40 Fun Facts About Art of Noise

Which Welsh singer fronted Art of Noise's 1988 cover of Prince's 'Kiss' after adding the song to his Las Vegas show?

Tom Jones gave the group its biggest hit, reaching number 5 in the UK, higher than Prince's original had climbed there. The group contacted him after seeing him perform the song on TV.

Which pioneer of 'twangy' 1950s guitar played on Art of Noise's Grammy-winning 1986 version of 'Peter Gunn'?

Duane Eddy had taken the same tune into the charts back in 1959, so the collaboration revisited a riff he had made his own 27 years earlier.

Which composer of the Pink Panther theme wrote 'Peter Gunn', the TV detective tune Art of Noise turned into a 1986 hit?

Henry Mancini wrote it for the television series Peter Gunn, and the pianist pounding out the riff on his original recording was a young John Williams.

Which 1980s TV character supplied the vocals on Art of Noise's 1986 single 'Paranoimia'?

Max Headroom was really actor Matt Frewer in prosthetic make-up, not computer graphics. He recorded different monologues for the 7-inch and 12-inch versions of the single.

Art of Noise's Trevor Horn found fame in which band, whose 1979 chart-topper was the first video shown on MTV?

The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' topped the UK chart in 1979, then opened MTV's very first broadcast in August 1981.

Art of Noise grew out of a scrapped drum riff sampled during sessions for 90125, a 1983 album by which rock band?

Yes drummer Alan White played the discarded riff, which two of the studio team loaded whole into a sampler and then layered with non-musical sounds.

Which dreamy Art of Noise instrumental played as Madonna walked down the aisle at her 1985 wedding to Sean Penn?

Moments in Love runs for more than ten minutes on the group's debut album and has been sampled by Drake, LL Cool J and J Dilla.

Art of Noise earned a writing credit on which 1996 Prodigy number one, which samples a shout from their 1984 hit?

Firestarter was the Prodigy's first UK number one, and its looped guitar riff, taken from a Breeders track, put Kim Deal on the credits too.

Which 1997 British comedy won Art of Noise keyboardist Anne Dudley the Oscar for best musical or comedy score?

The Full Monty, about six unemployed steelworkers who form a striptease act, earned her the Academy Award in 1998.

Art of Noise recorded the theme for a 1987 comedy with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks, based on which US police show?

Dragnet began on radio before moving to television, and the group's reworking of its famous theme reached number 60 in the UK.

Which car, owned by a band member's neighbour, is heard stalling and restarting on Art of Noise's first UK top-ten hit?

A Volkswagen Golf supplied the revving-engine riff, which critic Simon Reynolds linked to Kraftwerk's idea of the car as a musical instrument.

Which Australian-built sampling computer was the key instrument behind Art of Noise's early sound?

Fairlight CMI instruments took their name from a hydrofoil ferry on Sydney Harbour, and let musicians play short digital recordings from a piano-style keyboard.

Art of Noise took their name from a 1913 manifesto by the painter Luigi Russolo, a member of which art movement?

Futurism celebrated speed, technology and the industrial city, and the manifesto argued that music should embrace such sounds. The band simply dropped the final letter of its title.

Art of Noise's 1983 debut EP was the very first release on which label, co-founded by producer Trevor Horn?

ZTT Records launched with the EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise, and in the 1990s the label broke the singer Seal.

Which Art of Noise single, their first UK top-ten hit, won two prizes at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards?

Close (to the Edit) took Most Experimental Video and Best Editing, and its punning title nods to a 1972 progressive rock album, Close to the Edge.

Art of Noise's 1984 video of a punk girl smashing instruments was filmed on which disused New York railway?

The High Line was an abandoned freight viaduct when Polish director Zbigniew Rybczyński filmed there; it opened as a park in phases from 2009.

Which country banned Art of Noise's instrument-smashing 1984 video, claiming it encouraged violence towards children?

New Zealand's ban surprised Anne Dudley, who called it a fun video and said nothing could have been further from the group's minds.

Art of Noise's 1986 hit version of 'Peter Gunn' won the group a Grammy Award in which category?

Best Rock Instrumental Performance went to the group and their guest guitarist at the 1987 ceremony; the category's first winners were Paul McCartney and Wings.

Art of Noise recorded the theme used from 1986 to 1993 by which British game show testing mental and physical ability?

The Krypton Factor also used short pieces by the group to introduce each of its six rounds.

Art of Noise's 1999 reunion album was a concept record about the life of which French impressionist composer?

Claude Debussy's music was blended with drum and bass, opera and hip hop on the album, which the group called the soundtrack to a film that was never made.

Which English actor, Oscar-nominated for The Elephant Man, narrated Art of Noise's 1999 reunion album?

John Hurt provided the spoken narration, sharing the guest list with soprano Sally Bradshaw and singer Donna Lewis.

Which New York rapper, the voice of the 1987 album Paid in Full, guested on Art of Noise's 1999 single 'Metaforce'?

Rakim, who made his name in a duo with DJ Eric B, had once told producer Trevor Horn that his favourite Horn recording was an early instrumental by the group.

Guitarist Lol Creme, who joined Art of Noise for their 1999 reunion, co-founded which band behind 'Rubber Bullets'?

10cc lost him in 1976, when he and drummer Kevin Godley left to work as a duo and went on to direct music videos.

Art of Noise's studio team also built 'Relax', a 1984 UK number one for which Liverpool band on the same label?

Frankie Goes to Hollywood topped the chart with 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes', both made with Trevor Horn producing and the group's sampling specialist programming.

Before forming Art of Noise, Trevor Horn's studio team made The Lexicon of Love, the 1982 debut album by which band?

ABC's album was where Anne Dudley wrote her first string arrangements, and where the team used a sampler for touches such as a cash register bell.

Future Art of Noise members worked on Duck Rock, the album featuring 'Buffalo Gals', for which punk impresario?

Malcolm McLaren's album was produced by Trevor Horn with the group's future members in his studio team, and Anne Dudley shares a writing credit on the single.

Which star of The Young Ones played a spoof private eye in the video for Art of Noise's version of 'Peter Gunn'?

Rik Mayall sent up film noir detectives in the clip, and the tune later became the theme of the BBC wildlife series Bill Oddie's Wild Side.

On the 12-inch of Art of Noise's 'Paranoimia', which tennis champion is jokingly named as the band's 'bassline' player?

Martina Navratilova is there for a pun on a tennis court's baseline; the same spoof introduction puts Cher on mic and the Pope on drums.

Which 1986 album, Art of Noise's first after leaving Trevor Horn's label, includes 'Paranoimia' and 'Legs'?

In Visible Silence was made by the trio who kept the name after the split, and a concert version was filmed at London's Hammersmith Odeon.

After splitting from Trevor Horn in 1985, Art of Noise's remaining trio signed to which British label?

China Records released everything from the group's second album to their 1989 farewell, then kept issuing remix compilations after they disbanded.

Which former NME journalist named Art of Noise and later joked that he was the group's Ringo Starr?

Paul Morley supplied concepts, art direction and marketing ideas rather than music, and also helped found the group's first label.

Which Art of Noise track, a favourite of American breakdancers, topped the US dance chart in 1984?

Beat Box was built on a drum pattern sampled from a rock session, and its club success led many Americans to assume the faceless group was black.

To keep attention on the music rather than a fashion image, what did early Art of Noise members wear in photos?

Masks kept the group faceless until about 1986, when two members began appearing bare-faced in photographs, to the dismay of some fans.

Art of Noise's 1989 single 'Yebo!' featured the singer Mahlathini and which South African vocal group?

Mahotella Queens and Mahlathini, stars of the township style mbaqanga, sing on three tracks of the group's fourth album.

The statue on the cover of Art of Noise's debut album was photographed in a monumental cemetery in which Italian city?

Genoa's Staglieno cemetery, famous for its monumental funerary sculpture, supplied the image, which shows a family tomb.

Art of Noise's version of the James Bond theme was submitted for, and rejected by, which 1989 Bond film?

Licence to Kill, Timothy Dalton's second and last outing as 007, went without it, so the track became a bonus on the group's 1989 album.

Art of Noise co-founder Gary Langan began his career as assistant engineer on which 1975 UK number one by Queen?

Bohemian Rhapsody was among his first jobs after starting at Sarm East Studios aged 18, where he assisted on three Queen albums.

Art of Noise's Anne Dudley scored every episode of which ITV comedy starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie?

Jeeves and Wooster ran from 1990 to 1993, with Laurie as the amiable Bertie and Fry as his highly competent valet.

Anne Dudley of Art of Noise was music producer on the 2012 film version of which stage musical?

Les Misérables also had her arranging the score and composing some new additional music for the screen.

Before Art of Noise, J. J. Jeczalik's sampling experiments featured on The Dreaming, a 1982 album by which singer?

Kate Bush had already used his programming on her 1981 single 'Sat in Your Lap', which reached number 11 in the UK.