Interviews

Published on September 28th, 2022 | by Darren Paltrowitz

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Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory On The Band’s Current U.S. Headlining Tour, Long-Term Success In Music, Future Heaven 17 Plans & More

1980s new wave/synth-pop masters Heaven 17 — as co-founded by Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory — first grew out of the experimental production outfit known as the British Electric Foundation, which itself an offshoot of the electro-pop group The Human League. Heaven 17 debuted in 1981 with its critically-acclaimed album Penthouse & Pavement, as featuring their debut single “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” which remains a modern classic. The group’s second album, 1983’s platinum-selling The Luxury Gap yielded the #2-charting single “Temptation,” plus other hit singles by way of “Come Live With Me” and “Crushed By the Wheels of Industry.” Heaven 17 spent the rest of the 1980s releasing three more studio albums before going on a proper hiatus that would ensue until 1996.

Heaven 17’s regrouping in 1996 led to the new album Bigger Than America, which included the U.S. dance smash single “Hands Up To Heaven.” After another break, the 2000s saw the releases of 2005’s Before After and 2008’s Naked As Advertised. Now a collective between Ware and Gregory with piano and synth player Flo Sabeva and soul singers Kelly Barnes and Rachel Mosleh very much part of the live dynamic, Heaven 17 — a group which largely refused to play live during the 1980s — is now a powerful live act, having toured alongside the likes of La Roux and Squeeze in recent years. Heaven 17 is currently touring North America on the We Don’t Need This Fascist Groove Thang Tour, its first-ever headlining U.S. tour, with a set that mixes the band’s greatest hits, classic tracks and other highlights.

On September 26, 2022, I had the pleasure of speaking with Glenn Gregory via Zoom, as embedded below. More on Gregory and Heaven 17 can be found online by clicking here, here and here.

Tags: England, Glenn Gregory, Heaven 17, New York, The Human League

About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal.Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."

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