The Human League

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The Human League are an English synthpop band formed in 1977, who, after several changes in line up, achieved great popularity in the 1980s and a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. Originally a synthesiser-based group from Sheffield, England, the only consistent band member since the Human League formed in 1977 is vocalist and songwriter Phil Oakey.

[edit] Original line-up

Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were both working as computer programmers in 1977, and combined a love of pop music (such as glam rock and Tamla Motown) with avant garde electronic music. They acquired a Roland System 100 synthesizer and began to create music in their own rehearsal facility. Initially they formed a group called The Future with Adi Newton. Newton left to form the outfit Clock DVA. Ware and Marsh searched for a vocalist, but their first choice, Glenn Gregory (who would be the lead singer of their later band, Heaven 17), was unavailable. Ware instead decided to invite Philip Oakey, an old school friend, and a hospital porter at the time to join the band, "apparently by leaving a note stuck to his door". Oakey accepted the invitation, despite never having been in a band before. Shortly after, they decided to call themselves The Human League. A collection of demos from this period was released on CD in 2002, title The Golden Hour of The Future, compiled by Richard X.

The original line-up released two LPs that were mildly successful: Reproduction in 1979 and Travelogue in 1980. Both reached the Top 40 of the UK Album Charts. They were then perceived as an arty post-punk band, whilst Oakey saw them as a modern commercial pop.

The name "Human League" derived from the game Starforce: Alpha Centauri, which was the second professionally published science fiction wargame, by SPI. In the game, the Human League arose in 2415 A.D., and was a frontier-oriented society that desired more independence from Earth and the terraforming of systems not naturally habitable.

[edit] The 1980s

Following the split of the original line-up, Wright and Oakey released another flop single, "Boys and Girls". In order to fulfil their European tour commitments, they recruited bass player Ian Burden, and fronted the band with two singers, Susanne Sulley[1] and Joanne Catherall, schoolgirls whom they had met in a Sheffield nightclub, and managed to complete the tour.

In 1981, Virgin records paired them with former Stranglers producer Martin Rushent, and the first result was the single "The Sound of the Crowd", which saw them at last achieve success in the singles chart. Guitarist Jo Callis (formerly of The Rezillos) was now recruited to the band, and with Rushent at the helm, The Human League recorded their most successful album to date, Dare. It achieved huge success, fuelled by its further hit singles, "Open Your Heart", "Love Action" and most famously "Don't You Want Me", which reached number one in the UK charts during the Christmas of 1981 and was one of the biggest selling singles of that year, and it also charted at number one in the US during the summer of 1982. These three releases were accompanied by striking promo videos ("Love Action" based on the movie The Graduate). During their Dare! phase, the Human League were often associated with New Romantic movement.

The band also had a number of other hits but their success faded towards the mid-1980s. Arguably, one problem was the length of time the band took to make a record. Dare! was followed by the six-song EP Fascination! (featuring hit singles "Mirror Man" and "Fascination") as a stopgap, and it took three years to release a full-length follow-up album, Hysteria.

In 1985, outside of the Human League, Oakey scored a huge hit single in collaboration with one of his idols, synth pioneer Giorgio Moroder, with the single "Together in Electric Dreams", taken from the film soundtrack to Electric Dreams. The pair proceeded to record an entire album for Virgin, Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder, but this met with rather less success.

In 1986, the group found themselves in creative stagnation, struggling to record material to follow up on their previous success. Key songwriter Jo Callis departed, replaced by drummer Jim Russell, and Virgin paired the League up with cutting-edge American R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The result was the Crash album. The album featured much material written by Jam and Lewis' team, and showcased their distinctive DX7-led sound, making it quite a departure from previous Human League material. It did provide an American number one single, "Human", but other singles made smaller chart impact.

[edit] 1990s and beyond

In 1990, the band released their last album for Virgin Records, Romantic?. Longstanding members Adrian Wright and Ian Burden, together with newer recruit Jim Russell, had by now left the band (although Jo Callis did return to play on some of the sessions and co-wrote two songs, including the minor hit single "Heart Like a Wheel"). New to the line-up were keyboardist Neil Sutton (who co-wrote over half the album's songs), and guitarist/keyboardist Russell Dennett, who (along with Oakey) made a cameo appearance in Reeves & Mortimer's 1992 comedy TV pilot The Weekenders, playing in a club as "Electric Russell". The Romantic? album did not re-capture the group's huge commercial success of 1981 (with its second single "Soundtrack for a Generation" flopping), and Virgin chose not to renew their recording contract.

The Human League made a surprise comeback in 1994, now signed to EastWest, with the single "Tell Me When" giving them their first major hit since 1986's "Human", and the accompanying album Octopus going silver. On the album credits, cover artwork and in videos, the group was now presented simply as a trio of Oakey/Catherall/Sulley. In reality however, half a dozen other musicians had input to the record, including producer Ian Stanley (former Tears For Fears keyboard player), continued playing and songwriting contributions from Neil Sutton and "Electric Russell" Dennett, and Oakey co-writing one track with Jo Callis. The next single from the album, "One Man in my Heart" (sung by Sulley), and a remix of "Don't You Want Me", were also UK hits, however the subsequent "Filling up with Heaven" and the non-album "Stay with me tonight" (from the greatest hits compilation in 1996) performed poorly and the band parted company with EastWest.

The band did not release their next album, Secrets, until 2001. The band was still presented as the "Phil & the girls" trio, however Neil Sutton was credited with keyboards, and co-wrote most of the material with Oakey. Despite being extremely well received by critics (the music climate at the time seeing a new interest in electronic pop music with the electroclash movement), the band's new record label, Papillion (a subsidiary of Chrysalis Records), went bankrupt shortly after the album's release, leading to poor promotion and sales.

Throughout the years following, the band have continued to tour, enjoying success as a live act, and releasing a DVD of Brighton show in 2003. In the last few years they have participated in a couple of '80s revival tours, whilst more often going out on the road on their own, playing their many top-ten hits to packed houses throughout the UK and frequently further afield.

On September 22, 2006, the band performed on the ABC television show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums and EPs

[edit] Unofficial releases

• Human League Cassette (1978)
• Taverner Tape (1978)
• In Darkness (a bootleg demo album)
• The Future Tapes (unreleased)
• The Human League Promo Mix CD (not available)
• The Human League Interview

[edit] Singles

• ¹ Cash-in reissue released by EMI, not Virgin. Same version as the 1978 single, but runs for an extra 35 seconds and fades out rather than cutting out abruptly as on the original release.

[edit] Additional releases

• "Together in Electric Dreams" was a "solo" single for Philip Oakey (though credited jointly to Oakey and producer Giorgio Moroder) rather than the Human League. It has been included on Human League albums as if it were by the whole band, as it is popularly associated with the band, broadly mimics their traditional sound, and was in fact a bigger hit than many of the League's own singles of the period. It was originally recorded for the movie Electric Dreams, and eventually included on a joint album from Oakey and Moroder recorded much later.
• "1st Man in Space" (1999) was a single by fellow Sheffielders The All Seeing I and featured Oakey on guest vocals.
• Reproductions: Songs of the Human League (2001) was a tribute album by various artists.
• "L.A. Today" (2003) was a single from Alex Gold, also featuring Oakey on vocals.
• "Rock And Roll is Dead" (2003) was a single from fellow Sheffield band Kings Have Long Arms that paid tribute to Oakey and eventually was re-released with Oakey doing some guest vocals.

[edit] Trivia

• George Michael adapted "Love Action" in his 2002 single "Shoot the Dog", using the song's synthesizer track as the base of the song, as well as including the speech-only portion of the song (from "I believe, I believe what the old man said...").
• Lester Bangs, the infamous music journalist and critic overdosed and died in 1981 while listening to Human League's album Dare.
• Robbie Williams adapted the Human League hit "Louise" on his 2006 album Rudebox.
• Their hit song "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" featured in the video game, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

[edit] See also

• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• List of New Wave bands and artists

[edit] External links

• Love and Dancing - A fan site with an extensive pictorial history
• Blind Youth, a site dedicated to the early post-punk works of Human League.
• Secrets Online, fan site with in-depth Human League coverage both past and present.
• A fan site devoted to pictures of the Human League in concert during 2004.
• Nukove Records, producer of the "Love Me Madly?" single
• Secret Records, producer of live DVD and CD
• Human League Lyrics

[edit] References

• Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-190-X
• The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits - ISBN 0-85112-250-7
• Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-619-7
• Guinness Rockopedia - ISBN 0-85112-072-5
• The Great Rock Discography - 5th Edition - ISBN 1-84195-017-3de:The Human League

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