“At the time, we didn’t know anywhere else, so I first thought everywhere was like Sheffield,” Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware told us in our recent interview, reflecting on the importance of his South Yorkshire hometown shaping his attitude to music-making.
“It was only when you’d go elsewhere that you realised how different it is - you don’t walk through the city centre and hear grinding sounds? Or the sound of the drop forges coming down the valley?”
In our new conversation, the Heaven 17 and Human League pioneer took us back to his formative years, and explained how the local Sheffield scene helped cultivate an early interest in a vast array of genres.
“We were going clubbing to hear dance music imported from the US, then blues clubs too where we’d hear plenty of dub,” Martyn told us. “Cabaret Voltaire were also a major influence, although this was more in their spirit than their music. We were great friends though and their relentless experimentation was so inspiring.”
Martyn told us that the industrial atmosphere of Sheffield and the constant sound of machines in motion, informed both his world-view and his approach to creativity.
The ambience of industry is still something he has a soft spot for…
“It’s a big influence when you’re younger. As someone who grew up in this environment, I love it but I guess people who grew up in a bucolic environment, they like the quiet of the countryside. But the countryside freaks me out – there’s not enough noise!”
Martyn also recalled that, even in the face of industrial decline and Cold War angst, there was a feeling of freeing optimism and experimentalism.
Ware and his Heaven 17 bandmates are still on the road in 2026. But things are a little different now…
“At the moment, it feels like we’re in a more fearful zeitgeist about everything, no one knows where the future is going,” Martyn says. “When I grew up, we had nothing to lose, industry had collapsed, there was big adult unemployment - so for us, it was all about experimenting and giving things a go.”
