Heaven 17 on how a chance meeting led to them relaunching Tina Turner's career

It's documented in the Tina Turner musical

Heaven 17 with Kate Thornton

Author: Anna Sky MagliolaPublished 28th Mar 2025
Last updated 18 hours ago

Heaven 17 members Martyn Ware with Glenn Gregory joined Kate Thornton on Greatest Hits Radio to talk about their upcoming tour and new music. The duo also opened up about how a chance meeting led them to being instrumental in re-launching Tina Turner's music career.

Back in 1983, Heaven 17 were enjoying success with their huge hits 'Temptation', 'Come Live with Me' and 'Crushed by the Wheels of Industry', when Tina Turner found herself without record contract. Heaven 17's involvement with Tina's career is included in the musical which is currently on tour.

As Martyn explained: "Actually that track on the BEF album, when we met, was meant to be sung by James Brown, and his lawyers at the last moment said, we want all the money on all the record or James... Mr Brown isn't doing it.

"We said, 'well we can't do that', so we were really depressed when he wouldn't do it, and we were kind of asking around who else could we get."

Martyn continued: "It was one of the Virgin directors, who I'd never talked to before. He overheard the conversation and he said, 'I'm just going to the airport to go to LA, and I'm going to have dinner with Tina Turner, what about Tina Turner?' Out of the blue!

"And we went 'River Deep Mountain High' Top 3 songs of all time, I'm going 'yes please!' She didn't have a record contract, can you imagine that?"

They went on to reveal she was a "one take wonder" and '"knew exactly what she was doing."

"Bear in mind, she'd had an entire career, of course, up until that point, where all she did was go into the studio and sing, and come out again," Glenn and Martyn explained.

"As far as I know, she only wrote significant song which was 'Nutbush City Limits'. Everything was about performance so... completely one take, no drop-ins, and she said at the end, do you want me to do it again? I said, 'well it was perfect'."

The band worked with Tina on several songs on her 'Private Dancer' album, which has recently been re-released. Which featured her huge hit 'Let's Stay Together', which was a cover on an Al Green song.

During the interview, the band also spoke about their upcoming tour which starts in November, tickets are on sale at Aloud.com. The 'Sound with Vision Tour' will see Martyn and Glenn play their anthems at venues across the UK, including their hometown of Sheffield’s Octagon.

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