Penthouse and Pavement

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Penthouse and Pavement
Penthouse and Pavement.jpg
Studio album by
Heaven 17
ReleasedSeptember 1981 (1981-09)
StudioMaison Rouge (Sheffield)
Genre
Length50:32 ¹
LabelVirgin
ProducerBritish Electric Foundation
Heaven 17 chronology
Penthouse and Pavement
(1981) 		The Luxury Gap
(1983)
Singles from Penthouse and Pavement
  1. "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang"
    Released: March 1981
  2. "I'm Your Money"
    Released: May 1981
  3. "Play to Win"
    Released: August 1981
  4. "Penthouse and Pavement"
    Released: November 1981
  5. "The Height of the Fighting (He-La-Hu)"
    Released: February 1982

Penthouse and Pavement is the debut studio album by English synth-pop band Heaven 17. It was originally released in September 1981, on the label Virgin.

"(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" was released as a single, but did not achieve chart success, partly due to a ban by the BBC.[2] The album sold reasonably well, but was not a great commercial success on release.[1] It has since been regarded as "an important outing",[1] is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and was re-released in 2010 in a three-disc special edition. The title track was included on the soundtrack of the 1993 erotic thriller film Sliver.

Reception[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic4/5 stars[1]
Mojo4/5 stars[3]
PopMatters8/10[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide3/5 stars[5]
Smash Hits8/10[6]
Uncut4/5 stars[7]

Whilst the singles charted poorly, the album charted at No. 14 and remained in the Top 100 for 77 weeks.[8] It was certified gold (100,000 copies sold) by the BPI in October 1982.[9]

Reviewing the album for NME, Paul Morley said: "Penthouse and Pavement is fabulous and it won't deny your needs and you just put our faith in it because it is true."[10] It was ranked the fifth best album of 1981 by NME.[11]

In a retrospective review, Dan LeRoy of AllMusic felt that the album combined electropop with good melodies, and that Glenn Gregory was able to deliver the "overtly left-wing political" lyrics without sounding "pretentious".[1]

The album is included in the musical reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[2]

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, and Glenn Gregory.

Side A ("Pavement")
No.TitleLength
1."(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang"4:20
2."Penthouse and Pavement"6:23
3."Play to Win"3:37
4."Soul Warfare"5:04
Side B ("Penthouse")
No.TitleLength
5."Geisha Boys and Temple Girls"4:33
6."Let's All Make a Bomb"4:03
7."The Height of the Fighting"3:01
8."Song with No Name"3:36
9."We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time¹"3:15
Total length:38:12
Additional tracks
Bonus tracks
2010 3-disc special edition

The album was reproduced live in its entirety in a series of concerts the band held throughout 2010, one of which (in Sheffield) was filmed and shown on BBC Two on 16 May 2010. The following night a documentary about the making of the album was screened; this was later included on a new three-disc special edition of the album released in November 2010.

Track list

Personnel[]

Heaven 17
Session musicians
  • Malcolm Veale – synthesisers; saxophone
  • Josie James – backing vocals on "Penthouse and Pavement"
  • Steve Travell – piano on "Soul Warfare"
  • The Boys of Buddha – synthetic horns
  • John Wilson – bass guitar; guitar; guitar synthesizers on "Pavement" side
Production team

Charts[]

Chart performance for Penthouse and Pavement
Chart (1981–1982) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[12] 99
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[13] 18
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[14] 45
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[15] 24
UK Albums (OCC)[16] 14

Certifications[]

Certifications for Penthouse and Pavement
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[17] Gold 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

In popular culture[]

The album song "Penthouse and Pavement" is featured in Rockstar Games video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories where it is played on the fictional radio station Wave 103.

Notes[]

  • ¹ – The last track on the original vinyl LP release, "We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time", was recorded up to and onto the runoff groove; meaning the runtime of this track (as labelled on the LP sleeve) and the album is infinite, looping the line "For a very long time".
  • "Groove Thang", "Decline of the West" and "B.E.F. Ident" originally appeared on the B.E.F. cassette-only release Music For Stowaways.
  • All tracks were mixed at Red Bus Studios except "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" and "Let's All Make a Bomb" which were mixed at The Townhouse.
  • The Canadian LP and cassette releases included the original version of "I'm Your Money" and an uncredited "B.E.F. Ident" between "Geisha Boys and Temple Girls" and "Let's All Make a Bomb."[18] The cassette's version of "Play to Win" is an edited version of the 12" single mix. This version was later released on the 1986 UK compilation Endless (cassette version only)[19]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e LeRoy, Dan. "Penthouse and Pavement – Heaven 17". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Shade, Chris (2011). "Penthouse and Pavement: Heaven 17 (1981)". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Cassell Illustrated. ISBN 978-1-84403-699-8. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  3. ^ Buckley, David (September 2006). "Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement". Mojo. No. 154. p. 116.
  4. ^ O'Neil, Tim (30 November 2006). "Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
  5. ^ Halasa, Malu (1983). "Heaven 17". In Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (2nd ed.). Random House/Rolling Stone Press. p. 222. ISBN 0-394-72107-1.
  6. ^ Rimmer, Dave (17–30 September 1981). "Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement". Smash Hits. Vol. 3 no. 19. p. 29.
  7. ^ "Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement". Uncut. p. 86. [They] defined new pop ambitions with Penthouse and Pavement, a steely state-of-the-art, state-of-the-nation address...
  8. ^ Official Charts Company (Penthouse and Pavement)
  9. ^ British Phonographic Industry database
  10. ^ Morley, Paul (19 September 1981). "Heaven 17: Penthouse and Pavement (BEF/Virgin)". NME. Retrieved 29 November 2020 – via Rock's Backpages.
  11. ^ "1981 Best Albums And Tracks Of The Year". NME. 10 October 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  12. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 137. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  13. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  14. ^ "Charts.nz – Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  15. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  16. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  17. ^ "British album certifications – Heaven 17 – Penthouse and Pavement". British Phonographic Industry. 14 October 1982. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  18. ^ "Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement". Discogs. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  19. ^ "Heaven 17 - Endless". Discogs. Retrieved 15 July 2016.

External links[]

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