British synthpop pioneers Heaven 17 have re-rescheduled and expanded their first-ever North American tour to this September and October.

A planned February performance in Los Angeles by British synthpop pioneers Heaven 17 was scuttled by visa problems and now Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware have been forced to postpone their first-ever North American tour in May because of the coronavirus. Full details right here.

Main Man Records this spring will release Hero: A Tribute to David Bowie, an ultra-limited white-vinyl LP — the label says just 300 copies are being pressed — that features The Alarm and members of Blondie, Sex Pistols, The Damned, Heaven 17 and more honoring the Thin White Duke. Full details right here.

British synthpop pioneers Heaven 17 failed to appear at last night’s Violent Femmes-headlined ’80s Weekend #9 concert in Los Angeles, but promised fans today that the visa troubles that kept them away won’t derail their first-ever U.S. tour planned for this May. Full details and tour dates here.

Pioneering British synthpop outfit Heaven 17 — originally a studio-only entity that didn’t perform live until nearly two decades after its founding — will stage a short North American tour this May that the duo of Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware are calling “our first proper U.S. tour.” Full dates and details right here.

This past week saw pioneering British synthpop group Heaven 17 do something it never had done before: perform a live concert in the United States. Specifically, Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory brought their live show to New York City’s Highline Ballroom on Wednesday night. Check out the setlist and video.

Heaven 17 has long been more of a studio entity than a live vehicle. The group, which formed in 1980, didn’t perform live until 1997. And now, 36 years after the release of their debut Penthouse and Pavement, Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory finally will bring H17 to America for a pair of long-awaited concerts next month.

Synthpop pioneers Heaven 17 — Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory — will follow up last fall’s first-ever front-to-back performances of their1983 album ‘The Luxury Gap’ by mounting a nine-date U.K. tour this October and November that’ll find the group playing the record in its entirety each night.

Heaven 17 will perform its 1983 album ‘The Luxury Gap’ in its entirety for the first time this fall in London when the band stages a two-day festival with its experimental spinoff B.E.F. — an event that will feature Erasure’s Andy Bell, Midge Ure, Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside and Boy George.

Last fall, Heaven 17 released a 2DVD set called ‘Penthouse and Pavement: Live in Concert 2010’ — and if you haven’t seen it yet, now’s your chance to win an autographed copy from Slicing Up Eyeballs.

The expanded 2CD/1DVD reissue of Heaven 17’s synthpop classic ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ will pair the remastered 1981 album with 20 previously unreleased ‘demos, instrumentals and experimentation’ from that era, plus a DVD featuring the hour-long documentary ‘The Story of Penthouse and Pavement.’

Slicing Up Eyeballs got a chance to talk to Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware last week about the making of the band’s landmark debut, ‘Penthouse and Pavement,’ as well as the forthcoming 30th anniversary tour for the album and plans for a new box set.

Classic synthpop group Heaven 17 will reissue its celebrated 1981 debut ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ this November as a multi-disc ‘super luxury box set’ that will include a full CD of newly unearthed eight-track demos, band co-founder Martyn Ware tells Slicing Up Eyeballs.