Trevor Horn, by Ian Peel
Born in 1949 in Durham City in the North East of England, Trevor Horn drew his immediate musical inspiration from his father. A dairy engineer by day, John Horn played double bass in the local ballrooms with the Joe Clarke Band by night. His school days were spent at Johnston Grammar in Stonebridge where he too took up the bass, playing in the school youth orchestra as well as standing in for his father during Joe Clarke’s residency at Durham City’s Astoria Ballroom.
Immersed in music throughout his childhood, the first record to really click into Horn’s conscious was ‘Walk on By’ by Dionne Warwick. The Beatles also played a major influence (to the point that he blames them for helping him fail most of his O-levels!), to say nothing of Yes – a band he would later join. “I think it's difficult now for kids to realise how important records were to people in the 60s, because it was so different and it was all so new,” he later recalled. “Music seemed to hold out so much promise. Everybody felt like something was happening and I always had this idea that a record was like a journey. It led you somewhere, and by the end you felt like something had happened…”
By his 30th birthday Trevor Horn had set up his first recording studio and was taping local bands and recording TV ad music with his friend Hans Zimmer, who went on to become an Oscar-winning soundtrack composer. “One day,” he remembers, “this guy called Bill Coleman, who used to play with Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon, said to me, ‘You know that thing you're doing? That's called being a record producer.’ I said, ‘Well, that's what I want to do…’”
If the success of a record producer can be judged by the weight of awards on their shelves then Horn ranks as the world’s number one. He has a hat trick of Brit Awards for Best British Producer from 1983, 1985 and 1992. In the 80s he was Rolling Stone’s Producer of the Year 1983. In the 90s, Best Producer at the 1991 Q Awards. And in the 00s, Music Week’s 2003 Producer of the Year.
But for Trevor Horn these accolades mean little – success comes from creating records that feel as important as the ones he bought as a child, and music that can hold out that same “promise”. This he has achieved by producing legendary singles like Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’; the mainstream pop of Rod Stewart, Cher and Tina Turner; cult classics like Inga and Anne Pigalle; and the whole spectrum of groups, with Genesis on one side and Boyzone on the other.
Then there’s his work with vocal artists both male - ranging from Paul McCartney to Shane MacGowan and from Marc Almond to Bryan Ferry. And female – Charlotte Church to Gabrielle. To say nothing of a continued passion for nurturing brand new talent which, in the last few years, has included Lee Griffiths, Betsy Cook, Dove and David’s Daughters. “There’s only common theme that links all of Trevor’s work,” says the founder of Island Records, Chris Blackwell, “and that is excellence.”
The defining artists in Trevor Horn’s career celebrate their work together on the new album, Produced By Trevor Horn. And the story begins back in the days of messing about with headphones, mics and reel-to-reels to create The Buggles…
Ian Peel, November 2004