Tributes paid to Jill Sinclair

MUSIC producer Trevor Horn has paid tribute to his wife, who has died eight years after suffering brain damage in a shooting accident in Checkendon.

Jill Sinclair, 61, passed away “peacefully” on Saturday at the couple’s home in London. She had been suffering from cancer.

The mother-of-four had been married to Mr Horn since 1980 and was his business partner. Mr Horn said: “Jill was an inspiration in every aspect of her life, as my wife and as the mother of our children.

“She had an adventurous, maverick spirit and built up music businesses — and made her way through life — successfully and independently, and always on her own terms. She will be sorely missed.”

In June 2006 she was shot by her son Aaron, who was target-shooting with his air rifle at Hook End Manor, a 25-acre estate where the family then lived. A pellet hit her in the neck, severing an artery and causing extensive brain damage from oxygen starvation to the brain.

Ms Sinclair eventually came out of a coma but Mr Horn said in 2012 that she couldn’t speak, move or smile, adding: “The only expression she can show is of discomfort.”

After the accident, Mr Horn sold Hook End Manor and the family moved to Primrose Hill in London.

The couple met in 1977 and two years later Mr Horn shot to stardom when his group, The Buggles, had a worldwide hit with Video Killed The Radio Star, which was the first music video to be played on MTV.

Mr Horn went on to produce artists including Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ABC, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and Malcolm McLaren and he was once called “the man who invented the Eighties”.

The couple’s Sarm Studios in London was where Band Aid recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas? in 1984.

Last April rock musician Alvin Lee, who also used to live at Hook End Manor, died, aged 68. He was lead guitarist and singer with Ten Years After, who were successful in the Sixties and Seventies.

The property was bought by David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, in 1980 who later sold it to Mr Horn.