Gillingham, Kent, UK (By Mikey) - What is
Heaven 17? Only the finest synth-funk-pop group to have existed in the history of mankind! OK, perhaps the members of
Heaven 17 themselves admit to the fact that
Heaven 17 was constructed purely to be as popular and make as much money as possible - but in doing so, they created some of the finest and most poignant music of the 1980's.
Heaven 17 are Ian
Craig Marsh, Martyn Ware, and
Glenn Gregory (vocals).
Heaven 17 had many years to hone their musical and production skills, most notably their time in the early Human League. They started in 1972 under the name of Musical Vomit ("Denim Mind" and "Whip King of Mars"), then through various guises to The Future. Other names used along the way were The Underpants, Dick Velcro and the Space Kidettes, VDK and the Studs, Dead Daughters, The Hari Willey Krishna Band and Arthur Cravens Tent Band. In these many phases they teamed up with members of Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA (Adi Newton left The Future to form Clock DVA). From the Human League split of 1980, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware formed a creative organisation called the British Electric Foundation and the commercial arm of this became Heaven 17 (the name taken from the film "A Clockwork Orange" - listed on a juke box) with Glenn Gregory on vocals. "Heaven 17 is 100% serious attempt to be incredibly popular, whereas BEF is no more serious but it tends to be involved with more experimental projects."
After struggling with Ian's home - assembled machine ("it made very good motorbike noises") he and Martyn scraped together the cash for Roland and Korg synthesizers and began experimenting with rudimentary recording equipment. In the late 1977 they were joined by vocalist Phil Oakey (who had been to school with Martyn) and adopted the name Human League, releasing their first independent single "Being Boiled" in 1978.
After two albums for Virgin ("Reproduction" and "Travelogue") the Human League looked to be on verge of the big time. However, relations between Ware and Oakey had deteriorated and in October 1980 the band split in two. Oakey and Adrian Wright retained the name, while Ware and Marsh formed the British Electric Foundation. BEF was initially intended as a production company that would introduce and produce a series of different artists. The first was to be Heaven 17.
Martyn asked Glenn, who was living and working in London at the time, if he would work with BEF. Glenn headed back to Sheffield to begin recording the soon-to-be-hit "(We don't need this) Fascist Groove Thang".
It was an extraordinary situation. Because the Human League had owned their own recording equipment, both new bands were working alternate shifts recording demos for two of the most important and influential albums of the early 80's: Heaven 17's "Penthouse and Pavement" and Human league's "Dare". Both albums are recognized not only as astute comments on the time, but as classic pieces in their own rights.
Throughout the 80's Heaven 17 continued on the path set by "Penthouse" releasing "The Luxury Gap", "How Men Are" and "Pleasure One", selling bucket loads of albums around the world and having hit singles including "Let Me Go", "Play To Win", "At The Height Of The Fighting", "Come Live With Me" and of course, the seminal 'Temptation".
In 1982, BEF released "Music of Quality and Distinction Vol 1" featuring guest vocals from Tina Turner, Sandie Shaw, and Gary Glitter, as well as Glenn Gregory. A year later Ware helped produce Tina Turner's "Let's stay together" which became her first hit for a decade and helped kick start a career that flourishes to this day.
The band members eventually began to work separately. Glenn worked with ABC singer Martin Fry (Glenn later co-wrote and co-produced ABC's 1998 "Skyscraping" album) and a band called Ugly. Ian helped out with programming on various projects, and in 1992 BEF released "Music Of Quality And Distinction Vol. 2" once again featuring Tina Turner, this time alongside Mavis Staples and Chaka Khan.
Martyn Ware built a second career as one of the UK's most in-demand record producers, producing (amongst others) Terence Trent D'Arby's massive "Hardline" album, Erasure's number 1 album "I Say, I Say, I Say", hits for Marc Almond, Shabba Ranks and more recently Alison Moyet, Connor Reeves, Pauline Henry, Lena Fiagbe and Joe Roberts.
In 1994 "Temptation" was remixed and re-released, and became a worldwide smash single all over again, far exceeding its original sales. The band proceeded to write together again; "We never really split up," explains vocalist Glenn Gregory, "After our last album, we just decided not to do any recording for a bit ...and the bit lasted eight years. We all thought that we'd have different conditions for starting again, but it turned out that everyone thought the same. We all wanted to get back to where it started, which was electronic".
In 1997 the band released "Bigger than America" on the Eye Of The Storm label. Unfortunately, the label closed a month before release and the record was not promoted; however if you search very hard you may be able to get a copy. To promote the album the band had planned to do something that they had never done before - tour. They initially supported Erasure, but carried on without the support of a record company when the label closed. They discovered that they loved playing live and subsequently completed their own sell-out UK tour later that year.
1998 saw the band collaborate with a variety of artists, many of whom are fans of the band, some of the fruits of which can be heard on the "Retox / Detox" album (Eagle Records). There are contributions from the illuminati of dance and electronic music including Adrian Sherwood, Giorgio Moroder, Rob Playford, Molella, Ashley Beedle, Freddy Fresh, Kirk Degiorgio, Rhythm Masters, Ruff Driverz, Ski, Michael Lange, Steve Hillier, Dubstar, DJ Suv, Roni Size, Reprazent, Geneva, Palatino, Helvetica.
Little is know what the band are doing at present but they have been doing the London circuit of the Here and Now Concert Tour, with other 80s acts, such as Paul Young, Go West, T'Pau, Bananarama, Kim Wilde and ABC, the band are still collaborating together and producing for other artists.
Heaven 17 Discography
Singles
21 March 1981 (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang - Chart Position No.45, 5 weeks on chart
05 September 1981 Play To Win - Chart Position No.46, 7 weeks on chart
14 November 1981 Penthouse and Pavement - Chart Position No.57, 3 weeks on chart
30 October 1982 Let Me Go - Chart Position No.41, 6 weeks on chart
16 April 1983 Temptation - Chart Position No.2, 13 weeks on chart*
25 June 1983 Come Live With Me - Chart Position No.5, 11 weeks on chart*
10 September 1983 Crushed By The Wheels of Industry - Chart Position No.17, 7 weeks on chart
01 September 1984 Sunset Now - Chart Position No.24, 6 weeks on chart
17 October 1984 This Is Mine - Chart Position No.23, 7 weeks on chart
19 January 1985 �(And That's No Lie) - Chart Position No. 52, 5 weeks on chart
17 January 1987 Trouble - Chart Position No.55, 3 weeks on chart
21 November 1992 Temptation (Remix) _ Chart Position No.4, 11 weeks on chart
27 February 1993 (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (remix) - Chart Position No.40, 2 weeks on chart*
10 April 1993 Penthouse and Pavement (remix) - Chart Position No.54, 1 week on chart
(*) Top 10 single
Albums
1978 Music For Stowaways
1981 Music For Listening To
1981 Penthouse and Pavement
1982 Music for Quality and Distinction - Volume 1
1983 The Luxury Gap
1984 How Men Are
1986 Endless
1986 Pleasure One
1988 Teddy Bear, Duke Psycho
1991 Music for Quality and Distinction - Volume 2
1993 Higher and Higher - Best of Heaven 17
1995 The Remix Collection
1997 Bigger Than America
1999 Live At Last
