Opening the first day of the West London festival for Tony Hadley and Holly Johnson, Heaven 17 played a short support set featuring set list favourites such as the piping synth of ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, belted out by band founder Martyn Ware (the Human League) giving it feel of a ’90s club mix apt for a summer festival while still retaining their British Electric Foundation heritage industrial snaps.
This year H17’s debut album, ‘Penthouse and Pavement’, marks its 45th anniversary, with the band performing ‘Play to Win’ and the title track from that release; the former featuring a short solo by Ware. Their second album ,’The Luxury Gap’, followed with ‘Come Live with Me’, a song that singer Glenn Gregory said he performed on support for Culture Club at the O2 with thousands of phone lights being waved in the audience making him feel like Taylor Swift.
After doing a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’, which Gregory performs as the vocalist for Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s Bowie tribute band Holy Holy, the band rounded off proceedings with a return to ‘The Luxury Gap’ and their number two chart hit, ‘Temptation’, which despite them opening early to a smaller crowd, now electrified the atmosphere, with Rachel Meadows hitting the high notes on backing vocals.
10/06/26: Heaven 17 @ Royal Hospital Chelsea / Live at Chelsea, London.
Photo © Ayisha Khan.
© Ayisha Khan.