always looked for was that bit extra, where they could add something. Programming is so slow. Most records today are a combination of playing and programming.”

 

Horn was there as production began to change with the technology providing the chance to experiment with sound and give each band what they needed.

 

“When we started producing records we were coming off the 1970s and records that sounded as brilliant as Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. These are brilliant players.

 

“All they had to do when musicians were that good was throw the mics up, make sure the players are in a good mood, record it, and edit it.”

 

He laughs. “A lot of people I worked with in the early 1980s needed a lot more than that. It wasn’t a matter of competing with what had gone before but using what we had to find something different.

 

“Later though, when I worked with Belle and Sebastian on Dear Catastrophe Waitress, I didn’t want to produce them as such, I was just keen to do the best possible recording of the material as possible.”

 

He spent a year in Scotland, working with Simple Minds on Street Fighting Years and admits that Scottish music ranks high on his list of favourites. “I’m a big fan of The Blue Nile, the album Hats in particular. That’s one of my favourite records. Raintown by Deacon Blue is a great album too. There’s always been a strong tradition of music in Scotland.”

 

Apart from live shows, there are writing and production roles to attend to – and the updates in technology. Something that doesn’t faze him.

 

“It’s entirely possible to make records without playing an instrument now. And it’s perfectly valid, it’s just different. Whatever the equipment though, if you give Eric Clapton a Gibson guitar and a Marshall amp he’ll produce something completely different from giving the same to Pete Townsend… or anyone else. It’s the same with recent technology. It doesn’t make much difference – it’s who is using it that’s important.”

 

Adding new names to a list of production credits including Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Genesis, Cher isn’t high on the priority list.

 

“There’s no-one I can really think of that I haven’t worked with that I’d like to. A lot of people don’t want producers or don’t work well with producers. And with first division artists, there can be first division problems.

 

“On the technology thing, there are a couple of projects I’d like to revisit. The album I made with Malcolm McLaren for one. With the technology we have now, I think we could fix up a few of the tracks – I think it suffered through the lack of tech at the time.”

 

Recent projects have included music for an animation series for Japanese national TV, with production, writing, and singing credits.”

 

“There are a few other projects in the offing but the difficult thing for me is finding something I can put everything into. I need to work that way. But I’ll enjoy the summer festival gigs and then head off to Japan in August. It’s all fun.”

 

 

 

The Trevor Horn Band plays Rewind Scotland 80s Music Festival at Scone Palace, near Perth on Saturday, July 22. www.rewindfestival.com