Heaven 17 talk ahead of Birmingham gig

But Glenn Gregory and co will perform the record back-to-back in a much-awaited 35th anniversary celebration tour that reaches Birmingham’s O2 Institute on November 17.

The album’s post-modern, cunning critique of society resonated with wide audiences in the 80s and still resonates with many in today’s generation.

And Glenn is looking forward to revisiting the record with bandmate Martyn Ware.

“The tour is a celebration of the fact that people are still buying and listening to that album 35 years later. It was our most successful album, commercially. It’s just a great reason to go out and play it.”

The record was Heaven 17’s biggest hit and followed the success of their gold-selling debut, Penthouse and Pavement, which came out in 1981.

“I think from Penthouse and Pavement into the Luxury Gap we were quite raw and energetic, quite punky. But then we deliberately decided that the Luxury Gap should be a bit more polished. We wanted to write something that would last and wouldn’t be thrown away pop. When we say it would last, we were thinking five years or ten if we lucky but never 35. But honestly, I’m not joking and not just saying it – you listen to that album now and it sounds just as modern and fresh as it did.”

Though Heaven 17 returned to the UK charts a year later with How Men Are, The Luxury Gap remained their crowning glory. It was recorded under the working title Ashes and Diamonds and peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart, earning a platinum disc for selling 300,000 copies.

The singles charted strongly, particularly Temptation, which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart and was the 34th biggest selling single of 1983. Other hits included Come Live With Me and Crushed by the Wheels of Industry. The band performed the album in its entirety on October 14, 2011 at London’s Roundhouse in a sequel of sorts to the Penthouse and Pavement concerts the band played in 2010.

A deluxe edition of the album was also released in 2012 and promoted with a tour of the UK. Glenn says the record’s success remains gratifying.

“It’s always nice to have the work that you’ve spent so much time and money on doing well. It was nice to be in the top ten and in the charts and stay there for ages. Loads bought it and it had platinum sales. It is nice to have that. But it’s always nice to push and do different things.”

The success of Heaven 17 gave the band the opportunity to collaborate with others. During the 1990s, Martin Ware produced a BEF album that featured Tina Turner and Billy Mackenzie as well as Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside, Lalah Hathaway, Billy Preston, and Chaka Khan. Ware also became a producer for the likes of Terence Trent D’Arby, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond, and Erasure. Glenn went on to form the band Ugly.

Glenn adds: “Collaboration has always been very interesting. Back in the early days and the start of Heaven 17, we had British Electric Foundation. We wanted to work with different artists. Back in the day, in 1980 and 1981, that collaborative approach wasn’t done. But we were phoning people like David Bowie and Frank Sinatra and Tina Turner and doing electronic versions of songs we loved and getting singers we wanted to add. We wanted people to do things they wouldn’t normally do.”

The band famously worked with the inspirational Trevor Horn and were also part of Band Aid.

“Band Aid was remarkable because it had never happened before. Being in that room with all those performers and singers and artists was incredible. I look back fondly and I’m really honoured and pleased and lucky to have taken part.”

The band’s enduring appeal is a source of constant pride for Glenn. “I think we’re proud of what we do. We care a lot. There’s one thing we believe in and that’s the quality. Everybody would love to have a song that wherever you play it – at a massive nightclub or festival – everybody gets up. We had that with Temptation. You can play that at your grandma’s Christmas party or Ibizia to 30,000 people and everybody is going to get up.”