PREVIEW: Heaven 17 celebrate 40th anniversary with Sheffield homecoming

ELECTRO synth-pop legends Heaven 17 are celebrating their 40th anniversary with a UK greatest hits and highlights tour which includes a special Sheffield homecoming this weekend.
Temptation stars Heaven 17Temptation stars Heaven 17
Temptation stars Heaven 17

Temptation hitmakers Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory return to play Sheffield O2 Academy on Saturday, November 13.

BUY TICKETS: Tickets for their Sheffield show are available at www.academymusicgroup.com

Tickets for all dates – see full details of all venues below – are available at www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

The show has been rescheduled from last year, postponed due to the Covid19 pandemic. It follows their recent anniversary live shows performing Human League albums of Reproduction and Travelogue in September.

Martyn said of the greatest hits and highlights tour : “Glenn and I are thrilled for the new dates for the rescheduled 40th anniversary tour. We have been chomping at the bit to show you what we’ve been passionately working on, and now we are more certain than ever that the wait will have been worth it. Bring it on!”

One of the most important post-punk bands in British music, Heaven 17’s songs are still as relevant today as they were at the beginning and these live shows will be a celebration of their impact and momentous career.

Hailing from the Steel City, the synth pop masters took their name from the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange.

Heaven 17 grew out of the experimental production outfit the British Electric Foundation, itself an offshoot of Sheffield’s other electro-pop icons Human League.

In 1981 Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left The Human League, recruited vocalist Glenn Gregory and Heaven 17 was born. A critically acclaimed album ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ followed the same year.

Their second album, The Luxury Gap, released in 1983, was the moment when everything just clicked into place to overwhelming effect. It became an undoubtable pop masterpiece.

Heaven 17 convinced their sceptical record company that ‘Temptation’ had to be the next single.

Heaven 17 40th anniversary tour datesHeaven 17 40th anniversary tour dates
Heaven 17 40th anniversary tour dates

A duet between Glenn Gregory and Carol Kenyon, this song of lust, brilliantly framed by a musical structure stormed the charts and remains a momentous classic to this day and an iconic live show-stopper.

Subsequent years included albums Pleasure One, Teddy Bear, Duke and Psycho, before a hiatus ensued until 1996 where they burst back onto the airwaves with huge dance smash Hands Up To Heaven.

Featuring singers Rachel Meadows and Kelly Barnes together with keyboardist Flo Sabeva as part of the live band; Heaven 17’s sly, post-modern critique of modern society has never sounded so resonant, nor been so necessary.

UK TOUR DATES

Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory return to play Sheffield O2 Academy on Saturday, November 13.Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory return to play Sheffield O2 Academy on Saturday, November 13.
Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory return to play Sheffield O2 Academy on Saturday, November 13.

Fri 12 Nov 2021 Birmingham O2 Institute

Sat 13 Nov 2021 Sheffield O2 Academy

Fri 19 Nov 2021 Bournemouth O2 Academy

Sat 20 Nov 2021 Norwich The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

Thu 25 Nov 2021 Glasgow O2 Academy.

Fri 26 Nov 2021 Liverpool O2 Academy

Sat 27 Nov 2021 Cardiff Tramshed

For more vist the official Human League web site at www.heaven17.com.

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