NEWS from 2000

• Haiminh sent some more infos:
  'A Clockwork Orange' was officially re-released on video and DVD in the UK on 13th November 2000. It is currently at No3 in the video charts - let's try and make it No1 (he says, whilst beating a fellow droog to death...)!
  
• Philip Roberts informed:
  Dont know whether you know anything about a small set carried out in Brannigans, a small pub/club in Cardiff last year?
  Just Glenn, a backing singer and backing tracks, but I was there! 4 feet away screaming the lyrics like a loon!
  He was followed by "The 80's experience", a (surprise) 80's tribute band from Birmingham, who also are to be highly recommended: full costume changes etc.!
  Glenn stood by the bar for their set, so I couldnt resist having a chat and buying him a beer. Bloody wonderful.
  
• Video clips:
  Some of you complained about the video codecs used for the videos and the weak performance of the server. Both issues are currently under evaluation, on the one hand I do re-record all of the videos using only standard codecs provided with W95, W98 or WinNT. On the other hand I already found a server with enough cheap space to save the videos. I do currently check the speed of the server at different weekdays and times. I'll send out a newsletter when these issues are resolved.
  

(8 November 2000) Another TOTP2 appearance for Heaven 17; this time they were performing 'Come Live With Me'. As usual, the captions explained a bit about the band to anyone not familiar with them. Info about their involvement in Tina Turner's "Let's Stay Together" was mentioned, as well as their funny song titles (Fascist Groove Thang, Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry, Let's All Make A Bomb, and Decline Of The West).

A great performance - even though Mr. Gregory suffered from the 'miming the wrong words' syndrome a few times!! :o)

...Electronically Yours
Haiminh

...we've just completed the backing track for another potential single - no title yet, but sounds like a real winner - maybe like Chicane a bit

Best regards and we'll have it finished hopefully by the end of January for a autumn release next year.

Martyn pp H17

Martyn Ware was featured quite heavily on a UK TV program on Channel 4 on Saturday night "Top ten of 1987". It featured the top music acts of the year, one of these was Terence Trent d'Arby. Martyn was featured as his producer and was shown in a studio, with a rather nice "How Men Are" poster behind him.

Quite a good interview really !

I'll update them with higher picture quality during the next months...

...We're just finishing a happening new song called 'Deeper and deeper'.

Martyn pp h17

Here's some more news about H17... sort of.

Footage of The Human League and their performance of Being Boiled in 1979 was shown on BBC Two's Never Mind The Buzzcocks programme. THey were featured on the 'What's The Story' round, where the panel have to guess the meaning behind the lyrics.

Some interesting observations of the footage by the panel...: The shot of Ian with his back to the camera standing in front of the 6 foot synth = Ian has his genetalia caught in the machine, which was dangerously hot. The shot of the band standing behind the windows by the pool looking at the camera = everyone looking and laughing at Ian going into the pool trying to cool his... you know what. A shot of the band playing, with Martyn - dancing and clapping away - being the main focus of attention = everyone's glad to get rid of Ian because Martyn's the best dancer.

...and...

HOST: So what do you think was the message that Phil Oakey and the band were trying to get across in the song, do you think?
TEAM CAPTAIN: "We're shit"?

Other translations and observations were given, but they're too gross or too unkind to put here! The team captain (Sean Hughes) finally gave the correct explanation of the lyrics (because he's a vegetarian).

Just in case you've never heard of the programme, Never Mind The Buzzcocks is a comedy pop quiz - so nothing's taken seriously, and insults are flying all over the place!

New release by Brilliant as a real low-budget release. In Germany the price as 10 DEM.

See discography for details.

More concert reviews and some more photos

US release of the Live album

It's being released here in the US under the Fuel 2000 label. The cover looks slightly different from what I have seen and the back cover has a cheesy photo of the band from some TOTP appearance.

Other than that it is exactly the same as the UK version.

Heaven 17 "Absolutely the best- Live Heaven 17" Fuel 2000 (US 2000) 302 061 075 2

First concert review by Drew Radke and some photos

May 2000: Heaven 17 make an appearance on Top Of The Pops 2 (known as TOTP2) with their performance of Temptation.

TOTP2 is a programme reliving all those classic hits by artists performing on TOTP. Here's what they said about them... "Viddy well my brothers - that Glenn Gregory is 42 this week. Heaven 17 were originally half of The Human League, and took their new name from Stanley Kubrick's film of A Clockwork Orange. Alex didn't like them though..."

There was also a remark about Glenn, described as 'a man who's tried very hard to actually turn himself *into* an albino...", referring to his very pale blonde hair colour!

Hi there,

Heaven 17 are booked to play at my venue, Life Cafe, Manchester, England, as you mention on the site and the ticketline is 0161 832 1111 and our website is www.lifecafe.uk.com Tickets are £10 plus booking fee (£8 if eight or more tickets purchased)

As a life long fan, having every album, I can't wait for the gig and the chance to meet the guys.

If you require any further info please contact me. The phone number for Life Cafe is 0161 833 3000.

I look forward to seeing many fellow fans at the gig!

Cheers! Steve Walter

Added some detail infos, too much to list here...

Manchester concert : no info about ticket stores available yet !

H17 will be playing at the Life Cafe, 23 Peter Street, Manchester on Tuesday Sept 5th
The show time: 9pm
Tickets : £8 / £10

Volker Büttner sent infos about a forgotten Best-Of release, shame on me ;-)

See discography for details.

New best-of release by Disky as a real low-budget release. In Germany the price as 13 DEM.

See discography for details.

See the link on my tour page for details about the Suikerrock appearance of Heaven 17, new songs being played !

A lot of external resources have gone their "normal" (?) way and have vanished. Currently I'm trying to revive some of the data being held at these former sites...

See Blind Youth for masses of info about the band members before they started Heaven 17

Added concert review for June 1997s Cardiff gig

Martyn Ware
Has just produced Columbia NY signing Mario Vasquez for Dennis Wheeler at Next Entertainment, New York at the Strongroom. His album with Vince Clark, 'Pretentious', is being released by Mute and Martyn is now writing and producing new Heaven 17 material.

Did you know, Heaven 17 have a tribute band?

They are called DARE 17 and they do cover versions of Heaven 17 and Human League records. They are playing on Friday 8th September in Bradford. Might be the only chance to hear some live stuff this year!!

Heaven 17 are playing live on 29th May in Bury St. Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds 29 May

BBC TV and BBC Radio Suffolk will broadcast with presenter John Peel and MC Craig Charles. The main stage will feature eighties pop idols Heaven 17, the Kingdom Gospel Choir and the Pan African Dance Ensemble Adzido. ALL FREE TICKETS HAVE NOW GONE - BUT THERE'S MUCH MORE TO SEE! The event will be launched at 12 noon on Angel Hill with drumming from the Drums and Pipes of the Irish Guards and music from the King's Division Waterloo Band. BBC Radio Suffolk will present at the Buttermarket stage, with African drumming, rockabilly from The Scatterjacks, Cuban dancing and revelry from Danza Libre and more. http://www.bbc.co.uk/musiclive/region/east.shtml

They are currently working on new songs. They played me two one of which was quite gospel-ly the other of which was very funky (can't recall the title but it was something like "I'm gonna make you fall in love with me") - it was great and would make an excellent single.

They plan to go into a proper studio soon and turn the demos into full recordings (although they sounded cool to me already!). They would like to have the album ready in Autumn BUT (and this is a big but) they need to find a record company to release the album... So I guess it is wait and see.

Being Boiled comes from Silkworms Being Boiled for their Silk - Hence Sericulture

24Apr2000

19Apr2000

Heaven 17 will be performing at our festival Suikerrock, in the city of Tienen, Belgium, on saturday the 29th of July. They will perform at 20h30, before our headliner Howard Jones. Entrance costs a ridiculous 100 BEF (that's Belgian Francs!), which equals about £1,6.

More info on our (soon to be completely updated and restyled) website or at info@suikerrock.be

April 2000

Heaven 17 are to release Being Boiled as their next single in the near future. It will be totally remixed and Glenn will be on vocals. Martyn (in a recent music mag) described it as sounding like Chemical Brothers.

There's actually been TWO CD re-releases: 'Temptation' (re-release of 'Higher and Higher'), and 'The Best Of Heaven 17' (re-release of 'The Best Of Heaven 17' in 1992). 'The Best Of...' re-release has the same H17 logo as 'Temptation: The Best Of...', but an old photo of the band standing against some railings or something.

The BBC's Never Mind The Buzzcocks book was released recently, and in it were sections called 'Stars of the... [insert decade]' And Heaven 17 were one of the first Stars of the 80's. Check it out... "Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory used to work polishing coffins and also had to bone bacon. Well after a hard day polishing coffins, you have to unwind somehow.
'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' is a comedy music quiz by the BBC in case you don't know.