Album: Made in Basing Street
Artist: Producers
2012 The LAST Label (ZTT Recordings Ltd.)
CD: LAST10
Trevor Horn: lead vocals (3, 13), vocals
(1, 5, 8), Vocoder (5), backing vocals (2, 6, 7, 10), acoustic
guitar (3), bass (all), marimba (8)
Lol Creme: vocals (7), backing vocals (1-4, 6, 8-10), keys (4),
guitar (1-3), electric guitar (5-10), acoustic guitar (6, 7, 10),
nylon guitar (5), bass (3), marimba (1, 8)
Steve Lipson: electric guitar (1-6, 8-10), acoustic guitar (1-4,
6-8, 10), mandolin (2, 7), slide guitar (7), bass (4), percussion
(2), backing vocals (1, 6), programming (1, 3-6, 8-10)
Ash Soan: acoustic guitar (7), drums (1-6, 8-10), percussion (4, 6,
7, 9, 10)
Chris Braide: vocals (1, 2, 7, 9, 10), keys (1-7, 9, 10), acoustic
guitar (2, 4, 6, 10), drums (7), glockenspiel (3), backing vocals
(3, 4, 6, 8)
Geoff Downes: keys (2-9), organ (all),
Rhodes (2-4, 8), piano (3-9)
Ryan Molloy: vocals (1, 3, 4, 6), backing vocals (2)
Kirsten Joy: backing vocals (1)
Kate Westall: backing vocals (1)
Luís Jardim: percussion (3, 7)
Lucy Monaghan: giggle girl (6)
Simon Bloor: glockenspiel (8)
Mixed by Lipson (1-3, 6-10), Heff Moraes (1), Robert Orton (1-6, 9,
10), Tim Weidner (1, 5-9)
Recorded at Sarm Studios, Notting Hill, London (all); Sarm
West Coast, LA (2, 8); Capitol Studios, LA (5)
Mastered by John Davis and Tim Young
Artwork design by Mark Jessett; photos by David Bailey and Steve
Moulin
All songs written and produced by Braide/Creme/Horn/Lipson/Soan
Tracks:
CD1:
1. "Freeway" (5:14)
2. "Waiting for the Right Time" (4:15)
3. "Your Life" (6:26)
4. "Man on the Moon" (4:02)
5. "Every Single Night in Jamaica" (5:16)
6. "Stay Elaine" (3:44)
7. "Barking Up the Right Tree" (3:21)
8. "Garden of Flowers" (4:14)
9. "Watching You Out There" (5:35)
10. "You & I" (5:47)
CD2 (2CD deluxe version):
11. "Your Life (extended version)" (7:40)
12. "Garden of Flowers (alternative)" (5:53)
13. "Seven" (3:50)
14. "There's Only So Much You Can Do" (3:29)
15. "Freeway (12" extended version)", followed, after a space, by a
hidden instrumental version of "Two Tribes" (12:06 in total)
Notes (*****): As The Producers, the band long consisted of Horn
(bass, vocals), Lipson (guitar), Creme (guitar, vocals), Braide
(keys, vocals) and Soan (drums). Lipson, Creme, Soan and Langan all
commonly appear on Horn's productions. For example, they all worked
on Escala's eponymous debut; Horn and
Lipson worked together on Jeff Beck's Emotion & Commotion;
Soan appeared on the Horn-produced Aviv
Geffen; and Horn, Soan, Braide and Creme are all on
Robbie Williams' Reality
Killed the Video Star. Horn, Creme, Braide and Soan were
all in The Buggles line-up for a 2010 show, while Lipson and Creme
were there for a 2011 show, and The Buggles' set contained elements
from Producers' usual set (as described below).
The band was formed by Horn and Lipson (who originally came up with
the idea) and Creme to provide a live alternative to their usual
studio work; they then brought in Soan and Braide. Braide was the
main vocalist, but Horn and Creme sang lead on some songs. The
original idea for the band was as a low-key, live, covers project
(with material reflecting the band members' pasts and songs they
liked), a 'pub band'. The group first assembled for one evening in
Lipson's studio. (A Jun 2012 Sunday Times article says: "They
[Producers] started talking about recording an album 10 years ago,
and again when they played a gig at Wembley, a Prince's Trust event
to honour Horn's 25 years as a producer. But it wasn't until 2006
that they got started on it, [quoting Horn] "because of the tragedy
[of his wife's accident]. I think that sort of pushed us into it.
Everybody getting together turned out to be therapeutic".) Horn then
suggested that, as they were getting on so well, they record their
own material. They then began recording a debut album in Dec 2006 at
Hook End Studios; Horn describes in the album's electronic press kit
how they "wrote ten songs in a couple of weeks", while Creme says in
the Mar 2012 interview that most songs on the album were written in
a 2-3 week period. Horn then sold Hook End and recording moved to
Sarm Studios. In a Apr 2012 interview for BBC Radio Scotland, Horn
said, "We more or less made the album in two weeks, five years ago,
in January." He then went on to explain that the modern demands of
releasing and marketing an album (so as to reach a significant
audience) was "daunting" for them, delaying them. Lipson has
described the album as recorded "basically live" in Apr 2012
interviews. In the Mar 2012 interview, Soan explained that the album
took so long to finish because of everyone's busy schedules.
In Jul 2026, Braide released a commentary on the material on
Bandcamp, My Basing Street Recollections, to accompany his
album Producer in which he
re-recorded many of the songs. He described "Freeway" as having been
"written in one sitting, alone in my young son's bedroom". He was
working from a "rough musical sketch" that Creme had "put together",
which was "a driving loop, a little descending/ascending piano
figure, but no harmonic movement underneath it". He worked out the
two piano chords in that and the piece "took on the feel of a
locomotive" for him, with the rhythm suggesting "endless movement",
which led him to quickly write a lyric. He played it to the others
"the following day, in Sarm West Studios". "Waiting for the Right
Time" began with chorus chords from Creme and a verse progression
and the melody from Braide. They sketched the track together, before
Braide took it away to write the lyric on his own. This lyric came
out of Braide's experience having a young family at the time and
wondering if there would ever be "a perfect moment to make the big
decisions", but "there rarely is a right time" and the song
encourages the listener to trust their instincts. "Your Life" grew
out of a band jam in studio 1, taking shape over several hours.
Braide improvised melodies with nonsense lyrics, coming up with the
phrase, "Your life". Horn later wrote the verse lyric. Lipson
suggested multitracking multiple backing vocals. "Man on the Moon"
was written by Braide and Creme at the piano in studio 1. Creme
brought in the verse chord sequence and Braide had the progression
for the "I think I know what it's like" section. Braide took the
piece away and wrote a lyric called "You Might be Right". However,
the following day Soan was in the studio and conversation "drifted
to the Apollo moon landings", with Soan joking that they were faked
and Armstrong had never been to the moon. Creme responded that he
had watched the moon landing. They (presumably Braide and Creme)
abandoned the lyric that had been written and wrote a new one, about
loneliness. "Every Single Night in Jamaica" began as a live jam
around the piano, with Braide singing "phonetic ideas", including
the lines, "How does it feel?" and "My heart's not in it at all."
Horn later added the verse lyric, "drawing on thoughts that seemed
quite personal to where he was in his life at the time". The opening
keyboard riff was by Braide, which Lipson said reminded him of Duran
Duran to Braide's bafflement. "Stay Elaine" began late in an evening
at Hook End Manor, where sessions had moved from Basing Street.
Braide had a chord sequence on acoustic guitar and played this to
Lipson. The two jammed together. Lipson then suggested the band
record the track live in the studio, which they did. Braide came up
with the line, "Won't you stay with me." The lyric later evolved to
"Stay Elaine". Elaine isn't any particular person, just a name that
fit the lyric. "Watching You Out There" began as a studio jam
inspired by the atmosphere of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to
Rule the World", which the band played in their live sets. The song
is about "a fading pop star and a fan watching their world slowly
slip away." One line, "That big machine will break you in the end,"
evolved into, "That big machine will save you in the end." Braide's
lyric began with the phrase, "What in the world are you gonna do?"
and built around that. "You and I" began with three chords by Lipson
on a synth pad on his laptop. Braide came up with an acoustic guitar
figure that "deliberately nodded to "Goodbye Blue Sky" from Pink
Floyd's The Wall." Soan came up with a drum groove and
Braide began improvising lyrics. Braide described his work as
feeling like "a lonely Northern lyric", and said Horn later added a
few lines, including the phrase, "The army's standing by".
The band wrote more material than used on the album. In Mar 2008,
they announced they had finished mixing the album and that release
under the title Studio 1 would follow on Stiff Records
(sister label to ZTT). Album tracks for Studio 1 were to be:
"Freeway", "Waiting for the Right Time", "Watching You Out There",
"Your Life" (Horn on lead vocals), "Barking Up the Right Tree", "You
& I", "Stay Elaine", "Man on the Moon" (Braide on lead vocals),
"Music From BelAir" (inspired by Horn's time as a homeowner in
California). "Seven" was played live. However, by Jun 2008, the band
were back recording and the album was entitled Watching You Out
There and to be released on a different label. Braide then
left the group "in 2009 due to my relocating to LA" (as he said) and
the band, under the leadership of Horn and Creme, changed their name
to Us (or US) with an album due called The Path of Sydney Arthur,
a concept piece based around the fictional life story of a man born
on the same day as the first Moon landing; an associated short video
promoting the new album name appeared on MySpace.
"You and I" was confirmed for The Path of Sydney Arthur. It
was unclear how much of the material or recordings for Studio 1
was to be carried over to The Path of Sydney Arthur given
Braide's departure, but some of the Braide co-written material was
been expected to be used. In a late 2009 interview, asked about The
Producers, Horn said: "we are called 'Us' now. [...] We are just
finishing off an album". Braide then re-joined for what was
described as a one-off show by The Producers in Oct 2009, and then
for another show in Jan 2010 (approximate set: unidentified song,
"Freeway", "Man on the Moon", "Rubber Bullets" (originally by 10cc),
"Your Life", "Watching You Out There", "Slave to the Rhythm" (with
guest vocalist; originally by Grace Jones), "Space Oddity"
(originally by David Bowie), "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
(originally by Tears for Fears), "Owner of a Lonely Heart"
(originally by Yes), "I'm Not in Love" (originally by 10cc),
unidentified Producers song, "Video Killed the Radio Star"
(originally by The Buggles), encore: "Freeway" again). On stage, the
band said they were still working on an album and they were aiming
for a 2010 release, suggesting a return to the original line-up.
In a Jul 2010 interview, Soan said, "In between the last three [Will
Young] shows I dropped into Sarm Studios to see how an album I'm
making with Trevor Horn, Steve Lipson and Lol Creme is getting on.
[...] The music is, dare I say it, slightly progressive and it
sounds very much like a Trevor Horn production." The Dec 2010 issue
of Classic Rock Presents... Prog said, "TREVOR HORN WILL
finally release his space rock project, US, in 2011, a project he's
been working on for three years." In the article, Horn goes on the
explain the album is, in part, about the nature of time. Listed as
Trevor Horn and The Producers, the band were one of the acts at an
exclusive London charity show in Mar 2011 with a new line-up of
Horn, Creme, Lipson, Soan and Geoff Downes. Tony Hadley & Gary
Kemp (Spandau Ballet), playing "Gold" and "Through the Barricades",
and Alison Moyet guested. The Nov 2011 Classic Rock Presents...
Prog then announced that the band was now called Producers (no
"The"), with the line-up as Horn, Braide, Creme, Lipson and Soan.
However, the article then continued:
And perhaps most intriguingly of all,
[...] [Horn] will final[ly] issue his space-rock concept album
about the meaning of Time, mooted back in 2010 and said to be a
combination of pop melody, ambient atmospherics, prog
technoflash and musicianly virtuosity.
Downes, in a Jul 2011 blog, spoke of "adding some keys parts to
[Horn']s 'Producers' project". In a Nov 2011 interview in Record
Collector, Horn referred to the band as "a six-piece",
possibly implying both Braide and Downes? Downes and Braide went on
to work together as the Downes Braide Association.
In a Mar 2012 interview, Soan explained that they stopped using the
name 'The Producers' because a number of other bands are already
called that. He went on: "We thought about changing it, completely
changing it and having a different sort of concept for the album.
That worked for a while. And then we went back to, 'Well, why don't
we call it Producers, without the 'The'.'"
The band were finishing work on the album and rehearsing in Feb
2012; previous recording work took place in Dec 2011 and over the
last 5 years. In a Mar 2012 interview, Creme described the album
writing process, saying they all "muddled in" and it was a "group
activity". Horn describes how some songs began with a riff from a
particular member, saying Creme had two riffs which both became
songs, while Creme described another song beginning with a chord
sequence on acoustic guitar from Soan. Creme described how some of
his ideas for the album go back some years, even pre-dating 10cc,
including the riff in "Freeway" that he first used on the 1970
Hotlegs album, Thinks: School Stinks. "Freeway" is about
driving into California's San Fernando valley and was based on an
original idea by Creme and Horn. "Waiting for the Right Time" was
based on an original riff by Creme. "Your Life" was also based on an
original riff by Creme, with a title by Braide, and lyrics by Horn
about his experiences following his wife's accident. "Man on the
Moon" was based on an original idea by Braide. "Every Single Night
in Jamaica" seems to be about Horn's wife too. "Stay Elaine" was
mainly written by Braide. "Barking Up the Right Tree" was based on a
guitar chord sequence by Soan and an accompanying upright bass line
by Braide, with a lyric mainly by Creme. "Garden of Flowers" was the
last song written for the album (summer 2011), based on an idea by
Horn about his wife. "Watching You Out There" (5:35) was mainly
written by Braide with Lipson; the lyrics are thematically a
continuation of the concept of the DBA album Pictures of You,
"of a fan watching his idol fall from grace. A Bolan type figure who
has it all, is beautiful but loses their way in the glare of fame."
In a Feb
2021 interview with Sonic Perspectives, Braide talked about
the writing of the album and his departure from the band:
We collaborated a bit, but I would
usually write the tunes for most of it. I think the only one I
didn’t really write that much was “Garden of Flowers“, but the
rest of it, I wrote all the tunes and I wrote all the lyrics for
“Freeway”, “Man on the Moon“, for example. It was a great
project, but I think it got a bit sour in the end in some ways,
because I left. Because I’d been doing it for four years, and I
eventually moved to the U.S. Yeah, it was unfortunate. They kept
trying to sort of say, Fly back and do some gigs or fly back and
do photos and that kind of thing. But at the time when they were
busy doing that, I was working with Sia and that really changed
my life in some ways, so it was the right move for me. They sort
of removed some of the vocals and that kind of thing, it all got
a little bit petty. But, it was great fun to write the album and
we did do some great games. We played the Albert Hall and some
really memorable private parties. We played Jeremy Clarkson‘s
50th birthday party and got Roger Daltrey up on stage with us.
It was quite funny because we’d rehearsed “My Generation” with
him and we got it down. Perfect. Okay, this is going to be
great. Roger gets up, we do “My Generation“, it goes without a
hitch. But he’s just so into it then that he starts suggesting
other songs for us to do, and we haven’t rehearsed them. So it
was a very interesting evening. I learnt a lot from it. It was
great. And I wouldn’t have met Geoff had I not been part of
that. But I’m still proud of some of the songs. Lol and I sat at
the piano and wrote “Man on the Moon“, I still love that song.
Every couple of years I bump into Trevor and he will say, We
should do a Producers gig. It’s one of those things. It’s always
like unfinished business in a way. In some ways, the five of us
are secretly really keen to get back in a room together. But
maybe some things should be left as a sort of a wish or dream or
whatever.
It's the "Your Life"/"Every Single Night..."/"Garden of Flowers"
trilogy in which Horn is coming to terms with his grief that are at
the core of this album for me, complementing also Horn's work on
Seal's 7. But there are also some happier love songs in
"Barking Up the Right Tree" and "Stay Elaine".
Along the way, the band released one single: "Barking Up the Right
Tree" (3:21; Creme on lead vocals, Horn on double bass), backed with
"Freeway" (5:55; Braide on lead vocals; different to the album
version), on Stiff Records (CDBUY270). The single was co-written and
co-produced by all five of the then band members. A number of songs
could be heard on their their MySpace page and at the Stiff Records
website. The band was managed by Luke Mitzman (Lipson's stepson).
This, the band's debut album, was released in the UK on The Last
Label (LAST1), an imprint of ZTT. A release date of 28 May 2012 in
the UK was announced, but the album was put back to 25 Jun. A
Japanese release on Sony Japan followed in Oct and a European
release came 23 Nov on India Media Group. A vinyl release followed
some time later. The Japanese release had two additional tracks:
"Broadway" (instrumental, written by Braide/Creme/Horn/Lipson/Soan)
and "Freeway" (live). The latter appears to have been recorded at
the Big Feastival appearance on 1 Sep 2012 with Molloy on lead
vocals.
A 12" vinyl of "Garden of Flowers" b/w "Freeway (12" extended
version)" (on The Last Label) was available from independent
stockists in the UK in connection with Record Store Day. A version
of the album made #26 in the UK Independent chart (1 Jul) and #3 in
the Independent Breakers chart (releases on independent labels by
artists who have never made the UK top 20).
The band played a short UK tour in Mar 2012, followed by various
dates in the UK and Japan in Jul-Sep. They also made numerous radio
and TV appearances in the UK promoting the album. In a Mar 2012
interview, Soan described the album as "prog-pop" and said some of
the material "wouldn't go amiss on a Yes album". The album release
was preceded by a 6-date English university tour 1-8 Mar (a format
suggested by Trevor's brother, Ken Horn). The touring band for the
Mar 2012 tour were Horn, Creme, Lipson and Soan, assisted by 2
keyboardists and 3 supporting vocalists. The vocalists were Joy,
Westall and Holly Petrie, all of whom sang with The Buggles at an
Oct 2011 show. The keyboardists were Hinton and Mike Gorman. Langan
was the live sound engineer. Each show was part of series of events
in association with music students at each institution, including a
Q&A with the students and one or two guest vocalists were picked
to sing on the encore of "Video Killed the Radio Show". Most of the
shows were for students only; some had limited tickets available to
the public. Approximate set for 6 Mar: "Video Killed the Radio Star"
(originally by The Buggles; lead vocals: Horn), "Two Tribes"
(Frankie Goes to Hollywood; instrumental), "Rubber Bullets" (10cc;
lead vocals: Creme), "Slave to the Rhythm" (Grace Jones; lead
vocals: Petrie or Joy), "Freeway" (The Producers), "Barking Up the
Right Tree" (The Producers), "The Dean and I" (10cc), "Garden of
Flowers" (Producers; video here), "I'm Not in Love" (10cc; lead
vocals: Westall), "All the Things She Said" (t.A.T.u.; lead vocals:
Petrie), "Check It Out" (Nicki Minaj), "Space Oddity" (David Bowie),
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (Tears for Fears), "Video Killed
the Radio Star" (with guest singer from the university). Horn
described in the Mar 2012 interview that, with Braide now in the US,
he had to sing some songs that, on the album, Braide does; Horn also
describes the tour as "totally philanthrophic".
They then played 2 nights in Japan in Aug. The band next played
Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival on Alex James's farm, Oxfordshire, 1
Sep, with the quartet joined by Ryan Molloy (vocals), Kate Westall
(vocals), Rosie Adediran (vocals) and, I think, Peter Gordeno
(vocals, keys). The set included "Rubber Bullets", "Watching You Out
There" (lead vocal: Molloy) and two Frankie Goes to Hollywood
numbers (lead vocals: Molloy), "The Power of Love" and "Relax", the
latter for which the band were joined by James (bass) and Oliver
(drums).
The 2 dates in Japan (5-6 Aug in Tokyo, 2 sets both nights) were
billed as "Trevor Horn feat. Lol Creme & Ash Soan/Producers"
with an altered line-up of Horn (vocals, bass, guitar), Creme
(vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Soan (drums), but no Lipson.
Instead, frequent Horn collaborator Phil Palmer was the main
guitarist. Also new to the band were Gordeno (vocals, keys) and
Simon Bloor (who played on the album; guitars, keys, shaker). From
the UK tour were Kirsten Joy and Kate Westall on additional vocals
and Julian Hinton (keys). Front of house sound was by Tim Weidner,
who regularly engineers for Horn; Graham Archer was also involved on
the tour. One set was broadcast on Fuji TV Next, a premium cable
channel in Japan. The set did not actually include any Producers
numbers: "Video Killed the Radio Star" (lead vocal: Horn), "Two
Tribes" (instrumental), "Kiss from a Rose" (lead vocal: Gordeno),
"Rubber Bullets" (lead vocal: Creme), "All the Things She
Said" (lead vocals: Joy/Westall), "Downtown Train" (lead vocal:
Gordeno; originally by Tom Waits, but covered by Rod Stewart on
Storyteller, produced by Horn), "Slave to the Rhythm" (lead vocal:
Joy), "Living in the Plastic Age" (lead vocal: Horn), "The Dean and
I (lead vocal: Creme), "Yes Medley: Fly from Here Part II/Soon
(abbreviated)/Owner of a Lonely Heart" (lead vocals: Horn on "Fly
from Here Part II: Sad Night at the Airfield", Joy on "Soon",
Westall on "Owner..."; Horn played acoustic guitar on "Sad
Night...", with Palmer on acoustic then electric guitar, and Creme
on 5-string bass), "Prayer for the Dying" (lead vocal: Gordeno),
"I'm Not in Love" (lead vocal: Gordeno), "Johnny on the Monorail (A
Very Different Version)" (lead vocal: Horn), encore: "Check It Out"
(lead vocals: Horn/Joy/Westall), "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
(lead vocal: Gordeno; second day only). Prior to the Japanese dates,
the same line-up played a show as The Trevor Horn Orchestra in
London on 26 Jul 2012.
Producers subsequently morphed into The Trevor Horn Band, based
around Horn, Creme, Palmer and Hinton. Material from the album
dropped from sets.
Braide was unhappy with what Horn did with the album. In liner notes
for his 2026 release Producer, he
writes
When Made in Basing Street was
eventually released in 2012, it had evolved considerably from
the album Braide had originally recorded. His lead vocals had
been replaced with performances by another singer, and his name
was no longer presented on the front cover as part of the band
line-up.
The songs survived, but the original voice through which many of
them had first been written and developed was largely absent
from the released record.
However, a box set, called Producers, was released in 2024
with a new 2023 mix by Lipson that appears to have been largely
based on the 2007/8 recording sessions with the original Producers
quintet, plus a bunch of bonus tracks with further material from
those sessions. Braide appeared to be pleased by this release. But
it appears the situation remained unresolved in his mind. Braide
released various Producers-related material on Bandcamp, starting in
Dec 2025 with a release of the 2007 Producers mixes, along with a
digital single of "Man on the Moon" with various mixes. An early
live performance by The Producers of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was
also included on his Yes covers EP Wonderous Stories. At the
end of Dec 2025, he released a solo re-recording of "Freeway" as a
digital single, with two more digital singles with alternate mixes
of that following in early 2026. This re-visiting of earlier
material wasn't confined to The Producers. Braide released a lot of
material on Bandcamp in 2025/6, with various solo re-recordings or
archival early versions of his songs, like his original recording of
"Unstoppable", written with and made famous by Sia.
And then, some time in summer 2026 I believe, all these
Producers-related Bandcamp things disappeared from Bandcamp. Had
someone else from the band complained? Had Braide has second
thoughts? I have no idea what happened. Instead, Producer
was released Jul 2026 release date. This is a re-recording of
Producers material by Braide and a backing band (various Downes
Braide Association alumni). (HP, 17 Aug 19; updated 22 Aug 26)
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