Heaven 17
| Heaven 17 | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Sheffield, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | heaven17 |
| Members | |
| Past members | Ian Craig Marsh |
Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synthpop band formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards), Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League) and Glenn Gregory (vocals). Although most of the band's music was recorded in the 1980s, they have occasionally reformed to record and perform, playing their first ever live concerts in 1997. Marsh left the band in 2007 and Ware and Gregory continued to perform as Heaven 17.
Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware were the founding members of pioneering British electro-pop group the Human League; Glenn Gregory had been their original choice when seeking a lead singer for the band but he was unavailable at the time, so they chose Philip Oakey instead. When personal and creative tensions within the group reached a breaking point in late 1980, Marsh and Ware left the band, ceding the Human League name to Oakey. Taking their new name from a fictional pop band mentioned in Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel, A Clockwork Orange (where the Heaven Seventeenth are at number 4 in the charts with "Inside"), they became Heaven 17 and formed the production company British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.).
B.E.F.'s first recordings were a cassette-only album called Music For Stowaways and an LP called Music For Listening To, which was re-released on CD in 1997 with two extra tracks. Shortly after, they completed their line-up when they recruited their friend, photographer Glenn Gregory, as vocalist. Like The Human League, Heaven 17 heavily used synthesisers and drum machines (the Linn LM-1 programmed by Ware). Session musicians were used for bass guitar and guitar (John Wilson) and grand piano (Nick Plytas). Whereas the band's former colleagues the Human League had gone on to major chart success in 1981, Heaven 17 struggled to make an impact. Their debut single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" attracted some attention and, due to its overtly left-wing political lyrics, was banned by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read (who is a staunch supporter of the Conservative Party). Neither this nor any other of the four singles taken from the band's debut album Penthouse and Pavement managed to reach the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. The album itself proved to be a success, peaking at Number 14 on the UK Albums Chart, and was later certified gold by the BPI in 1982.
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