Heaven 17 headline Tramlines
Heaven 17 The Temptation synthpop band took to the open-air Nokia stage at public plaza Barkers Pool to play numerous hits in their Northern England home city, with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware keeping the fans happy in spite of a constant light drizzle.
Singer Glenn encouraged the audience to “keep smiling and the weather will start shining”, before adding “thank you for coming out – sorry we’re a little bit late…this is Fascist Groove Thing”.
Once that tune had ended, 53-year-old Glenn said “that song was written in Sheffield in 1980 – this is where these songs live”.
Some time later, Glenn again recalled how the South Yorkshire city had performed a major role in the history of the electronic group, telling the crowd that “it’s great to be playing in our home town, and it’s in the building next to the stage that we saw so many of our heroes – Marc Bolan, David Bowie…we saw everybody there”.
Glenn added that “it’s a real honour to be playing here in front of the city hall for you tonight”.
The band’s set suffered from a minor technical fault as they made a false start to Let’s Make A Bomb instead of Come Live With Me. However, Martyn and Glenn continued as they built up to massive hit single Temptation.
MCs and DJs helped keep the party going strong into the early hours of the morning at the Nokia Unannounced Tent after Heaven 17 had finished their set, while several prominent Sheffield acts will also perform in the tent in a succession of collaborations during the festival’s next two days.
Other acts playing the festival include Ms Dynamite, Nerina Pallot, The Duke Spirit and Ash.
