YOU would have thought that having performed some of the songs from the album The Luxury Gap for 35 years, Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory would be able to take an anniversary tour in his stride.

And in a sense that’s exactly what he’s been doing in preparation for the tour which comes to Manchester next Friday.

“Two months before we start a tour I have a routine where I’ll do an eight-mile run every day,” said Glenn. “As I’m running I have one song on repeat the whole way round. I’m like this with anything I do. I have to know it inside out and upside down.

“Then even if I make a mess, which I do quite often, it doesn’t matter because it’s in there – I don’t panic.”

The complete album show at the Ritz follows a hugely successful tour in 2016 when Glenn and partner in crime Martyn Ware performed Penthouse and Pavement from start to finish.

“It’s been great,” said Glenn. “Not only is the audience still there, it’s growing. I remember on the last tour a lad in his teens came up with all the albums to be signed. They were all on vinyl and I asked him if he was there with his dad but turns out he’d been a fan since he was 14.

“He’d heard Let Me Go somewhere and then discovered more about us on the internet. That’s happening quite a lot and as a result we are getting a very mixed audience.”

The Luxury Gap includes two of Heaven 17’s best known singles - Come Live With Me and Temptation.

“I’ve been arguing we don’t have to play the album in order but I think I’m losing that one,” said Martin. “Deciding what goes where on an album could take us weeks, especially when you have two sides to consider and the dynamics are very different when you’re planning a live show.

“But even though we’ll be playing the album from start to finish, we will freshen things up a bit. That’s just what we do. We never go out and do the same as we did last time.”

For the show in Manchester, Heaven 17 will be joined by Claudia Brucken and Suzanne Freytag performing as X Propaganda.

The pair were part of Propaganda and released one of the most influential electronic albums of the Eighties, A Secret Wish.

“Having them along is just amazing,” said Glenn. “The idea of The Luxury Gap and the Propaganda album in the same gig is pretty damn awesome.

“It’s funny because Claudia and I always seem to keep converging. We met through my first wife Sarah who was a make-up artist and working with Anton Corbijn who was shooting Propaganda’s first video and we have been friends ever since.

“My wife Lindsay was one of Claudia’s backing singers on her solo tour.”

Apart from The Luxury Gap, Glenn is promising further surprises for the live show.

“We can’t just do 38 minutes and then go to the pub can we?” he laughed. “There are songs I love doing such as Play to Win and Fascist Groove Thing and we’ll probably do some extras we’ve not done before. We’ve always liked a good cover, so maybe we’ll do a bit of Don’t You Want Me halfway through. (Heaven 17 and fellow Sheffield band the Human League had a well documented rivalry during the 1980s).

“With Martyn and I, it can get a bit like Morecambe and Wise on stage at times.”

Heaven 17 with X Propaganda, Manchester Ritz, Friday, December 7. Details from www.gigsandtours.com