Still living a life of synth
Heaven 17 front man Glenn Gregory talks to MARION MCMULLEN about the genesis of the band, standing in for David Bowie and his three a half decades spent on the music scene
THEY could have ended up being called Goggly Gogol, The Monolith or even Word Masters, but luckily singer Glenn Gregory and his fellow bandmates chose the name Heaven 17 – a moniker lifted from the pages of Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange.
“I remember they were all names on the list,” chuckles singer Glenn, “I’m really, really glad we went to Heaven 17 and not Goggly Gogol.”
He admits it seems only yesterday that they were recording their first album Penthouse And Pavement in Sheffield.
A chance meeting with his old friend Martyn Ware set the wheels in motion. The multi-talented musician had just parted company with The Human League and was setting up the British Electric Foundation (BEF), a label to bring out new music – and Heaven 17 became its glittering achievement.
“More than three decades, it doesn’t seem like it,” says Glenn. “It could have been last year. Just before Penthouse And Pavement I was working as a photographer in London and was back home in Sheffield to photograph Joe Jackson at the city hall.
“I met Martyn nearby and he asked how it was going and if I was happy in London. I thought it was a bit weird, but then he told me what had happened with Human League and asked if I was interested in singing in a new band. I said ‘Yeah, OK’ and that was it.
“It was an exciting, frantic time and we wrote and recorded every note on that first album really quickly. The only asset we had was a studio in Sheffield in this derelict building. Only one floor was liveable and both Human League and Heaven 17 were sharing the studio. Human League were recording Dare and we were doing Penthouse And Pavement at the same time.
He laughs: “We had our set shifts and then we’d pack all of our stuff away and hide all the tapes. It was exciting, really exciting.”
However, one of the album’s classic tracks (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang nearly met an untimely end.
“There were no computers,” points out Glenn, “everything was all done on tape. We’d done this great bit for Groove Thang, but we couldn’t find the (piece of ) tape. We spent about an hour looking and just couldn’t find it anywhere. We eventually sat down and I put my feet up and Martyn said quietly ‘Don’t move. It’s on your foot.’ The whole time the tape had been on the bottom of my boot.”
Glenn remembers the recording as a time of no rules, when anything was possible and says BEF was responsible for the experimental nature of that period. Formed as part of Ware’s deal with Virgin records, the BEF was a band/production company that was a vehicle for all kinds of creativity.
“It could do a lot of different things – a little label within a label – we became Heaven 17 and took off pretty quickly really. We had a brilliant time,” says Glenn.
It is 35 years since Penthouse & Pavement was released and Heaven 17 will be celebrating the anniversary with dates that will also mark the British Electric Foundation’s first UK tour.
Glen and Martyn will be performing a new electronic version of the album that launched their careers while the second part of each show will also feature a live set from BEF, enlisting the talents of Mari Wilson, Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock and The Farm’s Peter Hooton as well as Glenn himself to present new arrangements of songs familiar and unexpected.