Heaven 17 - Penthouse and Pavement

This month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Penthouse and Pavement, the debut album from the UK synthpop band Heaven 17. This 1981 record charted at number 99 in Australia, number 45 in New Zealand, number 24 in Sweden and number 14 in the UK. It stayed on the UK charts for seventy-seven weeks and had achieved Gold sales status by October of the following year.

Heaven 17 - Heaven 17

In September of 1981, the British synth pop band Heaven 17 (the trio of Glenn Gregory, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware) released their debut album Penthouse and Pavement. The record went all the way to number 14 on the UK charts and became a Gold seller.

In early 1983, a remixed version of that album called Heaven 17 was released in the US, where it climbed all the way to number 68 on the Billboard Hot 200. This happens to be one of my favorite albums from the 80’s, so today I thought I would give an in-depth look at it to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary.

Heaven 17 - Heaven 17 / the Luxury Gap

It was my senior year of high school (1982-1983). I would spend my Saturday afternoons listening to the local SUNY Fredonia college radio station - in particular a show called "Vito's Saturday Afternoon Tea Party". The DJ would play a lot of different things, including some new wave acts that weren't making much of an appearance on the mainstream stations. One such band was Heaven 17.

This synthypop trio immediately caught my interest. Their songs were full of catchy dance hooks and political lyrics. I immediately was a fan. It didn't take long for me to go to the local Record Giant to seek out any albums by this band. While their debut Penthouse and Pavement (1981) was not readily available in the US, they did have a self-titled platter that was most of the tracks of that debut album (slightly shuffled) along with two tracks from their second UK album.