In 1981, Horn became a full-time producer, working on successful songs and albums for acts including Yes, Dollar, ABC, Malcolm McLaren, Grace Jones and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

[4][8] His father was a maintenance engineer at the neighbouring dairy[9] and a professional musician who played the double bass in the Joe Clarke Big Band during the week.

[4] At around eight years of age, Horn took up the double bass and was taught the basics by his father, including the concept of playing triads.

In his early teens, Horn filled in for his father on the double bass in the Joe Clarke band when he was late for a gig.

[10] He also put on a Bob Dylan imitation act for two nights a week "with a harmonica around my neck", and played the bass at odd gigs.

[4] Horn's parents pleaded with him to try one more job, but three months into his role as a progress chaser in a plastic bag factory, he was fired.

[10] At 21, Horn relocated to London and took up work by playing in a band which involved re-recording top 20 songs for BBC radio due to the needle time restrictions then in place.

[11] Horn also joined the Canterbury Tales, a group based in Margate, and spent time in Denmark where he ended up broke.

[5] At 24, Horn began work in Leicester, where he had a nightly gig playing bass at a nightclub and helped construct a recording studio.

He played bass in Nick North and Northern Lights, a cabaret and covers band, which also featured the keyboardist Geoff Downes and the singer Tina Charles.

[1][25] Other artists that Horn worked with included Woolley, John Howard,[1][26] Dusty Springfield ("Baby Blue"),[11] and the Jags ("Back of My Hand").

[citation needed] The Buggles' debut single, "Video Killed the Radio Star", was released in September 1979 and reached No.

[citation needed] Though Dollar were a middle-of-the-road band with little credibility, Horn saw an opportunity to combine the electronic music of Kraftwerk and the crooner Vince Hill.

[30] The music journalist Alexis Petridis said that The Dollar Album "mapped out ... the sonic future of 80s pop", with "booming drums, high-drama synthesisers and sampled voices".

[30] In 1983, Horn co-formed the band the Art of Noise, co-writing several hits including "Close (To the Edit)", "Beat Box", "Moments in Love", and "Slave to the Rhythm".

[39] In the late 1980s,[14] Horn relocated to Bel Air, Los Angeles, where he established Sarm West Coast LA, a residential recording studio.

This began a multi-album collaboration which Horn reasoned down to his liking of Seal's voice and a "musical empathy" with how he works and the songs he writes.

[33] At this stage of his career, Horn had lost his enthusiasm for producing 12-inch mixes of songs, and he brought in other remixers to make them while concentrating on albums.

[citation needed] Horn collaborated with the composer Hans Zimmer to produce the score for the 1992 film Toys, which included interpretations by Tori Amos, Thomas Dolby, Pat Metheny and Wendy & Lisa.

[citation needed] Horn co-wrote "Everybody Up", the theme song to the comedy series The Glam Metal Detectives broadcast on BBC2 in 1995.

[47] For the 2000 film Coyote Ugly, Horn produced "Can't Fight the Moonlight" by the American singer LeAnn Rimes.

Horn co-wrote "Sound the Bugle", performed by Bryan Adams and featured on the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack and produced 3 tracks (La Sombra del Gigante, Un Angel No Es and Mujer Amiga Mia) of Stilelibero (Freestyle) Estilolibre by Eros Ramazzotti, released on 29 May 2001.

Horn, known for using electronic equipment to transform music, was seen as a surprising choice for Belle and Sebastian, who were described by the Guardian as "the last living purveyors of arts-and-crafts indie values".

[citation needed] Horn produced the ninth album by the synth-pop duo the Pet Shop Boys, Fundamental, released in May 2006.

[citation needed] On 25 June 2006, Sinclair was accidentally hit by a pellet from an air gun, causing irreversible brain damage and paralysing her.

[53][54] The following year, Horn sold their Sarm Hook End residential studio for £12 million and relocated to Primrose Hill, London.

[40][41][42] For the 2008 movie Wanted (starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie), Horn produced Danny Elfman's vocals on the closing credits song "The Little Things".

[56] The album title references the Buggles song and Horn and Williams' mutual disdain for reality television and music contest programmes.

In late 2017, Horn's Sarm West Coast residential studio in Bel Air, Los Angeles, was destroyed in the Skirball Fire.

[69] Musicians and producers including Gary Barlow, DJ Shadow and Nigel Godrich cite Horn as an influence.