Back to the future

A scribble brought me here. A scribble I don’t have yet. On their Instagram, Heaven 17 shared their excitement about an upcoming tour and showed a table full of pages with scribbled lyrics and drawings. I could relate to what they are for. My best way of making sure something would stay in my memory for an extended period of time has always been to write it down. Not on a computer, pen and paper work best, always.

The best part of this post was that they were giving them away. It took just a fraction of a second to raise my arm. Absolutely yes, I’d love to get one. And I will. As soon as the tour is over, they promised. I am really wondering which song it will be. Maybe something from “Penthouse And Pavement”?

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, pen and paper were obviously the only thing we could use to support our learning. Well, some of us could use pocket calculators. But I was never much into numbers, and they didn’t necessarily help in learning that much. If you didn’t have a clue, the TI-30 would just sit there, not even being able to shrug.

The final three years of school often seem like one memory block in my brain. At least when it comes to music. What did I like when? The release dates really don’t help much, other than knowing that I obviously couldn’t have enjoyed “Penthouse And Pavement” before 1981. That’s when it was published. Three years after “Being Boiled” which was two thirds Heaven 17 already, in a way. The Human League came out with “Dare” in 1981 as well, and we were confronted with “Alles Ist Gut” by Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. One year before ABC and their “Look Of Love”.

I do remember vividly how I reacted to those pieces of music. Just like my friends at school (the ones that were into music as much as I was) I was intrigued by “Being Boiled”. I think that is a really quick way to enter my music world – something that is entirely different from anything else, something that sounds distinct, has a very clear concept. I didn’t really need to understand why I should listen to the voice of Buddha – but I had to listen to that single. I bought two 7″ singles in 1978. One is “Being Boiled”, the other one “Warm Leatherette”.

For Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware, the 80s had begun with being boiled themselves, as in being kicked out of the Human League. The ugly side of it is an aspect of betrayal, the artistic side is one of diverging interests. It’s obvious when you look at the respective albums that were published after the split. One is full of political commentary, the other one is Top 40 candy. It’s not that I didn’t understand or respect the appeal of “Don’t You Want Me”, but it didn’t move much inside me. The same goes for ABC and their hits one year later. I don’t own “Dare” (but I developed a certain appreciation of the remix project, League Unlimited Orchestra), and I also don’t own “The Lexicon Of Love”.

Living in Germany at the time, DAF were a huge factor in the whole Electro-Pop story. Especially their hit single “Der Mussolini”. I remember going to a school party, a graduation bash of a posh school on the coast, and I can still feel the sense of not belonging there. Plenty of rich kids dressed in pretty clothes, feeling great in their poses of condescendence, dancing away in some kind of suburbian pogo that wouldn’t crumple their Lacoste shirts, carrying wide grins while singing along to “Dance the Mussolini / Dance the Adolf Hitler”, having tons of fun without realizing that they were happily voicing sarcastic comment about people like themselves. “Get on your knees / clap your hands”.

The lyrics of that song were controversial. Of course they were. Especially, as always, among people who knew nothing about music. My theory has always been that if you look at the people who bitch about a song like “Der Mussolini” and then at all the folks who have absolutely no comprehension of what sarcasm, irony and satire are, you are going to look at the same faces.

It’s almost surprising that this song didn’t get banned on the radio. Good for DAF. Heaven 17 were far less lucky with their first single. When they released “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” and the lawyers of the radio stations noticed that they called Reagan a “Fascist God in motion”, they pulled it off the air. That’s the difference between the UK and the continent. Even today. Just look at what happens when you publicly say that you are not okay with what’s happening in Gaza.

But back to 1981. With The Human League and Heaven 17 both being from Sheffield, and both of them recording their albums at the same time in a city that isn’t exactly studded with studios, they ended up sharing the same place, taking turns on day- and night shifts. Imagine that: being kicked out the ugly way, and then walking past your former band mates on the corridors of the studio more or less every day.

Heaven 17 chose the more difficult route. But even if their success started to dwindle towards the second half of the 80s (at about the same time as The Human League began to fade away), it was the more sustainable one. Not necessarily musically – but as a consequence of their decision to be decidedly political.

It’s super obvious, of course. All you need is one song title. “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang”. No explanation needed. It’s so relevant in the 2020s that you can simply put that title on a t-shirt to give people a chance to make a statement. You don’t even have to explain which fascist groove thang you’re talking about. Pick one. Pick any.

It doesn’t even matter that we don’t live in 160 BPM times anymore. The song itself is infinitely 80s, but the relevance of its content lets us forget about that. Just three quotes from the lyrics: “Evil men with racist views / spreading all across the land”, “History will repeat itself”, “Don’t just sit there on your ass”. Questions?

Something that I didn’t really register back then was how funky this album really is, mostly due to what John Wilson adds on bass and guitar. It adds a much needed layer of musicianship and warmth. The title track is a great example – with the added benefit of Josie Jones supplying the vocals that make the song compatible with decades to follow.

Looking back, it’s a little surprising that “Play To Win” was chosen as the second single. It rose slightly higher on the charts than “Groove Thang” which made it there without any airplay. Not an ideal choice. Maybe they thought that this seemingly upbeat and more radio-compatible selection might be liked by listeners. To be honest – I don’t really remember that song, just like “Soul Warfare”.

But then there’s the second side. Or the “Penthouse Side” as they called it. There were different approaches to the two sides of the album. Ah. Two sides. Luckily, even younger generations understand the concept of two sides as vinyl is as alive as ever. Martyn Ware has been quoted with this explanation for the duality: “The pavement side was us waving goodbye to our pure, electronic pop – that’s where we came from. The penthouse stuff was really an indication of where we were heading musically.”

Even without this explanation – the introduction to the second side makes it very clear that things are taking a different turn. “Geisha Boys And Temple Girls” starts with a synth sequence that immediately triggers images of “A Clockwork Orange” and its electronic take on classical music, and let’s not forget, this is where the name of the band came from. I always look at the chart listings in the music shop scene, with the name on the Top Ten, at number four, written as “Heaven Seventeen”.

Martyn Ware’s statement about the Penthouse Side being the future of Heaven 17 is interesting. The stripped down electronics of the first two tracks is almost arching back to “Being Boiled”. The vocals keep that from happening though. One of the most striking features of Heaven 17 songs are choruses like “Let’s All Make A Bomb”. They have this way of turning the main messages into rallying cries, chants and proclamations. There is plenty of emphasis that had the crowds raising hands or fists back then, maybe even today, hopefully without their mobile phones. He-la-hu!

The “Song With No Name” is a welcome diversion regarding subjects, a piece about writer’s block and the self-inflicted pressures of striving to be famous. “Now I’m just the man who sings” is the somewhat depressed consequence that worsens the situation. Lack of ideas didn’t seem to be a big problem for these guys, a couple of very successful albums were still to follow. I like the nice little twist on the title. Of course the song doesn’t have a name. He couldn’t come up with one, writer’s block and all.

The album closes with a little gem, again with an air of “Being Boiled”, again pushed in a very different direction by the lyrics and the vocals. More sing-along-lines, with a similar twist as the one on “Der Mussolini”, having people merrily chanting along to lyrics like “Come and join the fun on the way to heaven / Come and talk to God on the party line”. At the very end they sing “For a very long time” for a very long time. Excellent. The only way this could have been improved would have been to let that go on endlessly by looping the run-out groove.

It has become a strange planet since 1981. The societal gap between penthouse and pavement has widened massively, the “evil men with racist views” are taking over everywhere, and they are returning to say “let’s all make a bomb” as nuclear weapons testing is back on the agenda. He-la-hu. This album will remain relevant for a vey long time.

Release for review:
HEAVEN 17 – PENTHOUSE AND PAVEMENT – VIRGIN – 204 017-270

Buy the vinyl re-release: Click
Get an original on Discogs: Click