One of the UK’s most iconic and exciting record labels, when ZTT (Zang Tuum Tumb) started out it could have become the next Factory, or even the next EMI. But it didn’t – it became a one-and-only, with a style and a sound no other record label has managed to equal. ZTT, which produced 45 UK Top 40 hits (15 of them Top 10) and many highly regarded albums by the likes of The Art of Noise, The Frames and 808 State, was founded by Trevor Horn, Jill Sinclair and Paul Morley in 1983 and enjoyed immediate success with Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Indeed, from Frankie to Seal and 808 State, ZTT somehow managed to not only discover brand new talent but also turn some of its artists into icons by the release of their second single.

In the early days, the label also helped to shape the very structure and format of pop music (its 12” remixes getting chart positions of their own and its T-shirts becoming the uniform of the 80s) and turned every aspect of the business of pop into entertainment. It has also engendered a fierce spirit of experimentation, from classical minimalism to cut/copy/paste pop and has always maintained a distinctly European outlook – this is the Future Sound of Manchester, Reykjavic, Berlin, Liverpool, Dublin, Brussels and the heart of ZTT, Sarm West studios in London.