The Buggles

Whether derided as a cheesy, throw-away novelty act or hailed as a revolutionary landmark of experimental synth pop, The Buggles' single Video Killed The Radio Star wormed its way into music history as an unforgettable pop landmark. Trevor Horn started out playing in ballrooms in the early 1970s before creating radio jingles, working as a session musician and producing early punk bands before meeting keyboard player Geoff Downes at an audition for disco star Tina Charles' backing band. Inspired by the futuristic, mechanical electronica of Kraftwerk, the pair imagined a time when pop music was created by computerised studio bugs for inconsequential performers. Taking the name The Buggles as a pastiche on The Beatles, producer Geoff Downes also contributed heavily to the project, but left before they were signed to Island Records in 1979 and Video Killed The Radio Star shot to Number 1 in the UK and in eight other countries and became the first ever music video aired by MTV. Debut album The Age Of Plastic (1980) made the Top 30, but Horn and Downes went on to join prog rockers Yes, and Horn later became one of the world's leading producers, working with ABC, Pet Shop Boys, Seal and Robbie Williams.