Heaven 17 — Penthouse And Pavement

JUL 01 1981 · 12:00

Heaven 17 — Penthouse And Pavement (1981) Director: Steve Barron Era: British New Wave / Synth-Pop Vanguard (1981) - Debut era of a Sheffield trio forged from the Human League split, deploying an ironic corporate-brand identity at the dawn of the music video age. A high-value artefact at the intersection of British synth-pop history, early music video craft, and political-satirical pop aesthetics. Directed by Steve Barron at the cusp of his defining MTV-era career, it documents Heaven 17's fully-realised brand identity from debut — an identity that influenced the visual language of 1980s pop broadly. Its theatrical corporate mise-en-scène and warm-saturated film palette offer rich material for scholars of fashion, political culture, and the genealogy of the promotional music video as an art form. Context: Released in November 1981 alongside Heaven 17's debut album on Virgin Records, this promo arrived at a pivotal juncture in British pop culture: the post-punk landscape was fragmenting into synth-pop, New Romantic, and electro-funk substreams, while Thatcherite economics and yuppie aspiration were reshaping public consciousness. Heaven 17 — formed by ex-Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh alongside vocalist Glenn Gregory — deliberately positioned themselves as a corporate 'brand' rather than a conventional band, using suits and boardroom imagery as satirical commentary on capitalism. The album's dual 'Pavement' (funk) and 'Penthouse' (electronic) sides embodied working-class aspiration critiqued from the inside. The video amplified this by theatrically staging the band as power-suited executives, a knowing irony directed at the very culture they skewered lyrically. Director notes: Confirmed by both IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12700510/) and IMVDb (https://imvdb.com/video/heaven-17/penthouse-and-pavement) as director of the 1981 promo. Per Classic Pop Magazine, the video is set in the headquarters of B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation) and presents the band as sharp-dressed businessmen, directly extending the ironic corporate-branding imagery of the album cover. The video was shot in November 1981 (UK release per IMDb). Barron was simultaneously directing videos for The Human League, Adam & the Ants, and others during this peak period, having pioneered 35mm film stock use in promos that same year. The clip was notably included in the BBC 2010 documentary on the album's making, though a reviewer noted it was mastered at an incorrect aspect ratio in that release.