ZTT Records

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ZTT Records is a record label founded in 1983 by NME journalist Paul Morley, record producer Trevor Horn, producer/engineer Gary Langan and businesswoman Jill Sinclair. The majority of the creative team at ZTT had first assembled when Horn produced the acclaimed album "The Lexicon of Love" for New Romantic band ABC. The label's name was also printed as "Zang Tumb Tuum" and "Zang Tuum Tumb" on various releases.

ZTT is an initialism based on the title of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's sound poem Zang Tumb Tumb. The word "Tuuuum" is also featured on the cover of the original publication of the poem in book form.

ZTT enjoyed considerable success in the 1980s with the composer Andrew Poppy, bands such as Propaganda, The Art of Noise, and the chart-topping Frankie Goes to Hollywood. In 1989, both Propaganda and Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson went to court to be released from their contracts, and won. In the Holly Johnson case, the court chastised Horn for production cost over-runs. It has since become common knowledge that Horn's perfectionism can be expensive. (The sleevenotes of Pet Shop Boys "Discography" compilation make good natured references to Horn's methods).

In the 1990s, ZTT became a successful dance label once again, with major names on their roster including Seal and 808 State.

Over the years, the label has continued to dip into its well of 80s material by constantly reissuing material by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda and The Art Of Noise in various formats - from remix albums, to straight reissues.

ZTT Records is now owned by the SPZ Group, which stands for Sarm Perfect ZTT - Sarm recording studios, Perfect Songs publishing and ZTT recordings. From the beginning, the majority of ZTT releases were published by Perfect Songs and recorded at Sarm studios.

1 Acts on ZTT
2 Action Series
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Acts on ZTT

ZTT Records in London (1986)

1980s

1990s

2000s

Lisa Stansfield

[edit] Action Series

IQ6 Zang Tumb Tuum Sampled Action Series number 18

As part of ZTT internal cataloguing of releases they maintained two series; the Action Series and the Incidental Series. The Action Series was issued mainly to singles and albums by a majority of the labels artists. However to confuse matters the series also contains a booklet and a concert.

The Incidental Series seemed to follow even less logic, and indeed individual releases and even actors in videos and voiceovers received their own IS number. In fact, even oddities like the day Relax was banned and Holly Johnson's walking stick had Incidental Series numbers.

The series was further complicated by having some singles released with an ZTIS catalogue number. The Incidental Series seemed to mirror the FAC numbering system used by Factory Records, where a cat was famously called FAC 191.

The Action series was discontinued by ZTT in 1988.