Heaven 17 - Fantastic Documentary & Luxury Gap Deluxe Edition

Heaven 17's second album, The Luxury Gap is getting the deluxe 3 disc treatment this October which got me thinking and digging about and for all things H17. Lo and behold what did I find? A magnificent and definitive documentary of the Sheffield legends' career from the very early days  in the Steel City,  Human League 1.0, chart success and the British Electric Foundation right through to the present day. It also includes a very rare piece of recent (from  2010) interview footage with Martyn Ware and the League's Phil Oakey  - in the same room! - talking about the split of the original Human League

Fantastic stuff from one (two!) of the most influential electronic pop groups of all time.

Watch all 6 episodes here ...

Part 1 to start you off!



Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

For more H17/BEF goodness, check out our exclusive Elektro Diskow interview with Mr Martyn Ware here.

Elektro Diskow - Signed CD Giveaway!

The lovely people over at www.superdeluxeedition.com have 3 Elektro Diskow CDs signed by the legendary Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 (you might remember we did an exclusive interview a few months back! ;) )following their smashing review of the album. More details here! :)

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/competition-2/win-a-copy-of-elektro-diskow-signed-by-martin-ware-of-heaven-17/

Exclusive Interview With Martyn Ware from Heaven 17

We are delighted to have another exclusive Elektro Diskow interview this time in the shape of Martyn Ware of Heaven 17/B.E.F. In this excellent (even if we do say so ourselves!) interview Martyn talks about his formative musical experiences in Sheffield, playing Studio 54, watching Madonna's first public performance at the legendary Danceteria in New York and much much more! Go to our partners Mixmag's site for a read!

http://www.mixmag.net/words/interviews/heaven-17-exclusive-interview

And as a bonus treat here is the superb and very different demo version of H17's hit Temptation!

Synth Britannia

Fantastic BBC documentary (in all its full 90 minute glory!) featuring the leading British lights of the Elektropop movement  including Phil Oakey from the Human League, Martyn Ware from Heaven 17, Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet from Yazoo  and Daniel Miller from the Normal (and latterly boss of Mute Records).

The Sparks That Fired The Elektro Revolution

While previous recordings had hinted at an electronic future to come, two records came along in 1977 that changed the direction of music inspiring the next generation of electro producers. Donna Summer's I Feel Love (masterminded by Giorgio Moroder) and Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express were responsible for turning open-minded punkers on to the possibilities of machine music. On the day Martyn Ware (later of B.E.F. /Heaven 17) went to Phil Oakey's house and formed what became the Human League, he brought two records:  I Feel Love and TEE. Playing these two landmark discs, Martyn told Phil  "We can do this!"  David Bowie remembers Brian Eno bursting into the studio while they were recording Low in Berlin putting the single of I Feel Love on the deck and declaring, 'I have heard the sound of the future.'  From house to hip hop (Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker famously sampled TEE on the game-changing Planet Rock), pop to dubstep, r 'n' b to d 'n' b, all owe a debt to these visionary records.