Retrospective Martyn Ware
Martyn Ware was born in 1956 in Sheffield, UK. In 1978 he formed The Human League, then after leaving the band, he formed the production company/label British Electric Foundation and Heaven 17 in 1980.
Martyn has written, performed and produced two Human League, two BEF and nine Heaven 17 albums. As a record producer and artist he has featured on recordings totalling over 50 million sales worldwide, producing among others Tina Turner, Terence Trent D'Arby, Chaka Khan, Erasure, Marc Almond and Mavis Staples. Heaven 17 have announced a 30th anniversary UK tour of their critically acclaimed 1981 concept album ‘Penthouse And Pavement’
which they will perform in its entirety. Martyn is also a curator at Vintage at Goodwood and produces and presents an ongoing series of events entitled Future Of Sound in the UK and around the world.
what do you collect? I used to collect American comics; I’ve kept my collection and I’ll give them to my son and he’ll probably go: “What the hell are these?”. No, he does like them, but the funny thing is everybody is making films of them now. My collection is worth thousands because I’ve got some really quite rare things. I used to have a couple of thousand of them but I got rid of some when I moved house. I collect music but more in the MP3 format now...I’ve still got about a thousand vinyl in my studio.
Do you have a 20th century hero? Tony Benn. I was asked to interview ‘My Hero’ for a Capital Radio (London) series. This was in the mid-80s at the time of the miners’ strike and we did a fantastic interview, such a charming guy, absolutely open. He said, “do you mind if I record this?”, and so I’m in his room, where he has a recording of every interview he has ever done. Obviously I’m from Sheffield so the miners’ strike
was a big deal for me and he said at the end of the interview “that’s one of the most perceptive and intelligent interviews I’ve ever done about the miners’ strike” — then of course Capital Radio wouldn’t play it!! (laughs) There you go, I’ll never get played on Capital Radio again.
what is your favourite film of all time? A Clockwork Orange (where both Heaven 17 and The Human League take their name from). I’m very fond of Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and those type of Sci-fi films.
what was your first job? I was a trainee manager at the Co-op in Sheffield. I was paid a £1000 a year.
who is your all time favourite actor? Gene Hackman. Everything I’ve seen him in, apart from Superman, he’s been great. I really liked him in Eureka by Nicolas Roeg, which is a very underrated and underexposed film. I also
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