Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap, 40 Years of Temptation @ O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire...

Last night Darren treated me to a night out at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in glitzy Shepherd's Bush to see Heaven 17 perform their The Luxury Gap 40 Years of Temptation tour. 

 

The show was great, the songs still stand up very well after 40 years later, there are lots of cool cover versions too. But my goodness there are a lot of people chatting! As ever, it’s people who only know an act for one song and were just waiting for that song to come on - in this case is was probably Temptation. You get it at Soft Cell gigs too. People get dragged along by their mates and they just want to hear Tainted Love so chat during everything else. 

 

But we didn’t let it spoil our evening. Well, not after I had a word.

 

One particularly loud couple, were talking all the way through the gig, so I tapped the woman of the pair on the shoulder during Play to Win and said to them both (rather firmly), “What’s your favourite Heaven 17 song?” They looked at me a bit bemused. Before either could say anything I said to them (rather too loudly), “ME? THIS ONE. THIS IS MY FAVOURITE HEAVEN 17 SONG!”

They looked stunned. Stopped chatting. Just mumbled sorry, and shuffled off to the other side of the auditorium. Mission accomplished. 

 

No, no, we didn’t let it spoil our evening.

 

In fact, my favourite H17 song (and theirs too it turns out) is Let Me Go. And when they played it, my heart simply sang. 

 

Standout moment of the night though was their cover of The Associates’s Party Fears Two. Glen Gregory knew Billy Mackenzie quite well and told a very funny story about the two of them and a dog!

 

After two hours of fun and nostalgia it was almost time to go. Just time for one more song. And the place simply erupted for... Being Boiled.

 

Setlist: -

 

Introducing (The Human League cover)

Crushed by the Wheels of Industry

Key to the World

Who'll Stop the Rain

Come Live With Me

Lady Ice and Mr Hex

We Live So Fast

The Best Kept Secret

Let Me Go

(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang

I'm Your Money

And That's No Lie

Play to Win

The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover) (Glen solo acoustic)

Don't You Want Me (The Human League cover) (Glen solo acoustic)

Penthouse and Pavement

Temptation

 

Encore:

Party Fears Two (The Associates cover)

Let's Dance (David Bowie cover)

Being Boiled (The Human League cover)