Heaven 17/B.E.F. Weekender – 14/15th October 2011

I’ll admit this right now. Back in the day, I was never a massive Heaven 17 fan. I liked them, really liked all their singles, especially Temptation which used to get the hell danced out of it at Attleborough Disco on a Friday night by me and my mates in 1983 for the paltry price of 50 pence!

However, over the last 30 years, I have grown to appreciate them more and more, as well as Martyn Ware’s side project, the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) whose electronic cover versions of soul classics have been a constant source of joy over the years.

You see, Heaven 17 aren’t just another 80’s pop band on a revivalist trail. They’ve been making new and original music on a fairly continuous basis for over 30 years, with Martyn Ware being a founding member of the Human League before the acrimonious split that saw lead singer Phil Oakey take the band in a more commercial, yet still deeply electronic, direction and score massive hits the world over. Martyn & fellow Human League-r Ian Craig Marsh, decided to, on the advice of their manager, form a production company of sorts, financially backed by the ever daring Virgin label. This project, called British Electric Foundation, started creating music about the same time that Glenn Gregory came back to Sheffield after a stint as a photographer for one of the music rags in London. Having been Ware & Marsh’s original choice for vocalist of the Human League, they asked him to join their new project, Heaven 17. Both projects ran side by side, with Gregory providing his first vocals to a B.E.F. track rather than a Heaven 17 one.

The rest, as they say, is history, and probably better documented elsewhere. It’s a well known and classic story. Naturally, their time in the limelight has dwindled over the decades, and Martyn has fingers in other technological pies, running a company that designs state of the art audio/visual installations. But the remaining members of the band (Marsh left c.2006) still go on and their last studio album, “2008’s Naked as Advertised was a glorious collection of covers.

So, back to the future. Earlier this year, the band announced a pair of one off gigs. First up was a performance of their second, and some might say, biggest album, The Luxury Gap. After 2010’s Penthouse and Pavement gig in Sheffield, this was an opportunity to celebrate it’s successor outside of the Steel City and also the opportunity to play a lot of the songs live for the first time. To add to the occasion, it would be presented in 3D sound. The second night was even more special. British Electric Foundation would perform their first full live gig, their only previous outing being a few tracks at a Billy MacKenzie tribute.

Poster

Naturally, I was very keen to get to these gigs, probably more so for the B.E.F. experience as I had been a massive fan of the Music of Quality and Distinction (MoQaD) compilations for many years. Whenever I talked to people about them, I’d get a “Who?” or “Never heard of them” and this frustrated the hell out of me! So here was a chance to see and hear them live and be with other like minded individuals!

I decided to make a big thing of it and booked a hotel for me and my missus and arranged to meet friends, one of whom was my musical writing partner over the last few years, Micky Dodds, whom I had never physically met before! We arrived in London on the Friday afternoon, off-loaded our luggage and proceeded into Camden to meet up with Micky and our other friends, Gavin & Chris. After a few pints and a meal, we sauntered off to the Roundhouse, a gorgeously quaint venue that used to serve as a railway turntable building. Once inside, we managed to get about 8 deep from the front and the warm up DJ, (Mark Jones from Wall of Sound) was in full swing. I’ve never been that impressed by watching DJ’s and this guy really cemented that opinion, doing little more than putting a record on, waving the sleeve around and then, when it had finished, putting another one on and repeating the sleeve waving. Sure, the tunes were suitably 80’s in theme, but hardly doing the job of warming up.

Thankfully, we didn’t need much warming up as Glenn, Martyn and the band took the stage. Just prior to this, we had been treated to a demo of the 3D sound as the glorious B.E.F. ident glistened around the room from all sides. Subtle but extremely effective was the verdict.

The band launched into the album with great haste, observing the track order so it was a bit strange to hear the big numbers like Let Me Go & Temptation early doors rather than the usual place as end of gig crowd pleaser’s. But still, the order was familiar and the crowd were in no way offended 😉

Glenn Gregory

Glenn strutted his stuff around the stage, a consumate front man with immense presence and a distinct, cheeky twinkle in his eye. He’s clearly a flirty character and it pays great dividends. You can’t help but like the guy 🙂 Martyn, on the other hand, remained fixed behind his Roland V-Synth GT, looking suave and statesman-like. The rest of the band, including the amazing Billie Godfrey on BV’s were pretty tight, although it was fairly obvious that a lot of the performance was sequenced with the drummer keeping everyone else together with his click track.

Once The Luxury Gap had been filled, so to speak, they moved on to, what was for me, the highlight of the evening, not that the Luxury Gap was in any way less than brilliant, but to hear them do spectacular versions of You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (the Righteous Brothers track that Human League Mk.1 had covered) as well as The Black Hit of Space, from the second Human League album, Travelogue, was a dream come true. A dream that could only be bettered by hearing Ware/Marsh/Oakey doing it. Four tracks from Penthouse and Pavement brought the show to a close but it was the encore that finally blew my mind. They returned on stage to do a fantastically rousing version of Being Boiled, the entire audience clapping along to it’s distinctive rhythms. A house version of Temptation that had the crowd jumping was the last hurrah and we were left exhilarated and exhausted, yet blissfully happy!

So, after that, we all went to Electric Dreams, a monthly club night held in the subterranean London Stone pub. Much dancing & giddiness to excellent 80’s tunage was had until the early hours of the morning when we finally ventured home to north of Camden Town.

2manydjs

The following day saw us traipsing around Camden market and ascending Primrose Hill until it was time to get ready for the second show. I made sure our little entourage got their a bit earlier as I really wanted to get as close to the front as possible and I also wanted to hear the DJ set as this time it was provided by 2manydjs, aka Soulwax aka The Flying DeWaele Brothers! I’ve been a massive fan of their work, be it the mash ups, remixes or the truly brilliant live band Soulwax. And I wasn’t disappointed. I mentioned earlier that I had never been that impressed by DJ’s spinning records (or CD’s/MP3’s) but these guys are just a different class. The two brothers spin tracks, apply FX and bounce off of each other so well, it’s mesmerising. You can see the concentration, the excitement, the fun and the massive musical knowledge they must have to put this stuff together. Truly astounding and a joy to behold.

And the trend was forever upward as the B.E.F. ident rang out once more and on walked Martyn Ware and the band (the same guys from the previous night plus the addition of the gorgeous Kelly Barnes on BV’s). Martyn said a little introductory piece and then introduced Glenn Gregory to sing one of his tracks from the Music of Quality & Distinction album, Glen Campbell’s beautiful Wichita Lineman. This saw Glenn don an acoustic guitar for the final section and after the track he treated us all to an impromptu acoustic version of Don’t You Want Me, with some cheeky, but very fun comments about Phil 😉

Glenn was followed by Midge Ure, a man I met once before and who is very down to earth and genuine. He took on two of the Billy MacKenzie tracks, namely The Secret Life of Arabia, a Bowie number, and the Roy Orbison classic, It’s Over. Both were done with finesse and aplomb and Billy would’ve been proud, rest his soul.

Midge Ure

Midge was asked to do Vienna by an over enthusiastic member of the crowd, to which he replied, “Nah, tonight is about music of quality and distinction!” A humble and self deprecating comment that raised a hearty laugh. Midge was then followed by Kim Wilde who knocked me for six, looking as hot as ever and then proceeded to belt out the R. Dean Taylor classic, There’s a Ghost in My House and the Stevie Wonder track, Every Time I See You I Go Wild, a number she has recorded for the 3rd B.E.F. album due next year. She rounded her stint off with a cracking version of You Keep Me Hangin’ On, a song she made her own in 1989 but was originally performed by Bernadette Nolan on MoQaD Vol.1.

Green Gartside

Next up, my musical hero Green Gartside. Introduced as a genius, and rightly so, he lent his sugar sweet vocals to a sultry version of the Delfonics hit, Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) as well as his track from MoQaD Vol.2, another Wonder classic, I Don’t Know Why (I Love You). Looking typically nervous on stage, he performed brilliantly and even after all this time, and seeing him live on previous occasions, I still can’t believe that voice comes out of that body! Amazing.

We than had a rather unique performance by Polly Scattergood of the Bacharach/David standard, The Look Of Love. I say unique, it was certainly dark by nature, with Polly pulling all sorts of strange moves. But it was nonetheless very good!

After Miss Scattergood had left the stage, Heaven 17’s backing singer Billie Godfrey did her cracking version of the Bronski Beat debut Smalltown Boy, a minimalist soundscaped version that lasted 7+ minutes, ending in a sparse, thumping beat and Billie’s trademark soaring vocals. She then took charge of the track that made B.E.F. what they are today by propelling Tina Turner back into the spotlight with her version of the Temptation’s track, Ball of Confusion, Billie making the track seem her very own.

Kate Jackson

So, taking us into the second half of the show, we were introduced to Kate Jackson, formerly of the Long Blondes. Her contribution was two fold. Firstly, her track from the forthcoming B.E.F. long player, an exquisite slow tempo version of Blondie’s Picture This, swiftly followed by a brilliant duet with Glenn Gregory doing Bowie’s Boys Keep Swinging. A real crowd pleaser, that was for sure.

Time for a couple of lesser known names, but certainly no drop in quality. Backing singer Kelly Barnes proved why she is highly regarded by Martyn by doing her version of Teena Marie’s Co-pilot to Pilot, followed by Sheffield songsmith David J Roch doing a powerful and dark rendition of Bill Withers The Same Love That Made Me Laugh, a version that I have no doubt Withers would be proud of.

Shingai Shoniwa

The next act was, for me, the absolute highlight and revelation of the evening. Shingai Shoniwa is lead vocalist with The Noisettes, famed for their hit single Don’t Forget The Rhythm. That track hadn’t really done it for me, but when this lady took the stage in her skimpy white skirt and vest top with jaunty little fascinator, her stage presence and unique voice blew my proverbial socks off. She kicked off her heels and pranced and sang like an infectious pixie, high on happy juice! Her versions of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come, performed on MoQaD Vol.2 by Tina Turner, was only bettered by the stunning version of God Only Knows. The Beach Boys classic is a thing of rare beauty and rarely equalled, but this version was nothing short of mind blowing and infectious.

Sandie Shaw

And then it was time for a bit of class as Sandie Shaw came on, sporting a flowing black gown with revealing split right up her left side to sing not only the song she did on MoQad Vol.1, Anyone Who Had a Heart, but also the mildly ironic Walk In My Shoes, originally performed by Gladys Knight. She can still hold a brilliant tune and loved every second on stage. As did we.

The final singer of the night was none other than Boy George, a man who possesses what I still think is one of the finest soul voices this country has produced. Doing Lou Reed’s Make Up followed by the Nancy Sinatra song, These Boots Were Made For Walking (sung by the late Paula Yates on the first MoQaD album) he was his normal, cheeky self who very professionally clawed back a slight miscue on the second number to bring it home with style!

Glenn Gregory re-appeared to take care of the track performed by Gary Glitter on MoQaD Vol. 1, Suspicious Minds, complete with Glitter-esque drums and a few jokes at Mr Gadd’s expense!

And that was it.

Well, not quite. The crowd wanted more and Martyn came back out a few minutes later to tell the crowd they had nothing prepared but would we wait a few minutes whilst they sorted something, to which a big cheer came. He was soon joined on stage by Sandie Shaw, Boy George, Glenn Gregory and Green Gartside as well as the rest of the band to do the house version of Temptation again. This went down like the proverbial bomb and then off they went, as did we, into the night, headful of wondrous music and memories galore.

Kelly, George & Green

Glenn & Sandie

Martyn Ware

Next up for me, a trip to the British Music Experience at the O2 Arena to see a special one off show by Buggles!! 🙂