Martyn Ware
| Martyn Ware | |
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Ware in 2003
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| Background information | |
| Born | 19 May 1956 |
| Origin | Sheffield, England |
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| Years active | 1977–present |
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| Notable instruments | |
| Linn LM-1 | |
Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both The Human League and Heaven 17, Ware was partly responsible for hit songs such as "Being Boiled" and "Temptation".
Ware has also worked as a record producer, notably helping to revitalise Tina Turner's career in 1983 with "Let's Stay Together", kick starting Terence Trent D'Arby's career by co-producing his solo debut, Introducing the Hardline According to... in 1987 and producing Erasure's I Say I Say I Say album in 1994. He is also noted for work in Surround Sound technology and, more recently, for creation of sound installations.
Ware was born and grew up in Sheffield, England. After leaving school, he went to work in the computer industry. With his first wages, he bought a Korg 700 monophonic keyboard and started experimenting with electronic sound.
In the 1970s, Ware and synth player Ian Marsh teamed up to play as The Future and then as the Dead Daughters. In 1977 they formed The Human League with vocalist Philip Oakey and soon added Adrian Wright as "Director of Visuals" to create slide shows for their performances. They recorded a demo and signed with the Indie label Fast in 1978. The band was commercially and artistically successful, issuing "Being Boiled" as their first single, but Ware and Marsh left in 1980 over internal tensions, forming the British Electronic Foundation.
The British Electric Foundation was an experimental production project that employed artists including Tina Turner, Sandie Shaw, and Gary Glitter. The band's first album in 1980 was the instrumental cassette-only release Music for Stowaways, followed in 1982 by Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 1 which featured vocalist Glenn Gregory. By this time, Ware and Marsh had already teamed with Gregory to form Heaven 17. Their first release was the single "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang," which was banned by the BBC. In 1983 they released the hit song "Temptation" which reached #2 on the music charts. The band went on hiatus in 1988, but reformed in 1990 and released Music of Quality and Distinction, Vol. 2. In 2005 Marsh left the band, but Ware and Gregory continued production.
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