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Heaven 17
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690,042 plays
82,225 listeners
United Kingdom (1980 – present)
Heaven 17 is a British synthpop band originating in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom formed in 1980.
Taking their name from a fictional pop group mentioned in Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange (where ‘The Heaven Seventeen’ are at number 4 in the charts with ‘Inside’ [1]), Heaven 17 formed when Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware split from their earlier group The Human League and formed production company British Electric Foundation (BEF). Shortly after, they recruited their good friend and photographer Glenn Gregory on vocals to complete their lineup for Heaven 17. Contrary to popular belief, they were not New Romantics and shared few visual characteristics with groups such as Spandau Ballet and Culture Club.
Like The Human League, Heaven 17 heavily used synthesizers and drum machines. They had a few minor hits including the early ‘Play To Win’ which featured on the album Penthouse and Pavement. Their debut single ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ from the same album attracted some attention, became a left-wing anthem for a while, and was banned by the BBC because of its overtly political lyrics, but it still reached number 45 in the U.K. singles chart.
Major chart success eluded them until the single ‘Temptation’ (in which they were augmented by the vocalist Carol Kenyon) reached number 2 in the U.K. charts in summer 1983. Other songs from the same album, The Luxury Gap, also charted though not as high - ‘Come Live With Me’ reached number 5 in the U.K., ‘Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry’ reached number 17, and ‘Let Me Go’, reaching 41 in November 1982. The album itself charted at their best ever position, number four.
Taking their name from a fictional pop group mentioned in Anthony Burgess’s novel A Clockwork Orange (where ‘The Heaven Seventeen’ are at number 4 in the charts with ‘Inside’ [1]), Heaven 17 formed when Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware split from their earlier group The Human League and formed production company British Electric Foundation (BEF). Shortly after, they recruited their good friend and photographer Glenn Gregory on vocals to complete their lineup for Heaven 17. Contrary to popular belief, they were not New Romantics and shared few visual characteristics with groups such as Spandau Ballet and Culture Club.
Like The Human League, Heaven 17 heavily used synthesizers and drum machines. They had a few minor hits including the early ‘Play To Win’ which featured on the album Penthouse and Pavement. Their debut single ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’ from the same album attracted some attention, became a left-wing anthem for a while, and was banned by the BBC because of its overtly political lyrics, but it still reached number 45 in the U.K. singles chart.
Major chart success eluded them until the single ‘Temptation’ (in which they were augmented by the vocalist Carol Kenyon) reached number 2 in the U.K. charts in summer 1983. Other songs from the same album, The Luxury Gap, also charted though not as high - ‘Come Live With Me’ reached number 5 in the U.K., ‘Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry’ reached number 17, and ‘Let Me Go’, reaching 41 in November 1982. The album itself charted at their best ever position, number four.
Videos
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Play
let me go
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Play
Sunset Now
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Play
Crushed By The Wheels of Industry
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Play
Heaven 17 - Temptation REMIX1992
Top Albums
Top Tracks
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Temptation
full track
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| 2 |
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Let Me Go
full track
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| 3 |
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Penthouse and Pavement
full track
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| 4 |
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Come Live With Me
full track
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| 5 |
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Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
full track
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| 6 |
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(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
full track
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| 7 |
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Play to Win
full track
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| 8 |
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| 9 |
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| 10 |
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I'm Your Money
full track
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| 11 |
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Sunset Now
full track
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| 12 |
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Song With No Name
full track
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| 13 |
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| 14 |
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| 14 |
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This Is Mine
full track
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Shoutbox
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Flextris wrote:
Let me go!
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skott1966 wrote:
Ah the memories
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Three- wrote:
Took to long to discover Heaven 17
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Mako06 wrote:
Come listen to my fuzzy warbles
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CoKlaComa wrote:
Hey Everyone, check out my new Strawberry Switchblade group… http://www.last.fm/group/Since+Yesterday
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MyNameIsShun wrote:
lovely sound, synth pop shall return...
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SfoBrat wrote:
Artist: Molella Song: With this ring let me go (feat. phil j) they mixed in "LET ME GO" It's pretty good !! Hard to find ...
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BobbieWest wrote:
Bump n' grind music
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Shuiichiro wrote:
Goodness gracious! I can't believe the original "Temptation" sounds like this! I'll stick to CoF's version!
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DaydreamJohnnie wrote:
Awesome synth pop with lasting impact. Yelle samples "Let Me Go" in the song Ce Jeu.
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filopepper wrote:
(Fascist x Groove) + Thang = Awesome Synth Math
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treveera wrote:
Tidus .. have you listened to much early work by The Human League?
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tangerman wrote:
Honeymoon in New York is a great B-side of Height of the Fighting! (for instrumental synth lovers!) :-)
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MrSomnambula wrote:
Офигеть=)
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Tidus_91 wrote:
Geisha Boys And Temple Girls is everything I like with synths, and more than that. Love the lyrics, the overall atmosphere... perfect song. There's something in it that just doesn't appear in music nowadays. Can't put my finger on it, though.
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ZEPRATGERNODT wrote:
Always think of the old KROQ 106.7 when playing any of this stuff. When Dr. Drew Pinksky and Poor Man only had a show on Sunday nights. Jed the Fish...etc.
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lennyla wrote:
Honeyroot anyone ????
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XxForRillazxX wrote:
Let Me Go is good, but Temptation is fire on the dance floor.
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biggityb78 wrote:
I just love Let Me Go. Even like the Nouvelle Vague cover of it.
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Mereillejames wrote:
How Men Are is probably one of my favorite albums (in general) and my favorite Heaven 17 album. Their sound was so genius in my opinion. And Soul Warfare is one of my fav. songs by them, love it. I really like all of their songs though.
Events
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Nov
30
The Human League
Carling Academy Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
1 shout
| 10 attendees -
Dec
3
The Human League
Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Add shout
| 4 attendees
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Dec
4
THE STEEL CITY TOUR
Echo Arena, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Add shout
| 5 attendees
Listeners
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lx01
Top Listener
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akemit
Top Listener
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ferrari71
Top Listener
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feline1973
Top Listener
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robng15
Top Listener
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cnmuc
Top Listener
Recent Activity
- Sahrajan, aregash54, bigsquodge and 61 other people added Heaven 17 to their libraries. 3 hours ago
- busangane created the wiki page for Don't Fear the Reaper. last week
- forsgump updated the wiki page for Video. (diff) 14 days ago
- forsgump created the wiki page for Video. 14 days ago
- Maaian tagged Heaven 17 with ‘synthpop’. August 2008
- seanwhe, emannyc, cjobst and 7 other people added Heaven 17 to their libraries. August 2008
- Bessermacher tagged Heaven 17 with ‘new wave’. August 2008
- rjm67, greendragonuk, tigertwo1 and 8 other people added Heaven 17 to their libraries. August 2008
- Abikyogra tagged Heaven 17 with sheffield and she. July 2008
- mrsp17, mps69, musicfolio and 6 other people added Heaven 17 to their libraries. July 2008
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