Pioneering synthpop outfit Heaven 17 will perform its 1983 album The Luxury Gap in its entirety for the first time ever this fall in London when the band stages a two-day festival under the banner of its experimental spinoff group B.E.F. — an event that will feature guest turns by Erasure’s Andy Bell, Midge Ure, Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside and Boy George.
Set for Oct. 14 and 15 at London’s Roundhouse, the first night will feature Heaven 17 — Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory — performing their sophomore album (featuring “Let Me Go,” “Temptation”) in “3-D sound” developed by Ware himself. The show is a sequel of sorts to the Penthouse and Pavement concerts the band played last year.
The second night is billed as B.E.F. Presents ‘Music of Quality & Distinction’ Live, and it will feature performances of the cover songs that Ware and now-departed Heaven 17 member Ian Craig Marsh recorded with a cast of guest vocalists under the British Electric Foundation banner on 1982’s Music of Quality and Distinction: Vol. 1 and 1991’s Vol. 2.
In announcing the October event — which also will feature LaRoux’s Elly Jackson, Sandie Shaw and Kim Wilde and Gregory serving as B.E.F. guest vocalists — Ware reveals that he also will debut songs he currently is working on for the forthcoming B.E.F. album Music of Quality and Distinction: Vol. 3, which is subtitled Dark.
Ware writes:
“The album will consist of very dark versions of tunes that have to be of a certain type. It’s dark reinterpretations, primarily looking at things differently, from a lyrical point of view. It’s almost like a soundscape in much the same way as ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’ on the Human League’s first album Reproduction.”
Although the announcement makes no reference of plans to reissue The Luxury Gap in a manner similar to last year’s deluxe re-release of Penthouse and Pavement, it does say that EMI Music will issue a remastered box set featuring the first two B.E.F. albums.
See details of Heaven 17’s October event after the jump…
Heaven 17 and B.E.F. at the Roundhouse, London, UK
Oct. 14: Heaven 17 performs The Luxury Gap in ‘3-D sound’
Oct. 15: B.E.F. presents ‘Music of Quality and Distinction’ Live, featuring Boy George, Andy Bell, Heaven 17, Elly Jackson, Kim Wilde, Sandie Shaw, Glenn Gregory, Midge Ure, Green Gartside, Shingai Shoniwa, Polly Scattergood
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