Heaven 17's Martyn Ware says his music could keep Sauchiehall Street calm

Oct 24 2012 EXCLUSIVE by Joe McGuire

HEAVEN 17 star Martyn Ware reckons his music could keep Sauchiehall Street calm at the weekend.

The musician – who also played with Human League –is best known for his unique brand of 80s pop.

But he’s also at the forefront of sound technology.

And last Halloween, using 3D technology and a specially created calming soundscape, Martyn managed to pacify Brighton’s boisterous West Street.

The Sheffield-born musician said: “We had gone down a week earlier and there was fighting, people getting bottled, three police vans with dogs.

“But everything we tried worked . In two hours the police were deployed elsewhere as there was no prospect of any trouble.”

The findings of the experiment, carried out with the assistance of the Noise Abatement Society and the University of Sussex, are now being presented to conferences across the globe.

He added: “I’d love to come and give it a go on Sauchiehall Street.

“If the local council were up for it, I’d be all ears.”

Three decades on from the formation of Heaven 17, Martyn is performing at the O2 Academy in Glasgow tonight as part of their Luxury Gap tour.

And he admits he never thought he’d be back on the road with the band 30 years later.

He said: “We did have an avowed intention to make our music timeless but in our head we used to say we’d like people to be listening to it in 10 years time – 30 years was inconceivable.

“I had no idea that 30 years later I’d be performing it live and touring. I feel very proud and flattered by that.”

He reckons their longevity is partly down to the political undertones of their songs – which are still relevant today

With their hits written during the height of Thatcherism, with more than three million people unemployed,
Martyn thinks the parallels with the Britain of 2012 are obvious.

He said: “The way it looks now is not that dissimiliar to the way it looked then. At the heart of it is a country that’s in a state of some kind of crisis for the majority of people.

“I was talking to Glenn Gregory the other day and we were saying if we were to do another Heaven 17 album it would almost make sense for it to be the Luxury Gap 2 - approaching the same kind of issues we did then in a contemporary manner.

"I think the bankers would come into it somewhere.”