HEAVEN 17 + RUSTY EGAN – DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL-ON-SEA 13.11.23
It’s fair to say that it’s certainly not often that you can remember exactly where and when you first came across one of your favourite bands. However I absolutely remember my debut introduction to Phil Oakey, Ian Craig Marsh, Martyn Ware and Philip Adrian Wright. It was a Tuesday, the 310th day of 1979, the 6th November to be precise. I came home to my previous house in Patcham, Brighton and turned on the TV and there they were! I was immediately rooted to the spot, eyes transfixed with ears pricked up, this quartet was absolutely for me! This was episode 5 of a run of 11 weekly magazine programmes that were reporting ‘live’ on music, entertainment and the arts around the country, the show’s name ‘Mainstream’ (9th October 1979 to 18th December 1979), the band in question The Human League, the tune was ‘The Path Of Least Resistance’. Here was the future! The band’s mannikin-like standing positions, their synth equipment, the backing films, and the otherworldly sounds emanating from my TV was the total package! Here’s finally was England’s answer to Kraftwerk. This is what I saw, click HERE.
I was on board and set about purchasing their thus far released records: ‘Being Boiled’ 7”, ‘The Dignity Of Labour Pts.1-4’ 12” (a challenging listen), ‘Empire State Human’ 7” and the brand new ‘Reproduction’ album with its weird cover. In 1980 these were added to with the arrival of the ‘Holiday ‘80’ double 7” singles pack and their ‘Travelogue’ long player. Courtesy of the Brighton Record Fair, the bootleg ‘In Darkness’ album of their demo material and John Peel session was added to the collection a year later.
The Human League were gaining momentum and becoming more well known, like so many other band’s that I got on board early on, they were starting to get there! Then disaster, I had heard that Martyn Ware (the bearded one on ‘Mainstream’) had left the band and that Ian Craig Marsh had swiftly followed. Oh crap! That’s the end of the band then, I sulked as they were left with a projectionist and a singer. I know Phil, why don’t you drown your sorrows and go out clubbing with your girlfriend to ‘Crazy Daisy Nightclub’ on Sheffield’s High Street. That’s a good plan……but that’s another story!
Meanwhile Martyn and Ian were hatching a plan with their old mate, Glenn Gregory, who previously (as we learned tonight at the De La Warr Pavilion) had formed the Sheffield punk band VDK and the Studs, which Martyn was a member of. Other band names thrown out there tonight by Glenn were Underpants and the Dead Daughters. Citing various other famed Sheffield based names as being involved along the way, including members Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA and the like. Before long my worries regarding the future musical output from Phil Oakey, Ian Craig Marsh, Martyn Ware and Philip Adrian Wright, were well and truly quashed with the arrival of no less than three band’s: The Human League (MkII), B.E.F (British Electric Foundation) instrumentalists, and Heaven 17.
Whereas Ian Craig Marsh and Philip Adrian Wright have totally disappeared from my (and other folks) radar, after a journey in excess of 40 years, Phil Oakey, Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory are still on the synthpop case! This evening literally a few feet in front of me on the raised De La Warr Pavilion are Martyn and Glenn. They are accompanied by keyboardist Florence Sabeva, the stunning multi-octave vocal from Worthing based Rachel Meadows, as well being equally matched by Kelly Barnes. We are all gathered to enjoy 40 years of ‘Temptation’ and ‘The Luxury Gap’ album.
Suffice to say that for me Heaven 17’s finest work was their first few releases, which includes the 12” singles ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ (which narrowly missed out on the Top 40, peaking at No.45), ‘I’m Your Money’ (which didn’t even chart – WTF!), ‘Play To Win’ (peaked at No.46), and ‘Let Me Go’ (peaked one place outside the Top 40). Their best albums being the first two, the yuppie cover artwork of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ from 1981 (which reached No. 14 in the Official UK Album Charts) and 1983’s ‘The Luxury Gap’ (their highest performing album at No.4). It’s this final album that we are to hear in its entirety this evening. This pleases me very much indeed, as they play tunes I’ve never heard before. You see back in the early 1980’s as Martyn pointed out tonight, that they didn’t play live back then. I can certainly vouch for that having witnessed their PA gig (live mics to backing track) at Sherry’s discotheque down West Street, Brighton of first three singles ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, ‘I’m Your Money’ and ‘Play To Win’, where the drunken trio stood in a line and endeavoured to sing atop the tunes!
No alcohol tonight, just water dotted about the expansive stage. Not adverse to a little liquid refreshment from my first hand experience is tonight’s warm-up DJ Rusty Egan who is famed as being the co-founder of the famous Blitz Club in London as well as being a core member of Visage, as in ‘Fade To Grey’, which incidentally Rusty closes his set with a forthcoming re-recorded version from his album due out next year. Prior to this, Rusty got punters in the mood with early 80’s classics from Japan, Spandau Ballet and the like. At 8:16pm he was done and for the remaining 14 minutes the PA system took care of the tracks including the 12” versions of Soft Cell’s ‘Memorabilia’ and Giorgio Moroder’s ‘The Chase’.
Bang on 8:30pm the overhead lighting flashes and the intro tune 1979’s ‘Introducing’ (the B-side of ‘Empire State Human’ single) was belting out. The almost capacity, mainly middle-aged crowd showed their appreciation as keyboardist Florence Sabeva took up position on her podium centre rear of the stage, swiftly followed by backing singers Rachel Meadows and Kelly Barnes, who were stage left (our right) and both were wearing high-heeled sparkly silver shoes, long black leather skirts and black bodice (basque), with differing black and white tops, to differentiate them I guess. On strolls Martyn Ware (stage right, our left and in front of me) who I must say, despite having aged a tad (haven’t we all), was looking slimmer than on previous recent occasions and rather dapper in his shiny suit and hat. Around 30 seconds later frontman Glenn graces us with his presence. His outfit somewhat reminded me of the Pet Shop Boys Chris Lowe’s choice of garb, as Glenn was sporting a Heaven 17 cap (more from that shortly), black boots, tight white jeans, sparkly black jacket and black T-shirt underneath.
I spied a lonely acoustic guitar at the rear of the stage, which was unusual and an instrument I don’t recall having seen at previous Heaven 17 concerts. I wonder what that’s for and who will be using it….All will be revealed. I can clearly see that Martyn is on a Roland V-Synth GT as it’s facing us, but there are also two keyboards sideways on to his right, the lower one has wooden casing, hmmm looks interesting! It is. He also has a microphone. Glenn is obviously out front on the mic and runs the show with his Northern charm. Florence is taking care of the Roland System 8 keys and another Roland keyboard along with a laptop, and the two other ladies are on backing vocals.
It is immediately obvious that the sound and lighting is perfect and I suspect that this venue is well and truly on the H17 future tours agenda, possibly to the detriment of Brighton, which doesn’t feature on this particular tour, hence that’s why we are here. ‘Introducing’ segues straight into the first of eight straight cuts from ‘The Luxury Gap’ album, this being ‘Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry’. After which Glenn informs the punters that his cap is the very last one available from the tour as they have already sold out and then he throws said item into the crowd. There’s one even happier fan out there now. I was rather hoping Martyn would do the same for his dapper hat, as I might have stood a chance in getting it, being stood in front of him, bad sadly not. ‘Key To The World’ and ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’ bopped along nicely, or as Martyn put it regarding the latter “that’s kinda funky!”. The seeds of this funk sound having been sewed back in July 1979 with the Virgin Records disco influenced ‘I Don’t Depend On You’ 12” “secret” The Human League single under the pseudonym “The Men”, which my mate Terry luckily had a copy of and would regularly play to us.
One of my faves followed in the form of ‘Come Live With Me’, which the crowd awarded with the biggest cheer thus far. It was handclaps a plenty for ‘Lady Ice And Mr Hex’ and homage was given to Giorgio Moroder by Martyn prior to the delivering ‘We Live So Fast’. ‘The Best Kept Secret’ followed, which is a wonderful piece of music and was certainly given justice by the quintet this evening. Around the time of these last two numbers, Glenn decided to fill us in with some fascinating H17 history, some of which I was unaware of. He said that ‘We Live So Fast’ was about his move from Sheffield down to London in order to become a rock photographer. ‘The Best Kept Secret’ was actually written in Air Studios and at that time his then wife Sarah was in a band and whilst he was in the studio writing the tune, she was in Belgium and trying to get back to the UK during a storm and he hadn’t heard from her. Also, Glenn got mixed up here and actually introduced the next tune as ‘And That’s No Lie’ instead of ‘The Best Kept Secret’.
More Glenn banter followed with the arrival of ‘Let Me Go’, which he informed us was his favourite H17 tune, and I think he said Martyn’s as well. He added that it was written in his then basement flat at 95 Oxford Gardens, Ladbroke Grove. Suffice to say that this single was very well received, and Martyn even thanked the crowd for their appreciation. ‘The Luxury Gap’ album had now been performed, bar standout single ‘Temptation’, which arrived in six tunes time. Next though it was ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, where Glenn recounted their days before the release of this debut single and prior to The Human League. He told us that VDK and the Studs recorded a long version of the ‘Dr Who’ theme and that it was played live when supporting lost Sheffield punk outfit The Drones. Glenn added that years later a fan arrived with a tape of it, and both Martyn and Glenn agreed it was awful, much to tonight’s crowd amusement.
Glenn singled out H17 superfan ‘Sumo’ in the audience who he said had been to more H17 gigs than him, adding that the next track was Sumo’s favourite H17 tune, this being ‘I’m Your Money’, which amazingly is mine as well. It’s got that distinctive 1981 Blitz Club banging synth beat that was similar to Shock’s ‘Dynamo Beat’. Tonight’s version was a classic delivery that incorporated elements of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’, the set highlight!!! From set highlight we went to the weakest tune of the night, the aforementioned (full version) of 1984’s ‘And That’s No Lie’ from the ‘How Men Are’ album. Momentum was restored with the arrival of popular single ‘Play To Win’, which Glenn told us was the band’s first ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance and it was on Christmas day, which was brilliant, but it’s now been marred by that show’s host! I’m sure you know who I mean “Guys’n’gals”.
A particularly banging version of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ with Rachel sharing vocals was offered next. After which we had the mega-hit ‘Temptation’, which was an updated version with an extended intro. A great tune to end on, they briefly vacated the stage, only to return shortly afterwards and it was surprise time as Glenn got a hold of that lonely guitar and performed solo acoustic versions of two number one smash singles in the form of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘The Power Of Love’ from their 1984 ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ album, and The Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’ from their 1981 ‘Dare’ album. Suffice to say the crowd sang their hearts out. This was a wonderful surprise as was the final two tunes, played by the whole band, beginning with a jolly decent cover of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ single, followed by The Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’, which Glenn pointed out that the lower wooden keyboard to the side that Martyn was about to play, was THE actual keyboard that Martyn had purchased back in the day, “from 1974” Martyn added in a high-pitched voice, to highlight at being a little Sheffield lad just out of short trousers. This by my reckoning then would be miniKORG 700, this being KORG’s first mass-produced monophonic synthesizer which was originally released back in 1973. Tonight’s ‘Being Boiled’ was a really deep bass meaty extended version of the tune, courtesy of those keys! It was a brilliant send off for us and after almost two hours of fun, they vacated the stage at 10:22pm. Without doubt, this had been the best H17 concert that I’ve been to!
Heaven 17:
Glenn Gregory – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Martyn Ware – synths, backing vocals
Florence Sabeva – keys, laptop
Rachel Meadows – backing vocals
Kelly Barnes – backing vocals
Heaven 17 setlist:
‘Introducing’ (The Human League cover originally 1979 B-side of ‘Empire State Human’ single)
‘Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘Key To The World’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘Come Live With Me’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘Lady Ice And Mr Hex’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘We Live So Fast’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘The Best Kept Secret’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘Let Me Go’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ (from 1981 ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ album)
‘I’m Your Money’ (inc ‘I Feel Love’ Donna Summer snippet) (from 1981 single)
‘And That’s No Lie’ (full version) (from 1984 ‘How Men Are’ album)
‘Play To Win’ (from 1981 ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ album)
‘Penthouse And Pavement’ (from 1981 ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ album)
‘Temptation’ (from 1983 ‘The Luxury Gap’ album)
(encore)
‘The Power Of Love’ (Glen solo acoustic) (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover from 1984 ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ album)
‘Don’t You Want Me’ (Glen solo acoustic) (The Human League cover from 1981 ‘Dare’ album)
‘Let’s Dance’ (David Bowie cover from 1983 ‘Let’s Dance’ album)
‘Being Boiled’ (The Human League cover originally 1978 single)
