The Human League: The Band that SURVIVE a breakup

 


Don’t You Want Me was one of the most important records of all time. It gave the 80s an innovative sound as it introduced the synth era of 80s music. Behind this era was a band was the Human League. Formed in Sherfield, UK the band nearly ended before really taking off. But they ultimately became global superstars. So, let’s all work as a waitress at a cocktail bar.

The Human League: The Band that SURVIVE a breakup

Philip Oakey was born on October 2, 1955. His father worked as a general post office sales man and because of this his family moved frequently. They eventually settle in Sherfield, UK. He attended King Edward VII School in Sheffield. But he dropped out and took a number of odd jobs. In 1977, he decided to try his hand in music. He first bought himself a saxophone but decided to ditch the effort in giving himself lessons.

We’ll circle back with Philip later on, but for now let’s meet Martyn Ware & Ian Marsh. Both men worked as computer operators and with Ware he just received his first paycheck. Ware had two choices on what he could spend it on. Option one: driving lessons which he could put to use later in life. Or two: Korg 700 Synthesizer which would be a fun toy but not for importance. By guessing, we assume he chose the Synthesizer. Ware never learned how to drive, according to him. What made the decision more baffling is that he never had experience in playing the instrument. He, alongside Marsh, would use the instrument as an experimental piece. They would combined music like glam rock and Motown with electronic music.

It's now 1977, Marsh and Ware were ready to start a band. But they struggled to find a lead singer. They had Adi Newton in the lineup, but he recently left to form The Outfit Clock DVA. Ware decided it would be best to recruit Philip Oakey to their new group. Philip, who had no musical experience, decided to join their group. The group would be called The Future. But their name was changed to Human League, which they got from the game Starforce: Alpha Centauri. Human League would sign with Fast Product. In 1978, Human League released their debut single “Being Boiled”. While the song wasn’t a commercial success, the song was praised for its uniqueness. Despite its uniqueness, the band was hesitant on performing the song live. A friend of Oakey’s named Philip Adrian Wright decided to help out with the visual and live aspect of the band. He basically joined the band as Human League’s Director of Visuals.

The band caught a break in 1978, when David Bowie was at their show and he gave the band a cosign. After realizing that the band was going anywhere with their original label, other major labels started to take notice on The Human League. Virgin won the bidding war and signed the band to their roster. Virgin wanted to make changes to their sound. Ware stated that it was tough to oppose those changes because since the band accepted a huge advance, they couldn’t say no. They released the song “I Don’t Depend on You” under the name The Men. The was disco laden and drifted away on what the Human League was known for. As result, The song was a failure so Virgin told them to go back to their original sound and style. The result would be Reproduction, their debut album released on August 1979. But the album was a flopped and the tour they was supposed to go on later that year was cancelled. The next year, they released their second album Travelogue and that album fared better, but barely.


Human League started to fall apart. Two mediocre albums were taking a toll on Philip, Martyn and Ian. Philip and Martyn relationship was deteriorate over creative control and personal matters. Ware wanted the band to stay in the safe zone and keep pushing their sound. What made matters worse was that other acts, were taking their sound and finding more success than Human League. Enough was enough, Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh left the band they created. The two would form their own band called Heaven 17. Human League was now Philip Oakey and Philip Wright and now faced a serious dilemma. The band had an upcoming tour and was in jeopardy, and any debts or commitments would fall on Wright an Oakey. But what the departed left was the Human League name to Oakey. So, he decided rebuilt the band his way. One day, he went to a nightclub and spot two teenagers in Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley. He noticed the chemistry they have and recruited them to join The Human League. After getting permission from their parents, the girls joined as dancers and occasional singers.


But problems still persisted. Many did not take fondly to the new lineup calling him Oakey and his dancing girls. Human League was still in debt with Virgin; they needed a hit and hit quickly. They recorded the song Boys and Girls that song reached #47 on the UK charts, but it was their highest successful song on the chart. Still a moderate success, Virgin gave them the option to work on a new album. To help with this album, Oakey reached out to Martin Rushent to help produce tracks. Oakey also recruited Ian Burden and Jo Callis to join the band.

First of these were “Sound of the Crowd”, that song became Human League’s first major successful single going #12 on the UK Charts. The next single was “Love Action (I Believe in Love)”, the song became their first top 10 UK single going #3 on the UK Charts. In October 1981, Dare album was released. The third single was “Open Your Heart”, which was another top 10 hit going #6. The label wanted another single and they took a liking to “Don’t You Want Me”. Oakey disagreed as he thought it was a filler song. But Virgin overruled and pushed it anyway. To express Virgin’s belief in this single, they financed a very expensive video for the time with director Steve Barron. The song became a smash and became the group’s first #1 hit in the UK. Thanks to video, it started to receive heavy rotation on a newly found television network known as MTV and this song gave them their first US crossover hit going #1 in America. The Dare album went 3x Platinum in the UK, and thanks to Don’t You Want Me, Dare went Gold in America.

 Human League continued to ride the high of Don’t You Want Me. They released two more hit singles both reaching #2 on the UK, “Mirror Man” and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", with the latter becoming a top 10 hit in America. But the band was feeling pressure. Virgin Records wanted another Dare and was putting pressure on Human League to follow-up. With the struggles, they decided to release an EP called Fascination. When they finally muster the strength to recorded the follow up album, Human League decided to ditch most of what they already worked on and started over from scratch. In 1984, Human League released the song “The Lebanon”. The song was a major departure from what the Dare era brought but it still became a hit as it reached #11 on the UK charts. In May 1984, Hysteria was released and that was the perfect album title giving what the band was feeling during the making of this album. The album undersold is previous, going Gold in the UK. Meanwhile, Philip was getting opportunities outside of Human League. He was featured on a song with one of his idols Giorgio Moroder on the song “Together in Electric Dreams” and that song was featured on the Electric Dreams soundtrack. The pair then recorded an album together called Philip Oakey & Giorgia Moroder but that album only saw minor success.

After Hysteria only saw middle of the road success, the group was once again in a creative pickle. Virgin decided to fly the band to Minneapolis, USA to pair them up with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The producing duo just recently caught fire in a bottle thanks to their contributions with Janet Jackson on her Control Album. They pretty much rejected almost everything the band originally came up with. But they came together to produce Crash, released in September 1986. The album was best known for having the smash “Human”. The song reached #1 in America, but only #8 in the UK. But the other songs failed to make any noise in both the UK and US, with the album only going Gold in the UK.

In 1990, Human League released their sixth album Romantic? It had the song “Heart of the Wheel”, a song that only reached the top 30 on the UK Charts. But the album failed to reach the same heights as their 80s heyday. To make things worse, their contract with Virgin was terminate after Romantic’s failure. The band kind of went back to square 1. The recorded a ton of demos hoping labels could sign them. In 1993, EastWest Records found interest that the band may still have what it takes, so they signed them.

In 1995, Human League releases Octopus. The leadoff single was “Tell Me When” and the song saw the band return to the top 10 peaking at #6 on the UK Charts, #31 on the US Charts. The next single was “One Man in My Heart” and this was different than any other Human League song at that point. Most of the Human League songs featured Philip on leads, this time Susan took the leads. The song reached #13 on the UK Charts. “Filling Up in Heaven” was the next single and that only reached #36 on the UK Charts. Octopus saw the album go Gold in the UK.

In 1998, the band was gearing up to work on a new album. However, EastWest got caught in the middle of an ownership change. EastWest winded up dropping Human League from their roster. The band eventually signing with Papillon Records. They did this so they could release their album Secrets, released in 2001. The album was received well by critics, but commercially the album flopped. The album was also poorly promoted as their label Papillon Records was folded. One incident, BBC radio refused to promote their single “All I Ever Wanted” because of their age, with the members approaching or already at 40. This almost broke the band. But they realized they have one thing to fall off from. Their performance etiquette. One show wanted the band to perform lip-sync but the band opted the band show up three hours early for soundcheck. That’s what Human League is up to today. With the lineup of Philip, Susan & Joanne Human League has become a touring act. To provide some closing remarks, They turned electronic music into pop music. They turned outsiders into pop stars. They turned a near breakup into one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history.

SOURCES

http://www.humanleague.dk/biography/biography.html

https://sheffieldmusicarchive.co.uk/bands/human-league/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://www.tumblr.com/weimar-dancefloor/37979448892/philip-oakey-the-most-human-pop-star

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cadillac Records Movie Recap (2008)

Image
  Cadillac Records Movie Recap (2008)   This is the story on how two unlikely forces team up and change the course of black music forever. Cedric the Entertainer, who plays Willie Dixon, help narrates this story on how rock music originates from black music. First of this party is Leonard Chess, he’s a Polish immigrant who has a dream of opening a nightclub for Negros in Chicago. The other is McKinnley Morganfield, but we all would know him as Muddy Waters. He’s a sharecropper from Mississippi. One day, Alan Womack wants to record him for the Library of Congress and after this he realized he has a gift. After this experience, he packs everything and moves to the big city of Chicago. But once there, the folks in Chicago aren’t fond of this as they call it “sharecropper” music. But a woman name Gineva Wade wants to give him the time of day and they do things that I can’t say on YouTube. After their love making, she given him an amp, that way everyone hears his sound. Len get...
Read more

Fast Times At Ridgemont High Movie Recap (1982)

Image
  Fast Times At Ridgemont High Literally, the first second of this movie we get hit in the face with “We Got the Beat” by The Go-Gos as the film kicks off at the Ridgemont Mall. Start off with Mike. Mike is a ticket scalper who tries to rip off two young boys in getting Van Halen tickets. We also meet Mark aka Rat, he works at the movie theater but he hates his job as the action is by the food court. Over the other side at Perry’s Pizza we meet Stacy, a freshman who is a first-time worker and befriends Linda. They spot a cute guy and Linda urges Stacy to talk to him. Stacy lies about her being 19 years old and the guy is 26. Meanwhile outside of the mall we meet Stacy’s brother Brad, he works at an All-American Burger. At the burger joint, we meet Jeff Spicoli, a stoner and slaker who likes to arrive in public establishments shirtless. Brad being one of the best employees there, orders Spicoli and his friends to put their shirts back on. After their shift ends, Linda tells Stacy ...
Read more

What Happened to Fabolous (Most Underrated Rapper of the 2000s?)

Image
  2000s had rappers that lasted a very long time. Ludacris, he had a southern appeal and clever wordplay. Nelly had that country grammar and melodic appeal. The Dipset crew love to flash wealth, TI & Jeezy are pioneers in trap, 50 Cent pretty much bullied his way into the rap game. I say this because there was one rapper who brought a few of those elements but tend to get overshadow and he was Fabolous. He is a rapper from New York who rap for the ladies, but at had enough street cred to earn respect from his peers. But as the years gone by, Fab’s legacy has slowly started to fade and people forget he had a quiet/yet effective decade run in the 00s. So without further ado.   What Happened to Fabolous John David Jackson was born on November 18, 1977 in Brooklyn. He is of Dominican and African American descent. He grew up in a single mother household in the rough neighborhood of Bed-Stuy. As a youth, he gained an interest in the arts, as he loved to draw. He went to High...
Read more