Human League

The Human League was a band of the late 1970s and 1980s who made a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. Originally a post-punk synthesiser based group from Sheffield, England, they released their first single, "Being Boiled" c/w "Circus Of Death" on Bob Last's Fast Product record label in 1978.

Related Topics:
Band - 1970s - 1980s - 1990s - Post-punk - Synthesiser - Sheffield, England - Bob Last - Fast Product - Record label - 1978

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Shortly afterwards, thinking that they needed better promotion, they signed up with Virgin Records, but they kept Bob Last as their manager. Their first single to chart was "Empire State Human", which peaked at number 62 in the charts. When Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware left to form Heaven 17 it seemed that Phil Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright, the sole remaining group members, would be unable to sustain the band, which, just before the split, was beginning to achieve wider popularity.

Related Topics:
Virgin Records - Ian Craig Marsh - Martyn Ware - Heaven 17 - Phil Oakey - Philip Adrian Wright

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However, they recruited bass player Ian Burden, guitarist Jo Callis (formerly of The Rezillos) and, famously, fronted the band with two singers, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, whom they had met in a Sheffield nightclub. At the time, synthpop was starting to become fashionable due to the success of groups like OMD and Ultravox, but female vocals were rarely heard on synth records, so the addition of Sulley and Catherall gave the group a distinctive sound. Re-energized by the addition of new members, the band went on to record their breakthrough album Dare, and have many chart successes.

Related Topics:
The Rezillos - Susan Ann Sulley - Joanne Catherall - Synthpop - OMD - Ultravox

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The band achieved a brief spell of success in the early 1980s with their style of synth-pop music. Their most famous single "Don't You Want Me" reached number one in the UK charts during the Christmas of 1981 and was one of the biggest selling singles of that year.

Related Topics:
1980s - Don't You Want Me - 1981

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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 as a stopgap, and it took three years to release a full-length follow-up album, Hysteria. The Jam & Lewis-produced Crash LP (1985) took another two years to release. It did provide an American number one single, "Human", but other singles made little impact.

Related Topics:
Jam & Lewis - 1985

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The group made a surprise comeback in 1994. Dropped by Virgin Records after the failure of their album Romantic? (1989), the group were now signed to EastWest and their line-up included producer Ian Stanley, who helped them to achieve a more modern sound. The album Octopus went silver, and the lead-off single "Tell Me When" was the group's first major hit since "Human".

Related Topics:
1994 - Virgin Records - 1989 - EastWest

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The band again took several years to make their next record. Secrets was released in 2001, and was extremely well-received by critics.

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Four CDs attribute songs by The Human League under different names: on The Golden Hour Of The Future there are songs credited to The Human League when they were still The Future, on the single "I Don't Depend On You" where they call themselves The Men, on the "Dance Like A Star" EP, there are also songs attributed to The Future and on "Love And Dancing", they pay homage to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra by calling themselves League Unlimited Orchestra.

Related Topics:
Homage - Barry White - Love Unlimited Orchestra

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Recently, the band have joined of a number of '80s revival tours, Oakey now describing this as being in a Human League tribute band.

Related Topics:
'80s - Tribute band

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The name "Human League" derived from the game ', which was the second professional 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.

Related Topics:
Game - Science fiction - Wargame - SPI - 2415 A.D.

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