The Human League

The Human League
Susan Ann Sulley, Philip Oakey and Joanne Catherall (2007)
General information
origin	Sheffield , England
Genre (s)	New wave , synth pop , new romantic , dance pop
founding	1977
Website	thehumanleague.co.uk
Founding members
Vocals , synthesizers	Phil Oakey
synthesizer	Martyn Ware (until 1980)
synthesizer	Ian Craig Marsh (until 1980)
Designer , synthesizer	Philip Adrian Wright (until 1987)
Current occupation
Vocals , synthesizers , keyboards	Phil Oakey
singing	Joanne Catherall (since 1980)
singing	Susan Ann Sulley (since 1980)
former members
Keyboard , bass	Ian Burden (1980-1987)
Keyboard , guitar , vocals	Jo Callis (1981-1985)
Drums , guitar , percussion	Jim Russell (1985-1989)
Live and session members
Keyboard , synthesizer	Neil Sutton (1986-2017)
Keyboard	Russell Dennett (1990-1994)
percussion	Errol Rollins (2001-2004)

The Human League is a British new wave band, best known for their hit Don't You Want Me in the winter of 1981/1982. She is one of the pioneers of electronic pop music .

Band history

The early years (1977–1980)

After some early musical attempts in Sheffield's experimental music scene, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh formed The Future in June 1977 . At first Adi Newton was also a member, but he left shortly afterwards to found the band Clock DVA . Phil Oakey , a former classmate of Martyn Ware's, was added as the singer , and from October 1977 the band named itself after a term from the StarForce board game "The Human League". In support of their live show with visual effects, art student Adrian Wright was added as the fourth member of the band.

After two albums released by Virgin Records ( Reproduction and Travelogue ) and some notable successes (especially the club hit Being Boiled , released in June 1978 ) as well as touring in the opening act of other bands such as The Rezillos (August 1978 in London), Siouxsie and the Banshees (Tour 1978) and Iggy Pop (European Tour 1979) a dispute broke out and Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left the band in November 1980 to form Heaven 17 shortly afterwards .

The great successes (1981–1986)

Philip Oakey and Adrian Wright spotted 17-year-old Susanne Sulley (now known as Susan Ann Sulley) and 18-year-old Joanne Catherall at the Crazy Daisy Disco nightclub in Sheffield. At first they were only supposed to help out as background singers and dancers for a tour, but after the release of the single Boys & Girls (2/1981) they became permanent members. The formation was completed by the bassist Ian Burden and the guitarist Jo Callis (until May 1984).

With this line-up, The Human League became one of the main bands of the New Romantic scene. The next singles Love Action (7/81) and Open Your Heart (10/1981) were already top 10 hits, the album Dare! (10/1981) a milestone in this genre. In particular, the single Don't You Want Me (12/1981) became a global hit, as was the number one British Christmas hit .

Other hit singles followed, such as (Keep Feeling) Fascination (4/1983) or the guitar-heavy The Lebanon . The band could not build on their earlier successes with their 1984 album Hysteria . This was mainly due to the quieter sound of this album, while the general trend in electronic pop music in 1984 was more towards metallic and sampled sounds (see Depeche Mode - People Are People , Duran Duran - Wild Boys , Bronski Beat - Why? ).

The Human League can be described as a pioneer of today's remix albums, which are almost mandatory in electronic music for successful artists. In 1982, Love and Dancing was one of the first remix albums in pop history. The album contained instrumental versions of successful Human League songs mixed together by Martin Rushent , the band's producer at the time. It did not appear under the band name The Human League, but rather as an allusion to Barry White's companion band The Love Unlimited Orchestra under the name The League Unlimited Orchestra .

With the single Human , the band had their last major hit in the summer of 1986, produced by the now successful US producers from Minneapolis, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis . The Human League is the first "white" band that US producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis worked with.

The Human League as a trio

The Human League at Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland (2011)

After various line-up changes and the largely neglected albums Crash and Romantic? The band finally shrank to the trio Oakey / Sulley / Catherall. In this formation the album Octopus (10/94) and most recently Secrets (8/2001) were released on EastWest Records. With the Octopus album, the group celebrated a comeback, at least in Great Britain. Both the album and the single Tell Me When made it into the top 10 (6th place each) on the UK charts. In other countries (such as Germany), however, it was not successful. The 2001 album Secrets was released on Papillon Records (daughter of Chrysalis Records ) with the hit single All I Ever Wanted . Although widely praised by critics, it was unable to build on this success. For example, the album only landed at number 42 in the UK charts. The main reasons for the failure of Secrets were a lack of promotion due to the collapse of the publishing record company in early 2002.

In the last few years The Human League have been very active as a live band again and their old hits have been adapted, e.g. B. by George Michael , who based his song Shoot the Dog on a Human League sample . At the London Q Awards ceremony in 2004, The Human League received the "Q Innovation In Sound Award" for their services to electronic music. The concerts of their European tour in 2007 opened the band for the first time with the complete songs of the 1981s classic Dare , before other hits and favorites followed. In the German-speaking countries only one date was set: on December 17th, the trio played in the Cologne Live Music Hall. Being Boiled was inducted into The Wire's 100 Records That Set The World On Fire (While No One Was Listening) .

comeback

In 2010 the band signed with the Wall of Sound label and announced a new album, which was released in March 2011 under the title Credo .

Discography

→ Main article : The Human League / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1979	Reproduction	-	-	-	UK34 gold (23 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 1979 Sales: + 100,000
1980	Travelogue	-	-	-	UK16 gold (42 weeks)UK	-	First published: May 1980 Sales: + 100,000
1981	Dare!	DE19 (17 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 × 3 Triple platinum (74 weeks)UK	US3 gold (38 weeks)US	First published: October 20, 1981 Sales: + 1,550,000
1984	Hysteria	DE44 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 gold (18 weeks)UK	US62 (13 weeks) US	First published: May 7, 1984 Sales: + 100,000
1986	Crash	DE14 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	UK7th gold (6 weeks)UK	US24 (25 weeks) US	First published: September 8, 1986 Sales: + 150,000
1990	Romantic?	-	-	-	UK24 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 17, 1990
1995	Octopus	DE76 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK6th gold (14 weeks)UK	-	First published: Jan 27, 1995 Sales: + 100,000
2001	Secrets	DE64 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK44 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 6, 2001
2011	Creed	DE57 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK44 (1 week) UK	-	First published: March 21, 2011

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Awards

• ASCAP Award
  • 2008: for "20 Million US Radioplays" ( Don't You Want Me )

• Brit Award
  • 1982: in the category "Best British Breakthrough Act"

• Q Award
  • 2004: in the category "Innovation in sound"

swell

1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
2. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .

Web links

• The Human League at Allmusic (English)
• unofficial website
• Unofficial Susan Sulley website
• The Human League at laut.de
• Telepolis: How electronics became pop