Fact #156354
When:
Short story:
Art Of Noise enter the UK pop singles chart for the first time with Close (To The Edit) on ZTT Records. It will peak at No8 during a 19-week run.
Full article:
Trevor Horn (producer) : It was an amazing time because it was all exploding. Just as the McLaren thing (Horn produced Malcolm McLaren's records) came to an end, Page R arrived on the Fairight. And that was gobsmacking because that was the first time you heard those sort of sounds sequenced. And that's where the Art Of Noise came from.
We were in a very lucky position because when Page R arrived I was doing Yes. So I had Alan White's drums and it was Alan White's drums that became [Art Of Noise's debut single] Beat Box.
One of the big things at the end of the Yes album [1983's 90125] was that this gizmo came along called the Conductor. It was a device that allowed you to connect a Linn drum machine to Page R. And that might seem like a minor detail now but, boy, that was breathtaking for us back then, because it meant you could lock a Linn drum machine to Page R! And all of the early Art Of Noise stuff was locking things to Page R.
The very first thing was Beat Box and it came from JJ Jeczalik messing around with Alan White's drums while I was working on 90125. I brought the Fairlight into 90125 for all that stuff on Owner Of A Lonely Heart. We did use the Synclavier also at the time, but all of that 'da, ba ba ba' and all that stuff - that was the Fairlight. So JJ was screwing around in the back room and I remember him playing me that 'Beat Box' drum loop and I said 'Jeez, that's fantastic, they'll love that in New York.'
I'd met Afrika Bambaataa at a club and I'd asked him who his favourite band was and he said The Guess Who. I said 'The Guess Who? That's a Canadian old-school rock band! "American womaann!..."' They turned into Bachman Turner Overdrive. I said, 'You like The Guess Who?' He said, 'Yeah man, I've got a live album and there's a great drum break.' This was in New York in like 1981/82, and so when I heard Beat Box I knew that they would love that groove in New York because I'd heard something like it from Afrika Bambaataa looping The Guess Who.
(Source : Interview by Ian Peel in Sound On Sound, March 2005)
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We were in a very lucky position because when Page R arrived I was doing Yes. So I had Alan White's drums and it was Alan White's drums that became [Art Of Noise's debut single] Beat Box.
One of the big things at the end of the Yes album [1983's 90125] was that this gizmo came along called the Conductor. It was a device that allowed you to connect a Linn drum machine to Page R. And that might seem like a minor detail now but, boy, that was breathtaking for us back then, because it meant you could lock a Linn drum machine to Page R! And all of the early Art Of Noise stuff was locking things to Page R.
The very first thing was Beat Box and it came from JJ Jeczalik messing around with Alan White's drums while I was working on 90125. I brought the Fairlight into 90125 for all that stuff on Owner Of A Lonely Heart. We did use the Synclavier also at the time, but all of that 'da, ba ba ba' and all that stuff - that was the Fairlight. So JJ was screwing around in the back room and I remember him playing me that 'Beat Box' drum loop and I said 'Jeez, that's fantastic, they'll love that in New York.'
I'd met Afrika Bambaataa at a club and I'd asked him who his favourite band was and he said The Guess Who. I said 'The Guess Who? That's a Canadian old-school rock band! "American womaann!..."' They turned into Bachman Turner Overdrive. I said, 'You like The Guess Who?' He said, 'Yeah man, I've got a live album and there's a great drum break.' This was in New York in like 1981/82, and so when I heard Beat Box I knew that they would love that groove in New York because I'd heard something like it from Afrika Bambaataa looping The Guess Who.
(Source : Interview by Ian Peel in Sound On Sound, March 2005)