14. Heaven 17
THE Roundhouse
14 OCTOBER 2011
It’s my night to drag along a metalhead mate who’s got about as much love for this band as Morrissey has for sausage rolls. The original co-pilot had bailed, leaving me with a last-minute recruit who couldn’t tell Heaven 17 from Heaven’s Gate and had the slightly dazed expression of someone wondering when the ransom drop-off is happening.
The occasion was a full-album run-through of The Luxury Gap; Heaven 17’s slick, occasionally brilliant, occasionally baffling 1983 record that gave us “Temptation”, “Come Live With Me”, and a handful of tracks even die-hard fans politely pretend to remember. It’s one of those nostalgia tours where the band lovingly exhumes a full LP like a cherished heirloom, only to realise halfway through they’ve barely played half of it live. Ever.
Let’s be honest, The Luxury Gap is the high-gloss, major-label follow-up to Penthouse and Pavement, which remains the real reason most of the punters are here in their Uniqlo parkas and aching hips. It’s the cinematic sequel to a cult classic, only with more saxophone and slightly fewer political lyrics about Thatcherism ruining your Friday.
Still, credit where it’s due: “Temptation” absolutely slapped. Funk-fuelled, synth-drenched and delivered with enough drama to make a panto dame blush. For one glorious moment, the entire venue transformed into the Blitz Club circa 1982, minus the questionable outfit decisions, with a few more dodgy knees. Everyone moved. Some people even grooved. A few brave souls tried dancing like they hadn’t spent the last decade in ergonomic desk chairs. It was beautiful. It was sweaty. It was slightly tragic.
However, try as you might, you can’t avoid the shadow looming over The Luxury Gap, as good as a few tracks it has, is still just the sequel to Penthouse and Pavement, the album we all really came for. And let’s be real, once they wrapped up The Luxury Gap and launched into the actual hits, the energy shot through the roof like someone had just spiked the crowd’s Ribena.
By the time they closed the night, Heaven 17 had reminded us all that they were, and still are, a synthpop powerhouse. Yes, it was a nostalgia trip. Yes, it was a bit creaky in places. But when those massive choruses landed, and those sequencer lines pulsed like neon heartbeats, it all clicked.