The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were both working as computer operators in 1977, and combined a love of pop music 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, they 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.” The name “Human League” derived from the game Starforce: Alpha Centauri, which was the second professionally published science fiction wargame, by SPI.
In addition to Ware, Marsh and Oakey, the band recruited photographer Philip Adrian Wright to run slide shows and films onstage, and was credited as a full band member on record sleeves despite his contributions being non-musical. The band released their debut single “Being Boiled” in 1978 on Edinburgh’s Fast Product label. 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 (though Reproduction did not achieve this until two years after its release). In 1980 Ware and Marsh left the band.
Following the split of the original line-up, Wright and Oakey released another fringe 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 and Joanne Catherall, schoolgirls whom they had met in Sheffield’s Crazy Daisy 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 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”/”Hard Times” 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.
In November 1982, the Motown influenced electro pop single “Mirror Man” reached number two in the UK chart. The follow-up single released during April 1983, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” similarly peaked at number two. The following months proved to be difficult ones for the band as they struggled to record a follow up to Dare. Finally in May 1984 the band released the politically charged single “The Lebanon”. Its rock guitar-driven harder edge was a considerable and surprising departure from their previous material, and the single peaked at number eleven in the UK. This was followed shortly after by the album Hysteria, so called because of the difficult and tense recording process, it entered the UK charts at number three however it climbed no further and critics and fans were divided by the new direction the band had taken.
In 1986, the group found themselves in creative stagnation, struggling to record material to follow up on their previous success. Eventually 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. The Human League returned in 1995, 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. Throughout the years following, the band have continued to tour, enjoying success as a live act.
