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Glenn Gregory

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Glenn Gregory
Gregory performing live with Heaven 17, in 2014
Background information
Birth nameGlenn Peter Gregory
Born (1958-05-16) 16 May 1958 (age 66)
OriginSheffield, England, United Kingdom
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • multi-instrumentalist
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • keyboards
  • saxophone
  • bass guitar
Years active1979–present
Labels

Glenn Peter Gregory (born 16 May 1958)[1] is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Gregory's music career spans more than 30 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and lead singer of the new wave and synthpop band Heaven 17, which released six singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, and 1990s, including "Temptation", "Come Live with Me", "Crushed by the Wheels of Industry", "Sunset Now", "This Is Mine", and "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" (The Rapino Brothers Remixes).

Early years

Glenn Peter Gregory was born on 16 May 1958, in Sheffield, England. His father was a steel worker. As a teenager, he wanted to be an actor, but ended up working in London as a photographer instead.[2]

Gregory had known the founding members of The Human League for many years. He had been singing and playing bass guitar in bands with Ian Craig Marsh since 1973. In early 1981, he was contacted by Martyn Ware after the original membership of the Human League split, and was asked to join Heaven 17, a new band resulting from the split.[3]

Music career

The band Heaven 17 included the trio of Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, and Gregory as lead singer. The band released eight studio albums, and had many hits in the UK. However, by the late 1980s their popularity had declined. The band broke up in 1988, but reunited in 1996,[4] and played their first ever live concert in 1997. Marsh left the band in 2007, but Ware and Gregory continued to perform as Heaven 17.

In 1984, Gregory contributed to the Band Aid single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?", singing the line "No rain nor rivers flow".[5]

Outside of Heaven 17, Gregory has been a member of the bands Ugly and Honeyroot, as well as working with ABC, Tina Turner, Grace Jones, Propaganda, Terence Trent D'Arby, Ultravox, La Roux and John Lydon.[3] He has also established a career in soundtrack music, writing for radio, TV and film. He creates scores in a private studio built at the bottom of his garden.[2]

Personal life

In 1983, Gregory married singer Sarah Osborne of the Belgian pop group Allez Allez, but the two divorced after about three years. Gregory then married his second wife Lindsay who works for a design company. The couple have a son named Louis Earl, called Louie,[2] and a whippet dog.[6]

Discography

Heaven 17

References

  1. ^ Glenn Gregory at AllMusic. Retrieved 1 September 2009.
  2. ^ a b c Hall, Stef (20 January 2013), Stef Hall interviews singer Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17, retrieved 5 November 2015
  3. ^ a b "Glenn Gregory interview". Entertainment. BBC South Yorkshire. Retrieved 13 November 2008.
  4. ^ Henderson, Alex, Honeyroot, Allmusic, retrieved 5 November 2015
  5. ^ Band Aid 30 years on: Where are the original stars three decades after the 1984 song was released?, 10 November 2014, retrieved 5 November 2015
  6. ^ Sexton, Paul (14 October 2012), Who’d have thought it...Glenn Gregory says whippets are Heavenly, retrieved 5 November 2015


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