1,198 HEAVEN 17, PETE WYLIE, Bristol O2 Academy, Saturday 6th November 2021

 

A swift return to the Bristol O2 Academy for me and Logan, but something completely different to Thursday’s night’s jam-packed “grunting rock pig” Biffy show… Heaven 17’s quite stupendous “live” renditions of The Human League’s seminal first 2 albums at the Roundhouse in September (gig 1,189) may have put them in serious contention for Top Gig of 2021 for me, but I still needed a bit of persuasion for this one. I’d drifted away from Heaven 17 after their fine debut “Penthouse And Pavement” album and before their catchy yet anodyne string of 80’s synth-pop chart bothering singles. So something extra was needed to twist my arm, which arrived in the ample shape of support Pete Wylie, a post-punk teen hero of mine, and the brilliant Wah!conteur and host of gig 1,141 in Birmingham a couple of years ago. I eagerly snapped up tix, and because this was a weekend, I ran a couple of tracks past Logan, advising him this would be somewhat different from his usual rock and folk/punk gigs. Surprisingly, he was still up for it!

 So a boys day out was planned; firstly the new Marvel film “The Eternals” on the IMAX, then a drive down to Bristol early, parking up just after 6 and joining a small queue outside before 6.30 doors, grabbing a bit of barrier house right (for a change here!) and chatting with fellow punters to while away the time. Waaay fewer out tonight; balcony closed off, and only a smattering of weekend couples present to welcome Wylie onstage at 7.30. Black camo-clad with a “Wah! Humbug!” hoody, and accompanied by a back-up guy playing backing tracks from a laptop (all recorded by Wylie, apart from female backing vocals provided by his daughter Mersey), he immediately strapped on his guitar and burst into epic, soaring opener “Come Back”, which sounded as brilliantly widescreen as if a whole band – nay, a whole orchestra – was playing it. Easily the best thing I heard all night, with Wylie pointing directly at me to sing the “it’s all up to you!” line, while I lustily joined in, not hurting either! Thereafter he was into a lengthy anti-tory and anti-Thatcher diatribe, comparing Bristol to Liverpool “before the wankers got in!” and dismissing tories with his motto, “give a shit or be a shit!” A marvellous “Sinful” (“this describes most of the politicians today!”) followed, impassioned and with bags of conviction, before another speech, this time thanking the NHS for saving his life after he broke his back in the 90’s, urging us to protect it and dedicating a heartfelt “Heart As Big As Liverpool” to this precious institution. It wasn’t all political sloganeering, however; Wylie wisecracking, “for Heaven 17 fans, this is a guitar!” and announcing, “I’m the best guitarist at this gig!” before another impassioned “Story Of The Blues” saw him run over time, but not before sneaking in a stripped back and quite poignant “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”. A 40 minute vignette which seemed like 10, this was superb stuff from a National Treasure; the man should have a blue plaque on his back, or at least a National Trust preservation order!

 

A still mediocre turnout (I reckon about 1/3 full tonight!) were present to welcome Heaven 17 on prompt at 8.30 to the siren strains of “Introducing”, Glenn Gregory on last and immediately, and commendably, playing to the folks here rather than those not, all expansive gestures and outstretched arms for metronomic opener “Height Of The Fighting”. The clattering rhythm of a splendid “Fascist Groove Thang” followed, Gregory telling how Heaven 17 founder Martyn Ware had asked him to join his band on Monday, and they’d finished and recorded this number by Friday!

 Gregory was once again a consummate performer, striding the stage with imperious command, telling stories and bantering with the crowd and Ware with measured ease and bonhomie, and lending his rich, stately baritone to the material. “Live”, even tracks I had anticipated with little relish were given an extra dimension with the splendid synth work and Gregory’s performance, the likes of “Come Live With Me” plaintive and yearning, and an earlier “Play To Win” pulsing and buoyant. A mid-set “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” duet with Ware was again stark and stunning, but the subsequent “Let’s All Make A Bomb”, fun, flippant and the one track in Heaven 17’s canon which stands comparison with those first 2 Human League albums, was our highlight, Logan recording this number for posterity. The robotic Kraftwerk rhythms of “I’m Your Money” was dedicated to H17 uber-fan Sumo (who’d apparently seen them over 200 times! Yowsers!), before a smoothly seductive and funky “Penthouse And Pavement” featured excellent backing vocals from the 2 girls. Then, their “franchise number” and biggest hit, “Temptation”, got the crowd singing along (if hardly raising the roof as per Gregory’s demands) with a stretched and absorbing version to finish a well-performed set, an authentic cover of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and a final run-through of The Human League’s jagged proto synth-punk classic “Being Boiled” acting as encore bookends to the gig.

 

A set-list from a friendly roadie and a swift drive home for kebabs and Mexican Grand Prix qualifying on TV capped another fun gig night with my gig buddy. Overall, better than I’d expected from Heaven 17, with Gregory’s performance in particular serving to elevate their later material considerably. But Wylie, the “Come Back” kid, won the night for me tonight…

 

1,189 HEAVEN 17 Presents “Reproduction” and “Travelogue”, London The Roundhouse, Sunday 5th September 2021

 

This one deserves a bit of context, methinks, involving a deep dive into my musical history. So here goes…

 Hallowe’en 1979 was a proper musical epiphany for me, as I attended The Brunel Rooms nightclub’s Under 18 “Nappy Night” for the first time. As a 14 year old fledgling punkster, albeit with a knowledge of said punk genre gleaned only from “Top Of The Pops” and the equally embryonic “Smash Hits” magazine, I was overwhelmed by the bombardment of brilliant new music that night, hearing the likes of Killing Joke, The Fall, Adam And The Ants, Wire, Spizz Energi and many more for the first time. However, chief amongst my new discoveries was the track that Amphi DJ Bill rather perversely used as his “demarcation line” between different tribal music sessions (punk, mod, metal, then back to punk), which was unlike nothing I’d ever heard; a robotic heartbeat pulse intro leading into a futuristic synth-powered hypnotic rhythm, with an utterly infectious hook about wanting to be, “tall tall tall, as big as a wall wall wall…” This was “Empire State Human” by The Human League, and this and its’ subsequent parent album “Reproduction”, a mix of utterly otherworldly synth sounds, quirky pop-culture loaded lyrics and irresistible earworm tuneage (not to mention a stark, heart-cracking version of 60’s staple “(You’ve Lost That) Loving Feeling”) became a firm favourite of mine. Another followed in “Travelogue”, but before I could avail myself of this music “live”, the band fractured into 2 warring factions, The Human League Mk. 2 and Heaven 17 (via the British Electric Foundation), both ultimately finding huge and enduring commercial success in the New Romantic pop landscape of the 80’s, albeit with considerably less interesting music to my then-Bunnymen infected post-punk ears (Heaven 17’s debut “Penthouse and Pavement” partly notwithstanding). So, no chance I’d ever hear any of that “Reproduction” or “Travelogue” material “live”, then…

 Until… late last year I bumped into Steffen, an old Brunel and Level 3 buddy, who casually mentioned he was looking forward to seeing Heaven 17 doing the first 2 Human League albums! Further investigation revealed he wasn’t just high on sniffing his photo development fluid (!), and that this was an actual thing, a special 40^th anniversary celebration of these 2 seminal records. Wow! I pounced straight away, and fellow “old boys” Paul and Ben needed little persuasion to join me!

 So, we headed up to London on a sun-drenched late Summer Sunday, changing parking plans en route due to tube closures, and eventually parking in Hammersmith and tubing to Chalk Farm from there. Time only to get a drink and taking a spot house left, near to one of the pillars circling the interior of this huge ornate former railway turntable shed, before the lights smashed to black and the sirens, alarms and pulsing synth bass of instrumental opener “Introducing…” washed over this expectant crowd. One of only 2 such gigs, this (the other one being the previous night in both bands’ hometown of Sheffield), so anticipation was palpable, as was the cheer that greeted Heaven 17 vocalist Glenn Gregory leading on the 6-piece band. Straight into the slashing synth-punk hook of “Almost Medieval”, and immediately any concerns I had about tonight were stamped down good and proper. It. Sounded. GREAT!

 “This has been a long time coming! Two years [due to Covid postponements] or 40 – take your pick!” announced a clearly buoyed Gregory, before giving us a more detailed heads-up as to the inception and gestation of this project; apparently 10 years in the making, these gigs, and also involving ultimately unsuccessful negotiations to bring original Human League vocalist Phil Oakey on board… actually, another later between-song preamble revealed Gregory himself was due to be the original Human League’s vocalist, Gregory deciding on pursuing an abortive photography career in London instead, and Oakey himself was recruited by Ian Craig Marsh with the recommendation, “I don’t know if he can sing, but he’s got great hair…!” Gregory was, however, the ideal frontman for this project; a total star, stylish, louche and languid, doubtless a late night torch singer in another life with his deep, sonorous baritone more than a match for Oakey’s similar vocal tones, but constantly bigging up the source material, emphasising his pure fandom for the original Human League and deflecting attention and plaudits onto the sole remaining original Human League member on show tonight, Martin Ware, with whom he shared an entertaining, jovial bonhomie, and plenty of quips and humorous asides about the songs, often at Oakey’s expense!

 The “Reproduction” run-through was nothing short of startling; “Circus Of Death”, next up, was uneasy and creepy from the opening funereal synth death march to its’ harrowing horror story lyric; a bouncy “Blind Youth” was accompanied by an excellent youth culture-orientated slideshow on the 4 large screens above the band; and whilst “Empire State Human” lacked a little musical oomph, the sheer joy and chutzpah of the song still saw me leaving my gig buddies for a dancing spot nearer the front. But it was the chilling, elegiac “Morale”, segued into an astonishingly eerie rendition of “(You’ve Lost That) Loving Feeling” which was my highlight; as heartbreakingly naked and gorgeous as the recorded version, this saw Ware join Gregory upfront for a brilliantly observed vocal duet. No screen backdrops here; not needed!

 “Zero As A Limit”’s accelerating hook (“this used to whip you into a frenzy, but you were all punks in those days!” noted Ware) concluded the first album, Gregory announcing, “It’s now time for the meat raffle!” No meat packet on offer here, though, as the sinister synth shapes of “The Black Hit Of Space”, juxtaposed with its’ frankly stupidly hilarious lyric, commenced the “Travelogue” rendition. Another superb album, this for me paled slightly in comparison to “Reproduction”, its’ instrumentals particularly feeling a little like padding (Ware himself acknowledging this, referring to them, slightly tongue-in-cheek, as, “commercial suicide!” whilst admitting, “if it was good enough for David Bowie [to include instrumentals on his album “Low”], then it’s good enough for us!”). However there were still stunning highlights aplenty, with a poignant and uncomfortably still-relevant “Dreams Of Leaving”, accompanied by films of refugees of today, emerging as my “Travelogue” highlight, just pipping a superb, herky-jerky and insanely jolly “Being Boiled” and the roof raising “whoa-oh-oh”’s of a toe-tapping “Only After Dark”.

 “That was the last track off “Travelogue”,” remarked Gregory after the conclusion of the smoothly crooning radio broadcast of “WXJL Tonight”, “the 3^rd hour gets really interesting, we’re doing “Dare” next!” Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, but the “Holiday ‘80” EP tracks and a funky “I Don’t Depend On You”, which the original band released under the pseudonym of The Men, got an airing to finish a stunning and breathtakingly swift 2 hours, before Heaven 17 actually played some Heaven 17 numbers as the encore! “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”, the sadly still-relevant yet insistently catchy call to arms, got a singular seal of approval, particularly when accompanied by the projected faces of those loathsome tory types Johnson, Patel, Gove and Raab with huge black crosses superimposed over them! Then an inevitable and lengthy “Temptation” saw heavily pregnant backing singer Rachel take the spotlight with a searing vocal performance to this, Heaven 17’s biggest 80’s hit. I’d previously always thought of this song as a bit cheesy, but this was actually a splendid rendition, and a fine way to end a superb evening.

 Persistence paid off from a set-list perspective too, projectionist Malcolm Garrett handing me a list on my 3^rd time of asking (!), then a slow egress still got us cross-town and back to the car within the hour, and home just after 1. This for me was one of the Greats; it was just amazing to hear these songs “live” for the first time anyway, but even better to have seen them treated with the love, reverence and respect they deserve. Messrs. Gregory and Ware and the rest of Heaven 17; you totally did these songs, and the seminal, ground-breaking group that was the original Human League, full and complete justice tonight. Well done folks!