{"id":88476,"date":"2012-05-09T14:13:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T18:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/88476\/human-league\/"},"modified":"2012-05-09T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T18:13:54","slug":"human-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/88476\/human-league\/","title":{"rendered":"THE HUMAN LEAGUE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">The fact that The Human League is still around after thirty four years is nothing short of miraculous.\u00a0 It has never been easy for Phil Oakey and co.\u00a0 When the band formed in 1977, there were three men (the fourth man joined the band in 1978).\u00a0 They originally called themselves The Future.\u00a0 Inspired by Kraftwerk, they experimented with synthesizers &#8211; with mixed results.\u00a0 The first album (Reproduction) was a commercial flop.\u00a0 Surprisingly, Virgin Records signed The Human League.\u00a0 The next album (Travelogue) was an improvement, but was only moderately successful.\u00a0 Internal conflicts within the band led to a complete change.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Human League - Being Boiled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K0z6adZaRXo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">Founding members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh formed a new band (Heaven 17).\u00a0 Just two weeks before The Human League&#8217;s tour of the UK and Europe, Phil Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright scrambled to find replacement members.\u00a0 They chose Ian Burden, who was a &#8216;proper&#8217; musician (he would be able to learn the songs quickly).\u00a0 Oakey then decided to recruit just one female singer.\u00a0 He went out clubbing and ended up with two girls (he saw the friends together on the dancefloor and thought they would make a good pair).\u00a0 Three decades and eight albums later, Oakey and the &#8216;girls&#8217; are still together (The Human League has officially been a trio since the mid-nineties, although Neil Sutton has worked with the band since 1986).<\/font><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x7yc0v1frN4<\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">There were problems from the start though.\u00a0 That first tour did not run smoothly.\u00a0 The band met with hostility.\u00a0 Many fans were not pleased with the new line-up.\u00a0 Some people even threw bottles at the teenage girls!\u00a0 Aside from that, there were financial concerns.\u00a0 There was also mounting pressure from Virgin to produce a better album.\u00a0 Oakey and his new team didn&#8217;t disappoint them.\u00a0 Towards the end of 1981, Dare appeared (following three successful singles).\u00a0 It was a huge global success.\u00a0 Further singles were released and the album stayed in the chart for months.\u00a0 The Human League and Martin Rushent had made an era-defining synth-pop album.<\/font><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B60ZfTWk51I<\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">Following an album like that was never going to be easy.\u00a0 Hysteria was fairly successful, but The Human League did lose some fans.\u00a0 The lead single, The Lebanon, was a half-hearted stab at rock music.\u00a0 Most of the songs are essentially synth-pop (they just don&#8217;t quite have that epic quality which runs through most of Dare).\u00a0 Hysteria has its moments, but it lacks consistency.\u00a0 There was another three year gap before the next album appeared.\u00a0 Crash sounds very different, compared with the previous two albums.\u00a0 Phil Oakey had writer&#8217;s block and reluctantly handed everything over to the production duo Jam &amp; Lewis.\u00a0 Meeting the album deadline came at a price.\u00a0 The Human League lost fans &#8211; and confidence.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"human league - human\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w_er72QbMpk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">Following the Greatest Hits collection, the remaining fans had to wait another couple of years before The Human League resurfaced &#8211; with a very weak album (and the last one with Virgin).\u00a0 It took the remaining trio five years to recover.\u00a0 Fortunately they were back on form when they returned.\u00a0 Octopus sounds far more focused, compared with everything The Human League released since Dare.\u00a0 There is variety too (Words is a very minimal piece &#8211; in stark contrast with Cruel Young Lover which is a dance stomper).\u00a0 An updated hits collection was released and the band took the longest break yet.\u00a0 It seemed The Human League was finished.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Human League -Tell Me When (high quality video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4uQJaUtH8FA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">Secrets can be considered a comeback album &#8211; with a gap of almost seven years.\u00a0 It was critically acclaimed, but hardly noticed.\u00a0 It is a shame because Secrets is a good album (better than Octopus but not quite as good as Dare).\u00a0 2001 was a good year for comebacks, with New Order and Soft Cell likewise producing some of their best material &#8211; while relatively prolific bands such as Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys were showing signs of fatigue.\u00a0 All bands have good and bad phases though.\u00a0 Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys were back on form in 2005, while The Human League was reduced to doing annual &#8216;greatest hits&#8217; tours around the UK.\u00a0 Yet another singles collection was released in 2003 (The Very Best Of The Human League).\u00a0 The remixes on the bonus disc are appalling!<\/font><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Human League -  All I Ever Wanted\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Hdz_H7OcFig?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">The Human League&#8217;s tenth album was released last year.\u00a0 With Oakey well into his fifties and the &#8216;girls&#8217; both on the half-century mark, it&#8217;s their turn to feel tired.\u00a0 That feeling comes across from start to finish on Credo.\u00a0 Perhaps there will be another spurt of energy from the tenacious trio.\u00a0 They&#8217;ve done it before.\u00a0 They may do it again.\u00a0 Stranger things have happened.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"3\">Useless fact: All of The Human League&#8217;s albums have just one word in the title.\u00a0 Peter Gabriel and Pet Shop Boys later applied the same rule (Bjork and Portishead also followed suit).<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"4\"><strong>Five more essential songs by The Human League<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=txg3cCavDYg<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6UezWnYvXHk<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pp3780rNkKY<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Human League - Shameless \" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l3yGU84ca3E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Human League -Snake\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-wvCTyGcaRA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><font face=\"helvetica\" size=\"4\">Further listening<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Human League - Together In Electric Dreams\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DCyxO57Hn6k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Richard X &amp; Kelis - Finest Dreams\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0xqoDw6HLXE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pet Shop Boys_this used to be the future (feat. Philip Oakey)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/juc-2AIru6k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fact that The Human League is still around after thirty four years is nothing short of miraculous.\u00a0 It has never been easy for Phil Oakey and co.\u00a0 When the band formed in 1977, there were three men (the fourth man joined the band in 1978).\u00a0 They originally called themselves The Future.\u00a0 Inspired by Kraftwerk, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[108,5172],"class_list":["post-88476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-music-2","tag-the-human-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}