THE BUGGLES
An elegiac, prescient mini-epic of techno-pop magnificence, The Buggles’ debut single was a Number 1 across the globe. But why was a contemporaneous rival version released? And why, when the pursuit of studio perfection and popular success proved impossib
In ’79, Video Killed The Radio Star was a future-pop smash. But the pressures it brought were great. Writers Trevor Horn, Bruce Woolley and Geoff Downes meet again to remember a shining moment.
Co-writers Bruce Woolley and Trevor Horn recall Abba, JG Ballard and the release of competing singles.
Bruce Woolley: “Trevor and I wrote the song over a couple of afternoons in East Sheen [in 1977]. When we got to the chorus, Trevor suddenly said, ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ as I hit the chords. It was one of those flash moments, a real spark of creativity. We were interested guys. At that time everything was changing in society and music – you had the revolution of punk rock, fashion and attitudes were changing dramatically. Add to that, we were reading a lot of science fiction, Robert Silverberg and JG Ballard particularly – his great story The Sound-Sweep, about music actually becoming unfashionable to listen to on the audio spectrum, and how you’d only experience it through a kind of invisible medium, like an emotion, was an inspiration on the song. And then Kraftwerk, Warm Leatherette… also, Trevor and I basically grew up playing in Mecca dancehalls in Leicester, and I had to learn a lot of Abba music. If you analyse the track, it’s almost an homage to Abba. Lyrically, it’s the progress of technology leaving something behind, and how there is a price to pay for that. Trevor and myself, and Geoff Downes, who is a credited writer, were in [disco singer] Tina Charles’s backing band, and Tina actually paid for the original pre-Buggles session. That’s when the demo, the blueprint if you like, of The Buggles was formed, when I was working with them. But I was never in The Buggles. What happened was, I got offered a solo deal with CBS Records for The Camera Club, and I really wanted to do it. I was a bit more guitar driven, and I wanted to go on the road, and we did our own version of Video Killed The Radio Star.”
Trevor Horn: “Initially I don’t think Bruce was thinking of doing Video Killed The Radio Star with The Camera Club, but when I realised he was, I thought it was too strong a song to let go. Geoff and myself had a problem, because the great demo belonged to Tina Charles. We signed to Island, which meant we had to re-record it. You’ve got to realise, none of it was sequenced, it was all played. We drove ourselves mad, recording and re-recording. We even got the amp that I’d sung the demo through, an old AC30, that I’d flogged to somebody, I had to go and blag it back. By the time we finished I didn’t know which way was up, I’d heard it so much. We only finished the mix half an hour before we cut it. The first time I realised how good it actually was was when I heard it on Capital Radio. The two versions came out close together. Bruce’s is a rockier version, ours was more peculiar. [The video] was a lot of fun, we told [director] Russell Mulcahy, We’ll do whatever you want. I remember showing up and putting the silver jacket and those blue glasses on, I’d had my hair permed for some fucking reason, and it was like a blur – stand here, mime to this, put your hand on there. The woman in the tube was his idea, poor girl. They had to have a whole safety team for the bit where she flies off in a harness. It went wrong the first time and the tube fell over with her in it. Initially, we weren’t going to actually go out and mime to it, but, boy, when you get a hit, the pressure is unbearable. The first time it happened we were in France, in a great big radio tent, and the guy came over and said, ‘They’ll take the record off the radio station if you don’t go and mime to it.’ So we had to do it: I stood absolutely still, my knees shaking with fear. Then we had to go and drag our arses all over Europe miming on every TV show known to man. But it was an amazing thing, because the song was Number 1 in 16 countries.”
BW: “When someone told me The Buggles’ version was Number 1 I had absolutely mixed feelings. I was working quite hard with The Camera Club, giving it everything. But with time, you learn to appreciate what these things mean.”