80's Music: The Buggles
Remember the very first music video to air on MTV?
Ever wonder why we don't hear much about that band?
The Buggles, which formed in 1977, first consisted of Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. They all wrote "Video Killed the Radio Star" in an hour of one afternoon in 1978, six months before it was recorded, together in Downes' apartment, which was located above a monumental stonemason's in Wimbledon Park London. The piece was built up from a chorus riff developed by Woolley. It is one of the three Buggles songs that he assisted in writing, the two others being "Clean, Clean" and "On TV." An early demo of the song they did helped the group get signed to Island Records to record and publish their debut album The Age of Plastic. Woolley left during recording to form his own band, The Camera Club, which did their own version of "Video", as well as "Clean, Clean" for their album English Garden.
http://youtu.be/Iwuy4hHO3YQ
In 1980, both Horn and Downes joined progressive rock band Yes. However following the release of the album Drama, Yes disbanded in 1981; Yes then reformed with Horn as producer, and Downes went on to create Asia with fellow former Yes member Steve Howe. After Downes' move to Asia and the commercial failure of the Buggles' second album Adventures in Modern Recording, The Buggles came to an end in 1981. However, Downes and Horn have been occasionally performing Buggles' songs together since 1998. Additionally, they collaborated again on the album Fly From Here by Yes (which Downes re-joined in 2011). The album, produced by Horn and with Downes on keyboards, used songs originally recorded as demos for the Buggles as a basis for most of the material.
Ever wonder why we don't hear much about that band?
The Buggles, which formed in 1977, first consisted of Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. They all wrote "Video Killed the Radio Star" in an hour of one afternoon in 1978, six months before it was recorded, together in Downes' apartment, which was located above a monumental stonemason's in Wimbledon Park London. The piece was built up from a chorus riff developed by Woolley. It is one of the three Buggles songs that he assisted in writing, the two others being "Clean, Clean" and "On TV." An early demo of the song they did helped the group get signed to Island Records to record and publish their debut album The Age of Plastic. Woolley left during recording to form his own band, The Camera Club, which did their own version of "Video", as well as "Clean, Clean" for their album English Garden.
http://youtu.be/Iwuy4hHO3YQ
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