The Barrowland Ballroom, 13 November
Over the past few years, as I’ve been documenting our #AtoZMusicalTour, there have been any number of highs as musical acts have outperformed their studio output in the live setting. There have also been many, many surprises, as relative newcomers have exceeded all expectations, especially some of the ‘support’ acts.
A balance has also been struck between supporting bands on the way up, those who have maybe reached the pinnacle of their careers, while also taking time out to re-visit some of the acts that were the musical soundtrack to growing up and continue to tour and even record new material.
The Barrowland Ballroom, was the venue for such a look back to the past when Heaven 17 played to a packed floor of people who had also grown up to their music, especially that of the early 1980s.
Three cracking albums in Penthouse and Pavement, The Luxury Gap and How Men Are provided the bulk of the night’s setlist and it seemed that to a man and women, every song was sung in unison with Glenn Gregory. Happy memories for all and it was plain to see that the band, Martyn Ware, Flo Sabeva on keyboards, and the wonderful Kelly Barnes and Rachel Meadows on backing vocals along with Gregory were having just as good a time on stage.
It’s over 30 years since they released Penthouse and Pavement (1981) and it is sometime difficult to understand why we can recall every word, every keyboard fill, every nuance of the tracks after all this time when we can’t remember what we had for dinner at the weekend.
Even songs written back then still have some currency today as (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing exemplifies.
For the fans who had flocked to see the band, they were treated to a greatest hits set, classic songs that still seem as fresh now as they did when first released. By their own admission Heaven 17 never captured the mood of the time, deciding not to tour their music and rely on videos to be constantly played on the likes of MTV to garner a wider audience.
It’s a ‘mistake’ they have been looking to rectify in recent times and, on the evidence of the call and response interaction throughout the night, they could be playing live for many years to come. We can also look forward to a new album of recorded music in 2026 and their latest single, There’s Something About You shares all the characteristics of their earlier work.
As they headed towards the end of the set, Let Me Go, Penthouse and Pavement and the majestic Temptation gave the audience more options to exercise their own vocal chords to enhance further the reputation of the venue, a venue that to date, the band had never appeared before in.
While the rousing end to the official set saw the crowd sing as one, you could have heard a penny drop as Glen Gregory took to the stage with only Flo Sabeva for company to sing a poignant version of Party Fears Two. An emotional few minutes for Glen to tell the story about his friendship with Billy Mackenzie, followed by a stripped back, heart rending solo performance, save for a few soft background chords to keep the song in time. I’m pretty sure the audience support helped him get through the song too.
After the loudest applause of the night by far, the band led us into a Bowie cover of Let’s Dance and finally Human League’s Bing Boiled.
New music is fantastic, of that I have no doubt. However, looking back to your past, to when you had happy memories around the music of the time needs to be equally cherished and applauded. We Live So Fast in 2025, sometimes we should just put the breaks on and enjoy nights like this.
