"Elstree" | |||||||
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Single by The Buggles | |||||||
from the album The Age of Plastic | |||||||
B-side | "Johnny on the Monorail (A Very Different Version)" | ||||||
Released | 27 October 1980 | ||||||
Genre | New wave, synthpop | ||||||
Length | 4:04 (single) 4:33 (album) |
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Label | Island | ||||||
Writer(s) | Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes | ||||||
Producer(s) | The Buggles | ||||||
The Buggles singles chronology | |||||||
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"Elstree" is a synthpop song by The Buggles from their debut album, The Age of Plastic. It was the fourth and final single from the album, released on 27 October 1980. It was written by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.
"Elstree" is a tribute to the U.K. film company Elstree Studios. It follows the story of a failed actor who, according to Wave Maker Magazine, is "taking up a more regular position behind the scenes and looking back at his life in regret." The song is 4 minutes and 32 seconds long, and is played at a BPM of 136.Geoff Downes performed an old-sounding grand piano and a minimoog in the song to emulate an oboe.
The single was released on 7" vinyl via Island Records across Europe and Japan. It was not given an America release. In the UK, the single was manufactured and distributed by EMI Records Ltd. The single was also issued in Brazil through Island Records and Ariola, which was the umbrella company in Brazil for Island Records at the time. For the single, the song was edited down by half a minute in comparison to the album version of the song. Despite this, the UK version of the single still dubbed the song "(Full-length Album Version)" on the A-side of the vinyl. The single included the B-side "Johnny on the Monorail (A Very Different Version)" which was written by Downes and Horn. As the title suggested, the song is a different version of the closing album track of The Age of Plastic. The version was originally exclusive to the single before it appeared as a bonus track on the 2000 remastered re-issue of The Age of Plastic album, amongst other re-issues of the album.
The majority of the releases of the single featured the same track listing, however the Japanese issue of the single, released on 21 July 1980 as a promotional release only, featured the full album version of "Elstree" and not the single version, whilst the B-side was "Island" which was originally the B-side to the band's second single "Living in the Plastic Age" from 1980.
Most issues of the single featured a full colour sleeve with artwork of a camera. The Japanese release used different artwork, using an alternate design of the drawing of the duo first seen as the artwork on their 1979 debut single "Video Killed the Radio Star".