ZTT Records 1983-1988 Part 1: A History
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Video Killed The Radio Star
In 1983, after his success with Yes and Buggles Trevor Horn launched his own record label: Zang Tuum Tumb1 (ZTT), named after the sound of machine-gun fire as described by the Italian futurist Russulo. He quickly appointed his wife Jill Sinclair (who ran Sarm West recording studios in London) as Managing Director, and the pop journalist Paul Morley as Marketing Executive. Horn himself took care of the music side of the business.
Almost as a side project Horn and Morley formed Art of Noise together with three studio-based musicians. The first ZTT release (September 1983) was entitled Into Battle with the Art of Noise and was a rather bizarre 'albumette' (EP to you and me) that came complete with pseudo-intellectual sleeve notes written by Morley (these and the song titles were his only contribution to the group). The sleeve notes along with the striking artwork and graphics set a trend for ZTT releases that was followed for 5 years.
Artists
The first three artists to be signed to ZTT were Art of Noise, German pop group Propaganda and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. During their first few years ZTT achieved an unprecedented amount of success for a fledgling record company, largely through Frankie Goes To Hollywood, although the successes of the other two artists should not be ignored (three UK top-30 singles and two UK top-30 LPs). Horn's commitment, though, was towards Frankie with whom he spent much of his time in the studio, so much so in fact that the others often found themsleves having to wait around, either for him or a vacant studio. This was a contibutory factor in both the demise of Propaganda and Art of Noise's split from ZTT2 within three years.
ZTT continued to extend its reach far beyond 'pop' territories the other artists signed were avant-garde composer Andrew Poppy, French chanteuse Anne Pigalle and Instinct. None of these repeated the commercial success of the label's first signings, although a version of the Andrew Poppy song The Object is a Hungry Wolf was used the the title music for the last series of The Tube3.
It was once said that ZTT made two kinds of music: music that was art, and music that was money. Looking at and listening to the artists featured on the label it is not hard to see the sense of this statement, although quite which category Art of Noise fall into is debatable.
Branching Out
In June 1985 ZTT put on a showcase event at the Ambassador's Theatre in London's West End which featured all of their signed artists except Frankie. During the evening Paul Morley explained that 'A spanner is intrinsically more interesting than the lead singer of Tears for Fears.' somehow in reference to Art of Noise. A programme for the night was available (The Value of Entertainment) and later a video was released (Time Capsule Version). This event also led to the release of a ZTT compilaton LP IQ6: Sampled which, this time, featured all six ZTT artists and included the only Instinct ZTT release, extracts from Paul Morley's discourses during the event plus a track by Frankie (Disneyland) that was until 2001 unavailable anywhere else.
In partnership with Island Records (who manufactured and distributed ZTT releases) the label achieved international recognition. This allowed them to venture away from their artists, such as releasing the soundtrack and handling all advertising for Nicholas Roeg's film Insignificance, which they dubbed 'the story of life, death, sex and the universe ... relatively speaking.' The LP in question was titled The Shape of the Universe: A Souvenir of Insignificance (in keeping with ZTT's long-winded style) and featured a solitary ZTT artist, namely Claudia Brucken of Propaganda . The rest of the LP was filled by artists such as Stanley Myers, Hans Zimmer and Roy Orbison whose Wild Hearts was issued as a single.
Trevor Horn had gained a huge amount of recognition and/or notoriety from his work with Frankie, at the centre of which was the 'Who has the talent?' debate swinging back and forth between band and producer. This did not stop Island Records enlisting his talents to produce Slave to the Rhythm, Grace Jones' 1985 LP that was released by Island through ZTT.
1988 And All That
When Frankie returned to the public eye in late 1986 with their second LP there was hope that ZTT would also see a return to the level of success they had enjoyed up until 1985. Sadly, this was not be to - by that time all of the acts featured on IQ6: Sampled had either split or left ZTT, having been replaced by by Das Psych-Oh Rangers (a kind of sub-Sigue Sigue Sputnik led by Troy Tempest), Nasty Rox Inc. (who featured an ex-member of M/A/R/R/S) and Act (Claudia Brucken's new band with Thomas Leer). In fact only one non-Frankie single made the top-75 UK singles chart and Frankie themselves (whose first four singles all reached the top 2) only had one more top-10 hit.
1988 proved to be a pivotal year for ZTT Records. Paul Morley had quit ZTT in favour of a return to journalism4 and ZTT's infamous court case against Frankie also took place in 1988 which diverted Horn away from the studio. Gallup (the organisation responsible for compiling the UK charts) ruled in 1988 that only four formats for any one single would be eligible for the charts, thus almost stifling ZTT and Horn's brand of musical artistry. All this, combined with the ZTT's split from Island Records, brought to an end one of the most intense periods of music marketing.
Since 1988 ZTT have rebuilt themselves around new signings such as Seal and 808 State and in them have found considerable success, but in doing so have become a 'mainstream' record company rather than the uncompromising organisation that set out to change the world of music. For further information on the label's current state of affairs visit ztt.com.
For the Collectors
ZTT's radical approach to marketing shook the music industry in several ways. Most apparent was the artistic approach to record sleeves and band propaganda - the lack of band pictures on record covers, the enigmatic sleeve notes written by Morley, the 'Frankie Say...' t-shirts, etc. But also there were seemingly endless remixes of ZTT singles - Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Relax single was released in at least ten different formats/versions. If there was such a thing as a 'cool' record label, ZTT was it.
ZTT were pioneers not only of the 12" remix but also of another new format: the cassette single. Their 'singlettes'5 were very different to the current equivalent: rather than having the same content as the 7" (or 12") of a single ZTT cassette singles had their own titles and contained a variety of remixes and b-sides (some exclusive to the format) arranged into a mix usually 20 minutes or more in length. From 1986 onwards CD singles were treated similarly by the label.
As well as the plethora of remixes available for singles the vast majority of ZTT 'releases' (a term used loosely) were designated a part in one or more of a series, presumably to attract the attention of collectors. To the casual observer the series' were undetectable, however on closer inspection they became more apparent. Membership of a series was either explicitly stated (amongst Paul Morley's gumph) on the record sleeve or intimated through the record's catalogue number. The two most obvious series were the Action Series and the Incidental Series.
Action Series
The most important of the series was the Action Series, which seemed to contain the releases likely to be commercially successful. Action Series numbers were given to all LP and most single releases, the same number being applied to most formats for each release, so number one in the Action Series (Frankie's Relax single) included all the 7"s and 12"s. The singles all contained the letters 'AS' in their catalogue numbers to signify their place in the Action Series - the accompanying number also being its Action Series designation. For example, the 7" of Number 1 in ZTT's Action Series had the catalogue number 'ZTAS 1', whereas the 12" was '12 ZTAS 1'. Note that the Action Series also contained a booklet and a concert.
Incidental Series
The Incidental Series included singles, LPs, videos and even actors. This was similar to the 'FAC' numbers given by Factory Records to records, posters and even their Hacienda nightclub (FAC 51). Unlike Factory though, these numbers were ascribed non-chronologically in a random fashion. Most IS numbers were used once and once only, so the 7" and 12" of a single usually had different designations (as did different sleeves for the same record), unlike the Action Series numbers. Some catalogue numbers of singles contained the letters 'IS', however, because of the size and scope of the Incidental Series its content is not indicated here.
Releases 1983-1988
This entry lists ZTT UK releases during the period 1983-1988, with the left-hand column indicating its place in the Action Series, if it had one. For a complete listing of ZTT UK releases, including the various formats used, see Part 2 of this ZTT series. [Note to Sub-Ed (if it gets that far) - Part 2 is really an appendix to this entry and on its own is probably rather dull, but it could be of interest to someone who reads Part 1. I don't think it would get through PR but should, in my opinion, be linked to this one. What shall I do with it?]
Unless otherwise indicated, all releases listed below were singles.
| AS No. | Artist | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Art Of Noise | Into Battle with the Art of Noise (EP) | Sep. 1983 |
| 1 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Relax | Oct. 1983 |
| 2 | Propaganda | Dr Mabuse | Feb. 1984 |
| - | Art Of Noise | Beat Box | Mar. 1984 |
| 3 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Two Tribes | May 1984 |
| - | Art Of Noise | Close (to the edit) | May 1984 |
| 4 | Frankie Goes to Hollywood | Welcome to the Pleasuredome (LP) | Oct. 1984 |
| 11 | Art Of Noise | Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise (LP) | Oct. 1984 |
| 5 | Frankie Goes to Hollywood | The Power of Love | Nov. 1984 |
| 6 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | And Suddenly There Came A Bang! (Booklet) | Dec. 1984 |
| 7 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Welcome to the Pleasuredome | Mar. 1985 |
| - | Anne Pigalle | Hé Stranger | Mar. 1985 |
| - | Art of Noise | Moments in Love | Apr. 1985 |
| 8 | Propaganda | Duel | Apr. 1985 |
| 9 | Roy Orbison | Wild Hearts | June 1985 |
| 10 | Various | The Value of Entertainment (Live Concert) | June 1985 |
| 12 | Propaganda | p:Machinery | July 1985 |
| 13 | Propaganda | A Secret Wish (LP) | July 1985 |
| 14 | Various | The Shape of the Universe (LP) | Aug. 1985 |
| 15 | Glenn Gregory/Claudia Brucken | When Your Heart Runs Out of Time | Aug. 1985 |
| - | Grace Jones | Slave to the Rhythm | Sep. 1985 |
| 16 | Grace Jones | Slave to the Rhythm (A Biography) (LP) | Oct. 1985 |
| 17 | Andrew Poppy | The Beating of Wings (LP) | Oct. 1985 |
| 18 | Various | IQ6: Sampled (LP) | Oct. 1985 |
| 19 | Anne Pigalle | Everything Could be so Perfect (LP) | Oct. 1985 |
| 20 | Propaganda | Wishful Thinking (LP) | Nov. 1985 |
| - | Anne Pigalle | Why Does it Have to be This Way? | Nov. 1985 |
| 21 | Propaganda | p:Machinery (Reactivated) | Nov. 1985 |
| 24 | Das Psych-Oh Rangers | Starve God There's Choice (EP) | Apr. 1986 |
| 22 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Rage Hard | Aug. 1986 |
| - | Andrew Poppy | 32 Frames | Sep. 1986 |
| 23 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Liverpool (LP) | Oct. 1986 |
| 25 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Warriors of the Wasteland | Nov. 1986 |
| - | Art of Noise | Daft (LP) | Dec. 1986 |
| 26 | Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Watching the Wildlife | Feb. 1987 |
| - | Andrew Poppy | The Amusement | Mar. 1987 |
| 27 | Andrew Poppy | Alphabed (A Mystery Dance) (LP) | Apr. 1987 |
| 28 | Act | Snobbery and Decay | May 1987 |
| - | Art of Noise | Moments in Love | June 1987 |
| - | Act | Absolutely Immune | Sept. 1987 |
| - | Act | I Can't Escape From You | Mar. 1988 |
| - | Nasty Rox Inc. | Escape From New York | May. 1988 |
| - | Act | Laughter, Tears and Rage (LP) | Jul. 1988 |
References/Sources
- Lazlo's Discography Machine - incredible!
- Ian Peel in Record Collector magazine, issues 110-112 (Oct-Dec 1988)
- Jörg Fitzner's FiSONIC Site
- Catwoman's record collection
1If you look carefully on ZTT records there are variations of Zang Tuum Tumb, including 'Zang Tuumb Tumb', 'Zang Tumb Tuum', 'Zangy Tuumy Tumby' and 'Zang Tumb Tang'.2Horn and Morley remained working at ZTT - the other three members left and took the band name with them.3The Tube was a TV music show broadcast in the UK during the 1980s.4Morley was married to Claudia Brucken (by then a member of Act.) which, he felt, interfered with their relationships to the label.5The sleeve of the cassette version of The Power of Love states 'This cassette is not a "cassingle" anybody who calls it such will be shot.'
