Round the Horn of hits

Grace Jones - not to be confused with Bridget
12 April 2012
The Weekender

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Everyone is a Trevor Horn fan, whether they know it or not. The music industry veteran from Hertfordshire has produced such a diverse range of albums during 25 years in the business, from ABC's The Lexicon of Love to Tatu's 200km/h In The Wrong Lane, and even those who have spent the past 21/2 decades in a wardrobe must know Do They Know It's Christmas?


Last night Horn's 25th anniversary was marked by a unique concert, in aid of the Prince's Trust and performed in front of the Prince of Wales. The evening began and ended with landmark moments of sorts, firstly the first ever live appearance by Horn's old band, Buggles, who had a 1979 hit with Video Killed The Radio Star. Horn, in a silver jacket and owlish blue spectacles, played bass and sang the tinny verses.

He acted as compere for the rest of the night, introducing past charges such as Propaganda, Yes and Tatu - who seem to have given up pretending to be lesbians. Dollar were lacklustre with a performance that was pure cruise ship. Grace Jones provided an eye-popping moment, singing Slave To The Rhythm in a black cape that made her look like a giant tarantula.

Belle and Sebastian were victims of the fact that the Eighties nostalgists dominating the audience hadn't a clue who they were. Martin Fry of ABC, in a gold lamé suit, was the first person to convince the crowd they were not at Horn's wake.

Because he rarely worked with an artist more than once, acts such as the Pet Shop Boys and Lisa Stansfield - with powerful new track Takes A Woman To Know - did not sing the songs most people wanted to hear. Seal is Horn's only long-term cohort, collaborating on five albums over 14 years. He raised people to their feet, finally, with Killer, which still sounded as though it had been written yesterday.

The other landmark moment was Frankie Goes to Hollywood's return to the stage after 17 years, sadly minus a sulking Holly Johnson. They replaced him for this show with Ryan Molloy from Jerry Springer: The Opera, whose voice was higher than Johnson's but just as energetic. Two Tribes and Relax were fabulous, with that huge sound that Horn probably does better than anyone.

Despite having something for everyone this was a strangely unsatisfying evening, but the one person who brought the disparate parts together seemed to enjoy it immensely, vowing to vanish into the studio for another quarter century.

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