View It From Here

On Thursday 28th January 1982, Associates released Party Fears Two.

Wait...what? Forty four years ago?!

Party Fears Two was the tenth Associates single and none of the previous nine had troubled the mainstream UK charts in any way, although they'd enjoyed some success in the indie singles chart.

Party Fears Two was the game changer for the band, a four minute poperetta showcasing Billy MacKennzie and Alan Rankine at the peak of their powers.

I wasn't alone in being completely captivated by Associates' debut performance on Top Of The Pops and Party Fears Two eventually peaked at #9 in the UK Top 40 the week of 21st to 27th March 1982.

Party Fears Two proved to be Associates' sole Top 10 hit; likewise parent album Sulk, which followed in May 1982, and it remains as powerful now as it did then, despite my having heard it thousands of times by now.

Party Fears Two is a song that only the brave or foolhardy have attempted to cover since. Fewer still - The Divine Comedy and Heaven 17 to name two - have had the balls to commit to taking their version into the studio.

I've included live performances by both, and a few more that I've discovered. None can surpass the original, but I think they've all managed to give a personal and affecting spin.

1) Party Fears Two: The Divine Comedy (Live @ The Barbican, London, 3rd September 2022) *

2) Party Fears Two: Heaven 17 (Live @ O2 Academy, Bristol, 1st December 2010)

3) Party Fears Two: Jess Brett (Live @ The Flapper, Birmingham, 12th March 2022) (buy on Bandcamp)

4) Party Fears Two: James Grant (Live @ Tannahill Centre, Paisley, 3rd June 2022)

5) Party Fears Two: Øivind Hånes (Live @ Portåsen, Mjøndalen, Norway, 12th November 2020)

6) Party Fears Two: King Creosote & Session A9 (Live @ Celtic Connections, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 16th January 2010)

 

 

 

 

 

* There's another clip on YouTube which better captures the majestic 11-piece band accompanying Neil on stage, though be warned, it ends abruptly mid-song!

Muzik For Hair Gel

Day 2 of the Eighties 12" Weekender with a new selection, based on an old idea.

Digging out archive Dubhed selections to include with yesterday's post, I'd planned to include Muzik For Hairspray, a mixtape I'd compiled circa 2000 and posted here in May 2021.

I was barely six months into the blog, Muzik For Hairspray was my 29th post and I had no expectation at the time that five years and over 1,500 posts later, I may want to re-post the selection...so I deleted it.

In recreating the original mixtape (again), I was inspired to create a companion set, inspiringly titled Muzik For Hair Gel.

The idea was simple enough: use exactly the same artists and sequence of the Muzik For Hairspray mixtape*, just different songs, and ideally ones that I hadn't used on a previous 12"/80s compilation. And it was that last bit that took the most time!

That said, I'm pretty happy with the end result. After the controversy of 1979's Pop Musik on the previous comp, today's song by M (aka Robin Scott) was genuinely released in the 1980s...just. 

Official Secrets was only released on 7" in the UK and many other countries, though the Spanish put the full length album version on theirs, and Mexico went one step further by putting it on a promo 12". Tick!

I've used the dub remix of Love Calling by Sir William of Idol in a previous Best of Billy selection, so I stuck with the album version. As with Mexico, it was Australia to the rescue this time, releasing this version on a promo 12" single. Double tick!

This is the fourth appearance on this blog of Boom! There She Was (Sonic Property Mix) by Scritti Politti. However, whilst the previous three selections all featured an edit included on the UK 12", this time it's the unexpurgated 9-minute version direct from the U.S.A. 

Divine makes a welcome reappearance, again teaming up with Bobby Orlando for Love Reaction. But what 1983 12" single could possibly have inspired their own dancefloor smash?

* With one exception.

Having recorded this selection first, I then revisited Muzik For Hairspray, only to discover too late that I've accidentally missed off the last song on Side 1 when I originally posted the tracklist. So, apologies to Belouis Some for missing out on Muzik For Hair Gel. Them's the showbiz breaks, I guess!

This weekend's selections are dedicated to Mike, his mates and anyone else making their way to the Milton Keynes Bowl for today's Forever Now festival, featuring several of today's artists and some unbelievably great headliners to boot. Have a fab day!

And a very happy birthday to Green Gartside, who is 70 today!

Side One

1) Official Secrets (Album Version By Robin Scott): M ft. Brigit Vinchon (1980)

2) Love Calling (Album Version By Keith Forsey): Billy Idol (1982)

3) Cccan't You See... (8:15 To Nowhere Mix By Tony Mansfield): Vicious Pink (1984)

4) Love Reaction (12" Version By Bobby Orlando): Divine (1983)

5) Junk (Remixed By Harvey Goldberg): Bronski Beat (1984)

6) Dissidents (The Search For Truth Part II) (Remix By François Kevorkian & Dominick Maita): Thomas Dolby (1984)

7) Where The Heart Is (12" Version By Mike Thorne & Harvey Goldberg): Soft Cell (1982)

Side Two

1) Boom! There She Was (Sonic Property Mix By Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero) (Full Length): Scritti Politti ft. Roger Troutman (1988)

2) Channel Z (Rock Mix By Don Was & Michael Hutchinson): The B-52's (1989)

3) On Your Own (New York Mix By Steve Thompson & Michael Barbiero): Pete Shelley (1986)

4) Let's All Make A Bomb (New Version By B.E.F. & Greg Walsh): Heaven 17 (1983)

5) Shock (The Shep Pettibone Mix): The Psychedelic Furs (1987)

6) It's Called A Heart (Extended) (Remix By Depeche Mode & Daniel Miller): Depeche Mode (1985)

7) Without You (12" Mix By Tim Friese-Greene): Talk Talk (1984)

Side One (45:52) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two (46:19) (KF) (Mega)

You can find Muzik For Hairspray here

And, for your further 12/80s listening pleasure:

Flying In The Face Of Fashion (2022)

Just Walk Don't Talk (2022)

Fun To Think (2023)

No Games (2024)

Party Down, Rock The House (2024)

WareHouse

Happy 69th birthday to Martyn Ware, born 19th May 1956.

Founder member of both The Human League, The British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) and Heaven 17, Martyn has also had a hugely successful career as a production, working with the likes of Tina Turner, Erasure and Terence Trent D'Arby.

Today's selection pulls together some extended examples of Martyn's production prowess, which pretty much speak for themselves. 

Have a good one, Martyn!

1) Those First Impressions (Extended Version): Associates (1984)

2) Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Parts One And Two) (Uninterrupted Single Version): Heaven 17 (1983)

3) Medley: Rock 'n' Roll / Nightclubbing: The Human League (1980)

4) Wishing Well (Three Coins In The Fountain Mix): Terence Trent D'Arby (1987)

5) I Don't Depend On You (Extended Re-Edited Version By gkugno): The Men (1979/2011)

6) Brilliant Creatures (Album Version): Marc Almond (1996)

7) Party Fears Two (Album Version): B.E.F. ft. Glenn Gregory (2013)

1980: Holiday '80 EP: 3

1983: Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry EP: 2

1984: Those First Impressions EP: 1

1987: Wishing Well EP: 4

1996: Fantastic Star: 6

2011: I Don't Depend On You EP: 5

2013: Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume 3: Dark: 7

WareHouse (47:00) (GD) (M)

Who Is More Fascist? The Fascist? Or The Fascist Who Follows Him?

With apologies to George Lucas and Alec Guinness for mangling a memorable line from the first Star Wars film...and sympathy for the United States of America. Well, half of them at least. 

 

 

 

 

Decade III: 1984

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded sometime in March 1990, discarded or misplaced somewhere along the way, reimagined and recreated 18th August 2024.

 

The halfway point, and the second of the two cassettes from the Decade series that I lost, broke or smashed with a lump hammer at some point in the last twenty years. One of these scenarios is highly unlikely.

 

I had a vague recollection of some of the songs on the previous mixtape, but I have no memory of the original 1984 tracklisting whatsoever. It probably would have featured Bronski Beat, almost certainly Depeche Mode and would I have left off Tears For Fears with Shout or at a push Mothers Talk? I don't know, but none of them have made the cut this time around.

 

The selection starts off with two of the defining songs of the year for me, by Prince and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. My appreciation of the Purple One really kicked off a few years later, but I was in with the Liverpool lads as soon as they appeared on The Tube and Top Of The Pops. Neither song has lost its edge or impact, forty years later.

Eighties by Killing Joke, as well as being an apt choice for this series, was the one that hooked me in to the band. Most likely I would have heard them on the radio previously, but it was probably Love Like Blood and the Night Time album the following year that sealed the deal. Kurt Cobain was similarly inspired.

1984 was also the year that the ZTT aka Zang Tumb Tuum label exploded, on the back of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's success with Relax and Trevor Horn's huge production. It was also the home to The Art Of Noise and the bonkers Close (To The Edit), in the days when this kind of craziness could also be a #1 single in the UK. I've got multiple versions of this song, reflecting ZTT's saturation of the market with vinyl, cassette, VHS and Beta, endless 12" remixes and probably a kitchen sink format for one of their releases. On the downside, every single length version of Close (To The Edit) in my collection is prone to vinyl crackles or tape hiss and dropout, so please excuse the slight dip in sound quality.

At the other end of the spectrum, Eurythmics were becoming increasingly more slick with each album. Previous album Touch seems to have been the jumping off point for many, though I liked it and was positively disposed towards follow up single Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four). Released to promote the film adaptation of George Orwell's 1984 (one film that couldn't afford to have a delayed release), Eurythmics also provided the largely instrumental soundtrack album. Not much to recommend it, to be honest. I skipped this album and was disappointed with the 1985 follow up, Be Yourself Tonight. 

I've inadvertently created a mini Six Degrees Of Separation here. Elvis Costello got Green Gartside in to provide backing vocals on I Wanna Be Loved. Green had also appeared on Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams album; Elvis would do the same on Be Yourself Tonight. And the thankfully prophetic Nelson Mandela by The Special AKA was produced by... Elvis Costello.

 

The thread ends there as I couldn't find any link to Strawberry Switchblade, though suggestions on a postcard are welcome. Since Yesterday is a low-fi pop classic that made me briefly want to buy a polka dot shirt. I didn't, though my fashion crimes in this decade were many and there are photos to prove it. Fiction Factory were another one-hit wonder from this year, and whilst I have no recollection of their wardrobe choices, what a song, eh?

Billy Idol came as close as he ever did to a ballad with Eyes Without A Face (UK #18 in August 1984, pop fans), though Steve Stevens succumbs about two thirds of the way in, releasing an almighty riff. None of that guitar nonsense for Heaven 17 though, who (Fair)light the way with Sunset Now, backed by female vocal trio Afrodiziak. Member Caron Wheeler would find her moment in the spotlight a few years later, first with Soul II Soul, then as a solo artist.

I'm pretty sure that I didn't include Come Back by The Mighty Wah! on the original compilation in 1990, which may have been one of the triggers for losing/destroying it years later. In 2024, Pete Wylie and Josie Jones get to close the show as only they can. A fantastic song that manages to soar even higher than The Story Of The Blues.

I'm hoping that you'll all, ahem, ‘Come Back' tomorrow for 1985, though if you're expecting Madonna, Tina Turner, Nik Kershaw and Dire Straits, you're going to be bitterly disappointed...

 

1) When Doves Cry (Edit): Prince & The Revolution

2) Two Tribes (For The Victims Of Ravishment) (Album Version): Frankie Goes To Hollywood

3) Eighties (Album Version): Killing Joke

4) Close (To The Edit) (Video Version 2): The Art Of Noise

5) Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (Single Mix): Eurythmics

6) I Wanna Be Loved (Radio Version): Elvis Costello & The Attractions ft. Green Gartside

7) Nelson Mandela (Extended Version): The Special AKA ft. Stan Campbell

8) Since Yesterday (Album Version): Strawberry Switchblade

9) (Feels Like) Heaven (Album Version): Fiction Factory

10) Eyes Without A Face (Single Version): Billy Idol

11) Sunset Now (Album Version): Heaven 17 ft. Afrodiziak

12) Come Back (The Story Of The Reds) (Album Version): The Mighty Wah! ft. Josie Jones

29th January 1984: Throw The Warped Wheel Out (#6): 9

1st April 1984: Night Time (#60): 3

8th April 1984: Nelson Mandela EP (#9): 7

10th June 1984: Welcome To The Pleasuredome (#1): 2

24th June 1984: I Wanna Be Loved EP (#25): 6

22nd July 1984: When Doves Cry EP (#4): 1

22nd July 1984: A Word To The Wise Guy (#20): 12

29th July 1984: Eyes Without A Face EP (#18): 10

9th September 1984: How Men Are (#24): 11

2nd December 1984: 1984 (For The Love Of Big Brother) (#4): 5

20th January 1985: Strawberry Switchblade (#5): 8 *

17th February 1985: Close (To The Edit) EP (#8): 4 **

Side One (46:25) (GD) (M)

* Since Yesterday debuted in the UK singles chart at #89 in the week of 21st October 1984, gradually rising week on week for three months, eventually peaking at #5.

** Close (To The Edit) first charted at #78 in the week of 11th November 1984, finally cracking the Top 10 thirteen weeks later!

Decade I: 1981

Side 2 of a mixtape compiled 4th February 1990.

 

After setting the bar high with side 1, could I hope to match it on the flipside? Well, this is 1981 we're talking about here...

 

Although I didn't start buying records in earnest for another few years, when I had a Saturday job and therefore money to spend, 1980 and 1981 were perhaps the two years when my love of music became an obsession. 

 

I started sticking posters on my wall, mostly from Look-In, occasionally Smash Hits or one of the other pop mags that included pin-ups and lyrics for all the chart hits. I used to send blank cassettes to my uncle so that he could borrow albums from his local library and help build my collection. I was fascinated by the New Romantic and synthpop bands that would pop up with alarming regularity on kids' TV shows. 

 

And pop videos! It was a perfect time, musically speaking at least.

Making a return visit on this side are Visage, The Human League and O.M.D., others for the first time but destined to reappear in later volumes. Again, I'm really happy with the sequencing of this selection, although I ran out of tape on the original recording and had to go back and fade out Heaven 17 early in order to squeeze in Gary Numan. No such ignominy in this digital age, so you get the full version of (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, as intended.

I will return to this series over the next few weekends but I have to confess that Decade volumes II and III (1982-1985) were lost many years ago on my travels. I don't have a note of the track listings either so I will aim to recreate selections that reflect what was in my collection at the time.

In the meantime, get that trench coat on, back comb that hair and go stand on a street corner looking moody whilst listening to this on your Walkman!

1) Vienna (Album Version): Ultravox

2) Europe After The Rain (Album Version): John Foxx

3) Mind Of A Toy (Album Version): Visage

4) Passionate Friend (Album Version): The Teardrop Explodes

5) Pretty In Pink (Album Version): The Psychedelic Furs

6) Grey Day (Album Version): Madness

7) Bedsitter (Album Version): Soft Cell

8) The Sound Of The Crowd (Album Version): The Human League

9) Joan Of Arc (Album Version): O.M.D.

10) New Life (Remix): Depeche Mode

11) (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (Album Version): Heaven 17

12) She's Got Claws ('Modern Dance' Edit): Gary Numan

1st March 1981: Vienna (#3): 1

22nd March 1981: Penthouse And Pavement (#45): 11

29th March 1981: Visage (#13): 3

10th May 1981: 7 (#4): 6

24th May 1981: Dare (#12): 8

5th July 1981: Talk Talk Talk (#43): 5

2nd August 1981: Speak & Spell (#11): 10

30th August 1981: Dance (#6): 12

30th August 1981: The Garden (#40): 2

27th September 1981: Wilder (#25): 4

8th November 1981: Architecture & Morality (#5): 9

29th November 1981: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (#4): 7

Side Two (46:24) (GD) (M)

Let's Celebrate And Vaporise

I first heard Let's All Make A Bomb on my brother's copy of Heaven 17's debut album, Penthouse And Pavement. 

 

I think it was one of a bunch of cassettes of albums that our uncle had borrowed from his local library and taped on his fancy hi-fi so we didn't have the artwork though I remember it well from ads in Smash Hits at the time. 

 

I loved this song but I only discovered a few days ago that an official video had been made. Unsurprisingly, it's predominantly black and white, with the band walking through an abandoned, rubbish-strewn London. You can probably guess the reason for the short segment in colour at the end... Of it's time but a brilliant if on-the-nose visual accompaniment to the song.

 

The first time the song was in my collection was not through my own purchase of Penthouse And Pavement but when a 'new version' popped up as the B-side of Come Live With Me in 1983. Although the A-side turned out to be their second UK Top 5 hit (after Temptation, which did it again in 1992), personally this was one of those examples of the B-side being a better song that the A-side.

 

In 1998, Heaven 17 released the Retox/Detox album, a double CD comprising 23 reworks of (mostly) songs from their first three albums. Let's All Make A Bomb got two 'retoxes', both quite different.

Geek aka Neale Johnson delivers a stripped back 'synthapella' version, which highlights just how good Glenn Gregory's voice is. I don't know anything else about Geek and they don't appear to have released more than a couple of singles and remixes around the same period, but this is a winner in my book.

Not an obvious choice perhaps, the other retox has ON-U Sound maestro Adrian Sherwood at the controls. As you might expect, it's a bass-booming dub behemoth, although heavier on the vocals than you might usually expect. Not to everyone's taste and perhaps won't be considered up there with Sherwood's best even by his fans. I like it a lot, of course.

I've also found and listened to three live versions of Let's All Make A Bomb, which I've enjoyed. The first is from 2010's Penthouse And Pavement tour, though no info on the location or date. It looks and sounds great.

The second is from 20th September 2022, with the band doing an impromptu version of Let's All Make A Bomb during a soundcheck VIP Meet And Greet at The Magic Bag in Ferndale, which is self-described as "Detroit's Premier Nightlife, Comedy & Concert Venue". The song was apparently prompted by a 17 year-old fan who said it was their favourite Heaven 17 song. Looking at the shuffling, mobiles-aloft audience in the video, I'd suggest that the 17 year-old was (a) in the minority and (b) possibly the grandchild of another VIP ticket holder. A good performance though and Glenn made good on his promise that the song would not be performed again in that evening's headline set.

 

Bang up to date with the final live version of Let's All Make A Bomb, performed seven weeks ago at the Kubix Festival in Sutherland. I'd never heard of this festival but interested to see that Glenn and Martyn were sharing the bill with the likes of Marc Almond, The Boo Radleys, Derek Forbes, The House Of Love, EMF, Squeeze, Terrorvision, Inspiral Carpets and - not a name I expected to see again - The Armoury Show.

These days Martyn Ware seems to be living his best life, wardrobe-wise, suggesting that he had a sideways glance at what Vince Clarke was wearing on-stage in the mid-to-late 1980s and wishing he could have some of that. And now he can. Martyn and Glenn respectively celebrated their 67th and 65th birthdays in May and all I can say is, more power to them.

I've never seen Heaven 17 live in concert and (I think) there are tickets left for an upcoming gig in Bristol in November, which is also a Friday night. The only downside is that it's the O2 Academy, a venue that I'm not a particular fan of. Mrs. K likes the music but also dislikes the venue. Decisions, decisions...

No surprise that the news of two desperate male despots meeting and talking potential arms deals called this song to mind and growing up at a time when mutually assured destruction was a bandied around with resigned abandon. There's a good interview with Martyn Ware from 2021 on 909 Originals which mainly focuses on (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang but also touches on Let's All Make A Bomb and other songs from the period. Well worth a few minute sof your time.

And as the low aggress the high
All you can do is sit and cry
You've only got yourself to blame
Don't try to stop me it's too late
My mind's made up, this job won't wait
There's nothing left for me to say

 

Hey! There's no need to debate
It's time to designate your fate
Take the M out of M.A.D.
Let's all make a bomb

 

 Take one hundred scientists or more
Place in a room and lock the door
Let them confer for half their lives
Unlock the door, go in and see
What they have made for you and me
A brand new toy to idolize

 

Hey! There's no need to debate
It's time to designate your fate
Take the M out of M.A.D.
Let's all make a bomb

 

 Although the war has just begun
Ignore the sirens, let's have fun
Put on your best, go out in style
Although our future's looking black
We'll go down town and join the pack
Let's celebrate and vaporise

Senza Voce

...or 'without voice' (thank you, Google translate), which sums up today's selection of instrumental songs, stripped of their usually familiar vocals bar the odd sample, whoop and ad lib here and there.

When trawling for ideas for a cover image, I was reminded of the rather bizarre primary school ritual of 'fingers on lips'. Teachers obviously considered us such a wild, unruly, feral lot that simply telling us to be quiet wasn't enough, we had to seal the deal by placing a digit on our mouth and hold it there until we were deemed worthy of voice again. What a strange instruction. 

 

No surprise that Shane MacGowan would struggle with this into adulthood, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 seems similarly resistant but you can rely on ol' Madge, although she's unsurprisingly adopting the role of teacher not pupil here.

For anyone feeling anxiety before casting their eyes down at the track list, I can reassure you that Hush by Kula Shaker does not appear in any shape or form. There is Simply Red, but DJ Muggs has done us all the favour of removing Mick Hucknall altogether...along with pretty much the whole band, by the sound of things.

The selection starts with the opening track of Madonna's 1998 album Ray Of Light, albeit with no trace of Ms. Ciccone's dulcet tones. From there, we go past Simply Red to Tears For Fears reading Sylvia Plath, winding our way into Hell's Ditch where we find The Pogues and Joe Strummer.

Love And Rockets lend a hand out of the ditch with an instrumental version of If There's A Heaven Above, re-titled God And Mr. Smith, before Frazier Chorus give us a lift the rest of the way there until The KLF point out that we're actually about 30 miles southwest of Glasgow 3 miles north of Manchester [note; thanks for the save, Charity Chic, I don't think anyone noticed!]

 

Renegade Soundwave riff on Serge Gainsbourg with their eponymous 1994 single, crashing into Yo La Tengo's motel room in the wee hours of the morning with Jah Wobble and Animal (Dave Maltby, not the Muppets drummer). 

 

Crawling out of the room the following morning, we find Pete Wylie slumped against a wall, with a note pinned to his chest explaining that L'Espwah! is French for Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me). I got a D in my French 'O' Level, so I don't have a clue what he means. 

 

No-Man promise fun Days In The Trees but we're distracted by The Wolfgang Press arguing with the vicar about Christianity outside the local church. We ditch the both of them and head back with Heaven 17. I'm hungry and fancy noodles but all we get is a noodly Fairlight and System 100 Simulated Classical Guitar instrumental of The Skin I'm In, which does little for my appetite.

Depeche Mode try to convince us that It Doesn't Matter but having had enough of them all, we head off with It's Immaterial to find some Space. Peace at last, and it only took an hour.

 

1) Drowned World / Substitute For Love (Instrumental Version By Madonna & William Orbit): Madonna (1998)

2) Never Never Love (DJ Muggs Instrumental Mix): Simply Red (1996)

3) Johnny Panic And The Bible Of Dreams (Instrumental): Tears For Fears (1990)

4) Hell's Ditch (Instrumental Version By Joe Strummer & Paul Cobbold): The Pogues (1990)

5) God And Mr. Smith (Instrumental Version): Love And Rockets (1985)

6) Heaven (God Like Instrumental) (Remixed By Youth): Frazier Chorus (1990)

7) Prestwich Prophet's Grin (Instrumental Remix) (120 BPM): The KLF (1988) 

8) Renegade Soundwave (7" Instrumental): Renegade Soundwave (1994) 

9) From A Motel 6 #2 (Instrumental Version): Yo La Tengo (1993)

10) A Long, Long Way (Instrumental): Jah Wobble with Animal (1982) 

11) L'Espwah! (Instrumental Version By Mike Hedges & Pete Wylie): Wah! (1983)

12) Days In The Trees (Bach) (Instrumental Version By Steven Wilson): No-Man (1991)

13) Christianity (Instrumental Remix By Drostan Madden & Howard Gray): The Wolfgang Press (1995)

14) Skin (Instrumental Mix By Greg Walsh & Martyn Ware): Heaven 17 (1984)

15) It Doesn't Matter Two (Instrumental): Depeche Mode (1986)

16) Space (Instrumental Remix By Bert Bevans): It's Immaterial (1986)

 

1982: A Long, Long Way EP: 10

1983: Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me) EP: 11 

1984: This Is Mine EP: 14

1985: If There's A Heaven Above EP: 5 

1986: A Question Of Lust EP: 15

1986: Space EP: 16

1988: Burn The Beat (USA 12") / Shag Times: 7

1990: Advice For The Young At Heart EP: 3

1990: Ray / The Baby Album (ltd 2x CD): 6

1990: Summer In Siam EP: 4

1994: Renegade Soundwave EP: 8

1995: Christianity EP (USA promo CDS): 13

1996: Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo: 9

1996: Never Never Love EP: 2

1998: Ray Of Light (Instrumentals) (bootleg): 1

2001: Lost Songs: Volume One: 12

 

Senza Voce (1:00:37) (KF) (Mega)

Time For Another Party!

I don't often post about an artist in quick succession, but I had unfinished business with Heaven 17. Wednesday's post of Heaven 17 12" mixes was originally intended as a single, 15-track, 90 minute behemoth. I just had one problem: much as I love and wanted to include This Is Mine, I've never been satisfied with any of the 12" versions. 

This Is Mine was originally released on 7", 12" (with fold out poster) and limited remix 12". Across the formats you'll find the Single Version, Extended Version, Mine (an instrumental version), Filmix and Cinemix. The version of the latter on the European 12" is nearly 3 minutes longer than it's UK counterpart, but none of them really do it for me. 

 

One of my early music blog discoveries in the early 2000s was Dreamtime, picking up the baton of Razormaid, Art Of Mix and their ilk and producing new, ultra-extended re-edits of 1980s classics. I liked the idea, even if the execution was often only as good as the variable source material. The blog was retired in 2012, the victim of numerous DMCA notices, but a few edits subsequently resurfaced on Dreamtime's Soundcloud page and various YouTube places, including this one.

The Dreamtime Mix of This Is Mine is nearly 10 minutes long and starts off brilliantly, switching between different mixes. Ultimately, it's let down by a couple of jarring changes in vinyl source and playing speed and it was far too long for this selection. I ended up creating a very simple edit of my own, essentially taking the Album Version and, inspired by the Dreamtime Mix, overlaying a couple of elements from the end of the Filmix to create a longer intro. In reverse, I also created a reprise to close this selection by taking the Album Version intro and splicing that with an offcut of the Filmix outro. I'm not going to pretend it's any better than the others, but I do at least get a version of This Is Mine that I like and a selection that more or less matches the C90-friendly run time of Wednesday's part 1.

Sandwiched between the coffee-fueled re-edits, you'll find another bunch of Heaven 17 favourites, including a few album tracks that received the remix treatment and appeared as 12" B-sides, as well as 1986's Endless compilation. 

 

Today's selection is dedicated to Mike and Echorich...East Side, West Side, the world moves on!

1) This Is Mine (Dream Within A Dreamtime Streamix Re-Edit By Khayem) (2022)

2) We Live So Fast (Special Dance Mix) (1983)

3) Play To Win (B.E.F. Disco Mix) (1981)

4) Who'll Stop The Rain (Special Dance Mix) (1983)

5) Penthouse And Pavement (12" Mix) (1981)

6) Trouble (U.S. Club Mix By Bruce Forest) (1987)

7) Let's All Make A Bomb (New Version) (1983)

8) This Is Mine (Filmix Reprise Re-Edit By Khayem) (2022)

 

1981: Penthouse And Pavement (12"): 5

1981: Play To Win (12"): 3 

1983: Come Live With Me (12"): 7

1983: Temptation (12"): 2, 4 

1987: Double Trouble (limited edition double pack 12"): 6

2022: This Is Mine (Khayem Re-Edits) (MP3): 1, 8

Time For Another Party! (44:53)

Time For A Party!

After slowing it down yesterday, time to pump it back up today with some Heaven 17. Glenn Gregory, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware had known each other previously, but formed Heaven 17 when the latter two split from The Human League, initially launching production entity B.E.F. aka the British Electric Foundation.

I think I first took notice of Heaven 17 in 1981 when they performed Play To Win on Top Of The Pops. One of those frequent TOTP oddities in that the single only managed #46 in a 7 week run. However, it left a lasting impression because I found Glenn Gregory's facial expressions both alarming and hilarious and I couldn't work out what Ian Craig Marsh was leaning into the mic to mime. And the ponytails...! I've just found and watched it again on YouTube and it's every bit as entertaining as I remembered.

 

I probably got into Heaven 17 with either K-Tel's Modern Dance compilation, which featured both Play To Win and Penthouse And Pavement (and which I wrote about last year) or my brother's cassette of the Penthouse And Pavement album. Either way, once I had a Saturday job and some money, I got that and The Luxury Gap on vinyl, plus 12" singles when I could get them. Whilst I enjoyed Sunset Now and ..(And That's No Lie), I'd lost interest by third album How Men Are and only bought a couple more singles (Contenders and Trouble) and the Endless remix cassette compilation during the rest of the 1980s.

 

Heaven 17 enjoyed a brief resurgence of interest in the early 1990s with a trio of remixed singles and a best of compilation. Brothers In Rhythm's remix of Tempation attained #4 (two places lower than the original) and a (pretty ropey) remix of debut (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang by Rapino Brothers just bettered the original UK chart placing of #45 by scraping to #40. Penthouse And Pavement, arguably the best of three remixes, only managed 1 week and #54, three places higher than it's previous attempt at global domination in 1981.

 

The trio reunited in the late 1999s and produced new music. Ian Craig Marsh stopped touring with Heaven 17, left the band around 2007 and subsequently became a music teacher. Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware have continued as a touring concern and - pandemic permitting - will resume live performances during 2022.

 

I've approached today's selection as the first of a series, dip sampling some of the 12" versions from their 1980s heyday. It's been done before and - with the exception of the Let Me Go! / Temptation segue, I wanted to avoid a slipshod retread of the Endless compilation. I had the limited edition box set cassette, which looked lovely and (Heaven 17 Megamix aside) was an almost perfect compilation. Unfortunately, living in a very damp and cold bedsit in Derby in the mid-1990s did for it, the outer box becoming mouldy and the cassette unplayable, so I had to ditch it. 

 

This selection misses some personal favourites, including the aforementioned Play To Win and Penthouse And Pavement as well as Let's All Make A Bomb, and adds a post-Endless track with the best remix of Contenders. There will be more to come, hopefully this year!

 

In the meantime, the official Heaven 17 website still appears to be offering a free 3-track EP from 2011, if you join the mailing list.

1) ..(And That's No Lie) (Re-mixed To Enhance Its Danceability) (1985)

2) Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Extended Dance Version) (1983)

3) Contenders (U.S. Club Mix By Bruce Forest) (1987)

4) I'm Your Money (Special Fortified Dance Mix!) (1981)

5) Let Me Go! (12" Extended Version) (1982)

6) Temptation (Special Dance Mix) (ft. Carol Kenyon) (1983)

7) (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (Full Length Version) (1981)

8) Sunset Now (Extended Version) (ft. Afrodiziak) (1984)

 

1981: I'm Your Money (12"): 4 

1981: (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (12") / Penthouse & Pavement: 7

1983: Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (12"): 2

1983: Temptation (12"): 6

1984: Sunset Now (12"): 8

1985: ..(And That's No Lie) (12"): 1 

1987: Double Trouble (limited edition double pack 12"): 3

Time For A Party! (46:28)