TIM HUGHES talks to iconic 80s band Heaven 17 as they go back on the road to celebrate 30 years.

IT is 30 years years since seminal 80s synthpop band Heaven 17 released masterpiece Penthouse and Pavement.

And what a different world we lived in then. Or did we?

We were hovering on the edge of recession, and living under a new Tory government, which was busy pushing through painful cuts, while a decimated Labour party licked its wounds and took all the blame for what had gone wrong. Sound familiar?

Taking their name from a fictional pop group name-checked in A Clockwork Orange, and inspired by the hard-edged ‘Krautrock’ of Kraftwerk, Heaven 17 soundtracked those heady days of power-dressing, new technology and simmering discontent with electronic grooves and dance-pop.

It seems strangely appropriate, then, that original members Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory should choose this moment to remaster and re-release the album – and take it on the road with a series of shows in which they play it in its entirety.

“We are trying to recreate the album live in a way it would have sounded at the time,” says Martyn. “So we are using the best quality organic ingredients. And it is a joy to play.

“All the musical players we use are all friends and love doing it. I’ll never get bored of it.”

Formed when Sheffield lads Martyn and Ian Craig Marsh split with Phil Oakey’s new wave electro band The Human League, and signed up then photographer friend Glenn, Heaven 17 started in controversial style by having their debut single (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang banned by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, who considered it too political.

But, to Martyn, living in a steel town in the throes of rapid decline and horrendous unemployment, the venture was, and is, a personal crusade.

So what does he think of the timing of the re-release – with our echoes of the early 80s?

“The irony isn’t lost on us,” he admits. “To be a good idea a lot of different things have to be linked up. They include the 30th anniversary of the album, general interest in bands playing seminal records live – such as OMD, Lou Reed and Magazine have done – and maybe a fascination on that period of time.

“But also there is the fact we have a new Tory government which seems intent to rip up any good work done by the previous government. And it is still relevant and makes us re-examine our own history.

“The album had an agenda to deal with real life – and a country rebuilding itself on Thatcherism. Now the villain isn’t Thatcher but multinational capitalism.”

And his own local, Coalition partner MP Nick Clegg?

“Don’t go there!” he snaps. “I feel ashamed that he’s even associated with my hometown. I can’t even talk about it; the whole thing is a mess.”

But he concedes we live in a far-less political age. “The big concerns for teenagers now are non-political,” he says. “Politics is not part of the zeitgeist and there is not so much incentive to rebel – even with student loans, most people are more interested in drinking and sexual freedom – which is fine; I’m not a prude, but it would be nice to have concern for society in general.

“Everyone is looking to the X Factor for inspiration instead.”

It’s a far cry from the days when his own music was banned by the BBC, he admits.

“I am proud of that record,” he says, “but not of the fact it was banned. I still think that was narrow-minded and shallow. After all, it was hardly inciting riotous behaviour.

“Now that song is played all the time on Radio 2.”

Monday’s Oxford gig promises to be a visual spectacle – part art installation and part-concert – with lighting designer Pip Rhodes coordinating a live digital group show with work by a clutch of new artists and designers.

One person who won’t be there is former bandmate Ian, who is studying neuroscience at Sussex University, although Martyn has healed his acrimonious rift with fellow Hinckley Human Leaguer Phil Oakey.

“It’s all water under the bridge now,” he says.

Thirty years on, Martyn admits, he has never been happier.

* Heaven 17 play Penthouse And Pavement live in its entirety at the Oxford O2 Academy on Monday. Tickets are £20 from seetickets.com The luxury re-mastered album is out now on EMI.