Heaven 17 | We Don’t Need – This Fascist Groove Thang Tour 2019, Capitol Mannheim

Although I was musically socialized in the eighties and had a big interest in electronic music ever since, Heaven 17 was never part of the bands I actively listened to. When they were being aired on the radio or played on some other occasion I enjoyed their music, but that was about it. But having ties to The Human League and being part of the eighties synth culture, the tour announcement sparked my interest, and since Mannheim is not that far away from Frankfurt, this was an opportunity to finally go and see them.

There was the possibility to see the show here in Frankfurt where I live, but since 13th April 2020 would have been Easter Monday, I felt a visit to an electro-pop concert was more appropriate for another day. So I settled for the show at Mannheims ‘Capitol’, a venue I hadn’ been to before, and a nice concert is always worth a little trip. It also added a show to the list of bands I hadn’t seen live yet*.

This was the last show I visited before Christmas and for that matter my last concert for 2019. Last Friday OMD played in Frankfurt and today I got to see Heaven 17, a nice wrap for this year in terms of live shows.

I don’t think there was a special reason to go on tour, e.g. no new album to promote, no anniversary tour, etc, this was a tour just for the fans … maybe, and maybe testing the waters for a bigger tour to come.

Tonight’s show had a brief setlist, no merchandise stand, no tour book. However, even if they just went on tour to reiterate the message “We Don’t Need – This Fascist Groove Thang”, this statement alone would justify touring. This message hasn’t been more relevant for a long time and can’t be stated often enough these days, especially here in Germany.

The stage design was a simple one, one keyboard stand with a white (master) keyboard for Martyn Ware, and a stand with a black stage piano further in the back towards the middle of the stage. And of course, the microphone stands for the singers. The stage lighting was provided utilizing the in-house system, at least that’s the impression I got. I must admit, I like simple and I like full-blown and I like everything in between, the show just has to work for me.

There wasn’t a support act, no pre-show DJ, just music playing from the PA system with some Nitzer Ebb and Kraftwerk in the mix, nice! The band, including live-keyboarder Berenice Scott and background-singer Kelly Barnes, entered the stage around 8:15 pm

The opener was The Human Leagues ‘Circus Of Death’ (b-side to THLs early single ‘Being Boiled’), a song I have somewhere on an electro-pop compilation CD and I was positively surprised hearing it live, and it is a great reference to the origins of the band. In fact, throughout the evening, singer Glenn Gregory didn’t get tired to remind the audience of those origins by adding anecdotes about most of the songs that were performed.

Getting some first-hand background information on songs is great, it adds a nice touch to a show and the audience is grateful for that (especially me, because keeping track of the set-list is much easier this way!). But I cannot help but think that this sharing of information was in part due to the brevity of the setlist. But I also might be wrong on that!

The show ended with encores ‘Being Boiled’ and ‘We Live So Fast’, the latter was an additional encore that apparently wasn’t on the set-list the previous night. Tongue in cheek, it beats me what a crowd in Mannheim could possibly have done better to deserve an additional encore than fans in beautiful Frankfurt.

This is the evenings set-list: (BEF ident Intro), Circus of Death (The Human League cover), (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, Crushed By The Wheels of Industry, Play to Win, Come Live With Me, Geisha Boys and Temple Girls, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (The Righteous Brothers cover), Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover), And That’s No Lie, Let Me Go, Penthouse and Pavement, Temptation, Encore: Being Boiled (The Human League cover, performed in the version found on 1980s ‘Travelogue’ album), Encore 2: We Live So Fast.

If I come to think about it, shows like this, with just the minimum number of ‘ingredients’, namely the sounds of the synthesizers and song melodies that appeal to me are a reminder to me what drew me towards electronic music in my teenage years.

If on top of that the band is ‘present’, meaning they seem to enjoy playing the show, interacting with the audience, making sure everybody is having an enjoyable time (for me, OMD’s Andy McKlsuky is exemplary in doing so) then a show’s got almost everything it needs to be a success. And on that part, the band delivered, from the minute they entered the stage they did a great job entertaining the audience and interacting with their fans. And in turn, the band was evidently impressed by the enormous response they received and they did deserve that positive response.

A few honest thoughts on the set-list as I believe this is also an important component of a live show (and then I will end with the positive):

If to begin with a set-list contains only 14 songs and of these 14 songs 2 are the brainchild from former band membership and another 2 songs are cover versions, then I would consider this to be a bit scarce. Don’t get me wrong, cover versions and songs that are part of a band’s musical history are great (Alison Moyet still adds Yahoo songs to her setlists and Billy Idol Generation X songs to his) but if out of 14 songs there are only 10 left of a band’s own making I feel the ratio is a bit off.

If I have counted correctly the band’s number of studio albums adds up to seven (I’m ignoring ‘Naked As Advertised’) and if the setlist then only contains 14 songs and the show subsequently results in a duration of approximately 85 minutes, including encores, I consider this a little short. Somehow the evening felt a bit incomplete.

Knowing only a handful of Heaven 17 songs before this show I would have at least expected ‘Trouble’ to be on the set-list and I was actually looking forward to hearing this song, ‘This Is Mine’, would also have been a great candidate in my opinion. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be all hits that are performed, die-hard fans are always keen on lesser-known gems and I’m sure there are some.

The 10 songs of their own making were solely from their first three albums where album number three was only represented by one song. When you visit a Depeche Mode concert, you always do so with the hope that they play a few songs from their early days. With Heaven 17 it seems to be the opposite, at least this was the case tonight.

And finally ‘Temptation’, their signature song, a great song and I felt turning it partly into a disco tune ruined the song to some extend. There is nothing wrong with extended or modernized life versions of popular songs but I felt this version didn’t do justice to such an iconic song!

Of course, this is a subjective view and other concertgoers may say “That was the perfect set-list!”.

To end on a high note, Heaven 17 are still relevant to their fans, and all-in-all I’m glad they visited Germany for the first time in seven years and I’m equally glad I went to see them. I enjoyed the show and yes, I would go and see them again, I love synths after all and I would happily recommend a Heaven 17 show!

If you are interested in pictures of the show, regioactive.de posted some nices ones, I have put the link to the gallery in the links section below.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback, either on the show (maybe you visited the one in Mannheim, or some other place) or on my thoughts. Please comment and let me know and I’ll make sure I’ll respond.

Update: By the time I had completed this post the Covid-19 pandemic caused many shows to be canceled or rescheduled, including the aforementioned Frankfurt show in April. If you consider going, there are still possibilities to see a show in Germany, here is a link to the 2022 live dates: Live Dates – Heaven 17

Links:
Picture gallery on regioactive.de
This evenings setlist on setlist.fm
Heaven 17
Capitol Mannheim

Post last updated on 04. April 2021

*Working on this post I eventually realized that I had already seen the band before at the 2009 ‘Night Of The Proms’ in Frankfurt.