Last night, producer Trevor Horn reconvened The Buggles at tiny Supperclub London for what he billed as the band’s first-ever full live performance, a guest-filled, front-to-back reading of the long-dormant group’s 1980 debut album The Age of Plastic, plus other assorted fan favorites from the early ’80s.
The biggest surprise, though, came at the end of “The Lost Gig” — a benefit for London’s Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability — when Horn and Co. gamely attempted to cover the newly released single “Check It Out!” by Nicki Minaj and will.i.am, which heavily samples the Buggles’ signature hit “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
Before launching into it, Horn says, “Excuse me Will, I mean I’m not the world’s greatest rapper.” And as the clip posted above amply demonstrates, no, he’s not. You can also see the Buggles play their own version of “Video Killed the Radio Star” — the song, of course, that quite literally launched MTV — from earlier in the show, and more, below.
According to this account of the show, the band — Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley — were joined by Alison Moyet, who performed Yazoo’s “Only You” and a cover of Grace Jones’ “Slave to the Rhythm.” Other guests included Richard O’Brien, who sang “Super Heroes” and “The Time Warp” from “The Rocky Horror Show”; and Take That singer Gary Barlow, who pitched in on the Otis Redding classic “Hard to Handle.”
The night began with an opening set by another reunited ’80s synthpop act, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, which played old hits and new cuts from its just-released History of Modern — and who were joined by Claudia Brücken of Propaganda to perform “Duel.”
See more video from the Buggles’ ‘Lost Gig’ after the jump…
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
they’re probably thinking “why didn’t we ever do this before?”