Heaven 17

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Heaven 17 are a British synthpop band originating from the city of Sheffield in the early 1980s.

[edit] Biography

Taking their name from a fictional pop group mentioned in Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange (where 'The Heaven Seventeen' are at number 4 in the charts with "Inside" [1]), Heaven 17 formed when Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware split from their earlier group The Human League and formed production company British Electric Foundation (BEF).

BEF’s first recording was a cassette-only album called Music for Stowaways and an LP called Music for Listening To. Shortly after, they recruited their friend and photographer Glenn Gregory on vocals to complete their lineup for Heaven 17. Like The Human League, Heaven 17 heavily used synthesizers and drum machines, the Linn LM-1 programmed by Ware particularly contributing to their signature sound. Session musicians were used for Bass and Guitar (John Wilson) and Grand Piano (Nick Plytas). They had some minor hits including the early "Play To Win", featured on the album Penthouse and Pavement. Their debut single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" from the same album had attracted some attention, becoming a left-wing anthem for a while, and was banned by Mike Reid, a Radio 1 DJ for the BBC, because of its overtly political lyrics, though it still reached #45 in the UK singles chart.

In the interim the band produced two further LPs as BEF. The first being Music of Quality & Distinction featuring Glenn Gregory, Paula Yates, Billy Mackenzie, Paul Jones, Bernadette Nolan and Gary Glitter. The tracks were cover versions of songs that Ware, Marsh & Gregory had grown up listening to. A second volume was issued in the early 1990s (simply titled Music of Quality & Distinction 2), this time featuring artists such as Scritti Politti's Green Gartside, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Lalah Hathaway.

The second album was Geisha Boys and Temple Girls for the dance troupe Hot Gossip, which used songs formerly recorded by The Human League and Heaven 17 and a track each from Sting and Talking Heads. This has recently been re-released. This album was originally to have been produced by Richard Burgess of Landscape.

Major chart success eluded them until the single "Temptation" (on which they were augmented by vocalist Carol Kenyon, a former backing singer for Isaac Hayes), reached #2 in the UK charts in summer 1983. Other songs from the same album, The Luxury Gap, charted although not as high - "Come Live With Me" reached #5 in the UK, "Crushed By The Wheels of Industry" number 17, and "Let Me Go", #41 in November 1982. The album itself charted at #4, their best ever position.

In the United States,the self-titled "Heaven 17" album was a re-working of "Penthouse and Pavement" with 3 songs deleted and replaced by "Let Me Go" and "Who'll Stop the Rain". American "New Wave" audiences were most familiar with "Let Me Go" which received high rotation airplay on "Rock Of The 80's" format radio stations like L.A.'s KROQ and frequent MTV exposure.

At the end of 1983, the band (under their BEF guise and assisted by Greg Walsh) helped launch Tina Turner's solo career, producing and providing backing vocals on her debut hit "Let's Stay Together". 1984 saw the release of the moderately successful How Men Are, which reached#12 and featured the Earth, Wind and Fire brass section.

The band also worked on the Band Aid single at the end of 1984, with Gregory supplying vocals alongside Midge Ure and Sting after a personal request from Ure that he attend. However, they did not perform at Live Aid the following year. Heaven 17's first live performance was in 1986 on the UK TV show "The Tube" - though live is pushing the term as Ian was operating a Series IIx Fairlight CMI and a Revox Reel to Reel tape recorder was wizzing away in the background.

Pleasure One (featuring the single "Trouble" - a minor hit in the UK at #51, but a big success in Germany where it reached #17) appeared in 1986 and contained a number of songs that were originally intended for a French film project that never came to be. This was the first Heaven 17 album to not mention production credits for BEF and the abbreviation BEF would not appear again until "Bigger Than America" (1996). It was followed up in 1988 with Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho (featuring the single "Train of Love in Motion"), although these two albums were poorly received and had little commercial success. The early 1990s were a quiet period for the band and they would not work together as Heaven 17 again until 1996's Bigger Than America. In the preceding years, Marsh and Ware produced a second BEF album to follow 1982's original Music of Quality and Distinction and Gregory formed the band Ugly. Ware became an in-demand producer, working for the likes of Terence Trent D'Arby, Alison Moyet and Erasure. "Temptation" was remixed and re-released in 1992, reaching number 4 on the UK Singles chart.

2005 saw the release of the long-awaited Before After, which had a much more contemporary dance sound compared to previous albums. A CD of remixes of "Hands Up To Heaven" from the album hit number 6 on the Billboard Magazine US Club Play Chart in May 2006. In October the same year Virgin issued a greatest hits compilation called Sight and Sound, which included a previously-unheard version of "Temptation" with spoken vocals by an unknown student from Germany whom the band met in 1982. It had been discovered on 1-inch tape by Glenn Gregory's mother and remastered by Simon Heyworth.

In December 2008 Heaven 17 tour the UK as part of the Sheffield band line up for "The Steel City Tour" alongside The Human League and ABC. Coinciding with this is the release of their new album "Naked As Advertised - Versions 08" through Just Music. The album contains re-workings of seminal tracks such as "Temptation" which features UK singer Billie Godfrey.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

• Penthouse and Pavement (1981) - Melody Maker's album of the year (1981) [2]. Remastered and re-released in the UK in 2006 with bonus tracks.
• The Luxury Gap (1983) - reached #4 in the album charts. Contained "Temptation" and "Let Me Go", the band's biggest UK and US hits respectively. Remastered and re-released in the UK in 2006 with bonus tracks.
• How Men Are (1984) - remastered and re-released in the UK in 2006 with bonus tracks.
• Pleasure One (1986) - notable for the introduction of a 'real' band, and the loss of the electronics and social commentary that characterised the band's early career.
• Teddy Bear, Duke & Psycho (1988) - the title comes from the nicknames given to the band by Terence Trent D'Arby.
• Bigger Than America (1996) - marked a return to their synthesizer and social commentary roots. Described as a 'sequel' to Penthouse and Pavement.
• Before After (2005) - dispensed with politics in favour of a more dance-oriented album.
• Naked As Advertised (2008) - re-workings of H17 classics from the earliest days of H17, and a few real collectors items and rarities. Including a version of "Temptation" featuring Billie Godfrey

[edit] Compilation, live, and tribute albums

• Heaven 17 (1982) non-UK compilation - consisted of : 5 tracks from Penthouse and Pavement, 1 re-recorded track from P&P, 1 previously single-only track and 2 (then) new songs (subsequently to appear on the UK release of The Luxury Gap)
• Endless (1986) - consisted of a 'Heaven 17 Megamix', and both 12-inch and re-recordings of songs
• The Best of Heaven 17 (1992) - originally released on the Virgin VIP label
• Higher and Higher - The Best of Heaven 17 (1993) - contained remixes of "Temptation" and "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang"
• The Remix Collection (1995) - contained 12-inch versions of songs and the 1992/3 remixes of "Temptation", "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" and "Penthouse and Pavement"
• Executive Summary (1996) - a promotional release, essentially a 6-track 'Best of' CD introducing the then-forthcoming album Bigger Than America
• Retox/Detox (1998) - 2CD set consisting of entirely new remixes of the band's songs by DJs and remixers
• How Live Is (1999) - live appearance at the SECC Glasgow supporting Erasure (previously only available from the official website as Live at Last)
• Virgin Voices Vol. 1: A Tribute To Madonna (1999) - tribute album containing the band's cover of Madonna's "Holiday"
• We Will Follow: A Tribute To U2 (1999) - cover of U2's "With or Without You" opens this tribute album to the Irish band
• Party O' the Times (1999) - the band's contribution to this Prince tribute album was a cover of "Sign “☮” the Times".
• Live at Scala, London (2005) - the band's appearance at the Scala, London on 29 November 2005 available 10 minutes after the end of the show and from Live Here Now [3], with artwork by Haiminh Le [4] and Nick Cannock [5] - also available as a DVD including an exclusive interview with the band and a glimpse inside Heaven 17's recording studio.
• Sight and Sound (2006) - a digitally remastered singles compilation that included a DVD of the band's videos
• Live at Last (2008) - re-recording of live gig supporting Erasure

[edit] Appearances in popular culture

• "Temptation" is featured in the film Trainspotting, but does not appear on the original CD soundtrack, whereas "Temptation" by New Order does - though they are not the same song (Heaven 17's "Temptation" is played at the disco where Renton would meet Diane; New Order's "Temptation" lyrics are sung by Diane while she's taking a bath, and is played faintly in the background during breakfast at Diane's shortly after). Heaven 17's "Temptation" is however featured on the second Trainspotting CD, featuring songs 'inspired by' the film.

• Gothic Metal band Cradle of Filth's album Thornography included a cover of "Temptation," with singer Victoria Harrison (better known as Dirty Harry) on guest vocals, that was also released as a single, with an accompanying music video.

• At the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007, Jarvis Cocker and Beth Ditto (from The Gossip) performed a cover version of 'Temptation'.

• "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" featured in the BBC drama series Ashes To Ashes

• In The Mountain Goats song "Cubs in five", a song about improbable events, it is mentioned that "bill gates will single handedly spearhead the heaven seventeen revival".

• In September 2008 the band's version of "Don't Fear the Reaper" appeared in the HBO TV series Trueblood.

• In November 2008 the band perform a version of "Temptation" featuring Billie Godfrey on ITV1's Now That's What I Call 1983.

[edit] External links

• Official Heaven 17 website
• Heaven 17 fan site
• Martyn Ware RBMA video lecture session
• Glenn Gregory Interview
• Billie Godfrey