Posted in: News, Trivia Q & A | No Comments | Posted on October 8, 2021 by Mary Anne

Q.  Where did 80’s synthpop band HEAVEN 17 derive their name from?

A.  CLOCKWORK ORANGE - novel by Anthony Burgess - film by Stanley Kuberick

Heaven 17 are an English new wave synthpop band originating from Sheffield in the early 1980s. Originally a trio, the band comprised Martyn Ware (keyboards), Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously with The Human League) and Glenn Gregory (vocals). Although most of the band’s music was recorded in the 1980s, they have occasionally reformed to record and perform since then, playing their first ever live concerts in 1997.  Marsh left the band in 2007 and Ware and Gregory continued to perform as Heaven 17 since then.

The band name Heaven 17 is from the Anthony Burgess and the 1973 Kubrick film “Clockwork Orange”. There’s a scene where Alex goes shopping and picks up two girls at a record shop. “The Heaven Seventeen” is one of the names of the groups in the charts  (#4) displayed on the wall as well as the characters discuss the band.