Heaven 17

Synth-pop legends Heaven 17 are among the big names set to turn the clock back at Let's Rock Scotland on Saturday (August 10).

The Sheffield outfit will be joining the likes of UB40's Ali Campbell, Lulu, ABC, The Skids, Toyah, Dollar and Jaki Graham at the 80s-themed event – and Martyn Ware reckons it's a line-up to rival anything on offer this summer.

The Heaven 17 founder tells me: "I would argue that with things like Glastonbury, it's a bit patchy in terms of the acts that're on.

"Whereas with this, essentially everybody who's got an interest in that period knows all the major hits from all those bands. Because they're on the radio all the time, apart from anything else."

The keyboardist, who co-wrote such classics as his former band Human League's debut single Being Boiled and Heaven 17's biggest hit Temptation, says he sees retro festivals like Let's Rock as an opportunity to increase his band's already sizeable fanbase.

He explains: "When this all started with Tony Denton's productions back in the late 90s, a lot of bands around us wouldn't do them because they thought it wasn't cool enough.

"Right from the start we warned them against underestimating or patronising their audiences. People have much more appreciation of music that they're given credit for.

"We've seen it in multiple bills on festivals. They will pay attention to bands that have got a good swathe of songs but are maybe not so well known if it's musically interesting.

"A good example are China Crisis. They had a few medium-sized hits, and the audience loves them even if they play a longer set because they have a vibe and a certain sound which is theirs, and that seems to be something which is disappearing from a lot of contemporary live music now, which I think is sad.

"What you're getting with the Let's Rock bill is, if you don't like this bus there's another one coming along in a minute.

"It's just non-stop fun and a lot of people have found out about Heaven 17 from these bills. I think that's where the majority of our long-term fans have come from – they came to see someone else."

Let's Rock Scotland has joined forces this year with the annual Party At The Palace festival, which will follow in the grounds of Linlithgow Palace on Sunday.
That day will see Ronan Keating, Bananarama, Callum Beattie, The Farm and others take to the stage.

For Heaven 17, the event is the culmination of a short Scottish tour, with the band playing an intimate gig at Aberdeen's Lemon Tree last night (August 8).

Asked how Heaven 17 came to appear at a 550-capacity venue in Scotland's north-east amid a host of big UK festival performances, Ware, 68, replies: "We like to mix it up.

"We love those small intimate clubs 'cos that's the lifeblood of music, I think. I'm an ambassador for the Music Venues Trust and I really believe that small venues are where people learn their craft and fully get to know and understand their audience, so that when they move on to a bigger stage they can deal with that.

"It's not just a matter of selling as many tickets as possible in as big a venue as possible – people find those gigs in smaller venues much more memorable.

"Sometimes the air conditioning doesn't work properly or maybe the sound equipment is a bit old or whatever, but it doesn't matter because there's that magic in between the stage and the audience."

Times are good for Ware and his long-time musical collaborator Glenn Gregory, who's now 66.

In fact, they've rarely been better for the outfit named after a fictional band from the cult novel and film A Clockwork Orange – apart, possibly, from a glorious spell in 1983 when their lavish second album The Luxury Gap and singles Temptation and Come Live With Me all reached the UK's top 5.

While adding to Heaven 17's impressive recording legacy has become less of a concern mainly due to escalating studio costs, the composer and producer explains that the duo's live commitments show no sign of abating.

Martyn says: "The number of festivals that we do every year seems to be increasing.

"The travelling can be an issue sometimes, especially in a wet summer, but I think we're pretty good live and we enjoy it, so we seem to be selling more tickets for more events than ever.

"When we headline our own tours we normally have a theme and the next time we tour the UK there will be a different theme, which we are discussing at the moment – but I cannot divulge, unfortunately, because it's not been signed off yet.

"That will be next year but before then we're touring Germany and doing our first big arena tour for quite a while with Culture Club in December.

"We've toured with them before, 20 years ago. I'm mates with (Boy) George, he's been on my podcast, and we were label mates back in the day so we've stayed in touch since then."

* Tickets for Let's Rock Scotland and Party At The Palace are available via partyatthepalace.co.uk, with day tickets starting at just £55 for adults and £25 for children.