The Buggles - Legacy

Legacy

After leaving The Buggles, Downes joined his former Yes bandmate Steve Howe in forming the aforementioned supergroup Asia, together with John Wetton (ex-King Crimson), and Carl Palmer (ex-Emerson, Lake & Palmer), which made its name with the 1982 hit, Heat of the Moment. Downes remains a member of Asia today, being the only member to have stayed with the group since its beginning. In parallel with Asia, he also worked on other projects, including several solo albums and production of acts such as GTR. He has also recently rejoined Yes as their keyboardist, working with Horn on the Fly From Here album and tour.

Horn embarked on a very successful career as a record producer, achieving success with bands like ABC, Dollar, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, and even the albums 90125 and Big Generator from a re-formed Yes, with Jon Anderson back on vocals. In 1985, Horn won the Best Producer BRIT Award. More than twenty years on, he is still active, producing with Seal, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Cher, Simple Minds, Belle and Sebastian, t.A.T.u., Charlotte Church, Captain, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams among his many credits. He is currently working with his new band, fittingly named "Producers", on their début album, Made in Basing Street

Both Asia and Producers play "Video Killed the Radio Star" as part of their live set in tribute to their members' origins in The Buggles.

Being largely a studio creation, The Buggles never toured. There were some Top of the Pops playback appearances, and later some performances for promotional purposes in support of the second album, but the first live outing by the original duo came in a low-key appearance on 3 December 1998, at which they only played "Video Killed the Radio Star".

In 2004, The Buggles reunited (including Debi Doss, Linda Allen and Bruce Wooley) at Wembley Arena to perform "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "The Plastic Age" in front of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales as part of a Prince's Trust charity concert celebrating Horn's career as a producer. Due to the success of the performance, Horn stated that he'd considered "getting the band back together".

In 2009 Horn produced the album Reality Killed The Video Star for British singer Robbie Williams. The album title pays homage to the trademark Buggles song, and Horn performed the song with Williams (Horn on bass, Williams on vocals) at the BBC Electric Proms on 20 October 2009.

The Buggles reunited again to play their first full-length live concert on 28 September 2010. The event, billed as "The Lost Gig", took place at "Ladbroke Grove's Supperclub", Notting Hill, London, and was a fund raiser with all earnings going to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability. Except "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "The Plastic Age" which the band had previously played together, "The Lost Gig" saw the first live performances of all songs from The Age of Plastic, and included Bruce Woolley performing vocals with Horn on "Clean, Clean", the only song that The Buggles wrote fully as a trio. Guest performers also included former 10cc guitarist (and Horn's bandmate from Producers), Lol Creme for a version of "Rubber Bullets", followed by "I'm Not in Love" sung by Chris Braide (who was also involved with Producers), as well as tributes to Horn's career as a record producer, including a version of Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm" with vocals by Alison Moyet. The concert also included guest appearances by Gary Barlow singing "Hard to Handle" as well as Richard O'Brien. "Johnny On The Monorail" was played as "Johnny On The Monorail (A Very Different Version)", a reprise of the original with a faster tempo released as a B-side to "Elstree", which can be found on the 2000 re-release of The Age of Plastic. The concert finished off with an encore of "Video Killed the Radio Star" featuring backing vocals by a member of the audience that won an auction. The opening act of the night were Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Following 2010 discussions with Chris Squire, Horn produced the 2011 Yes album Fly From Here, the bulk of whose forty-seven-minute duration comprises unused or incomplete Buggles material from the early 1980s (particularly "We Can Fly from Here"), reminiscent of the use of the Buggles' I am a Camera for "Into the Lens" on Drama during their first stint in 1980. He thus insisted that Downes play keyboards on the album (replacing Oliver Wakeman, son of Rick Wakeman) and Horn himself played and sang backing vocals on the album. The album's group photograph prominently features Horn standing centre, signifying that to all intents he was considered the 6th band member for the recording. The Fly From Here tour did not feature Horn.

In October 2011, a reunited Buggles performed at the British Music Experience at the O2 Bubble, London. They were to be joined once again by Horn's Producers bandmates Steve Lipson and Lol Creme to take part in a Q&A session, and Alison Moyet appeared again as a guest vocalist. The band performed a number of their own songs, including the first live rendition of "I am a Camera", making it the first song from Adventures in Modern Recording to be performed live by the band itself. The Buggles also performed a version of David Bowie's 1969 hit, Space Oddity, as well as a tongue-in-cheek cover of Check It Out, a 2010 song by Nicki Minaj and will.i.am which heavily sampled Video Killed the Radio Star, involving Horn rapping will.i.am's sections. Kirsten Joy, Holly Petrie and Kate Westall took on the roles of providing female vocals, and would go on to join the Producers, the gigs of which heavily borrowed from this Buggles concert.

As of 2012, Horn is working with Producers on their début album, and Downes continues to work with both Yes and Asia. The Buggles are no longer officially active.