Human League

The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album Dare in 1981 after restructuring their lineup. The album produced the hit singles "The Sound of the Crowd", "Love Action (I Believe in Love)", "Open Your Heart" and the UK and US number one "Don't You Want Me". The band received the Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 1982. Further hits followed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, including the non-album singles "Mirror Man" (1982) and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" (1983), "The Lebanon" from the album Hysteria (1984), "Human" (a second US number one) from the album Crash (1986) and "Tell Me When" from the album Octopus (1995).The only constant band member since 1977 has been lead singer Philip Oakey. The original lineup comprised Oakey, synthesizer players Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, and slide projectionist and visual director Adrian Wright. After releasing their second album Travelogue in 1980, both Marsh and Ware left the band to form Heaven 17. Oakey and Wright assembled a new lineup with singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, bassist/synthesizer player Ian Burden, and guitarist/synthesizer player Jo Callis. Wright, Burden and Callis all left the band by the end of the 1980s, since which time the Human League has essentially been a trio of Oakey, Catherall and Sulley with various sidemen.The Human League have had six top-20 albums and 13 top-20 singles in the UK and had sold more than 20 million records worldwide by 2010. As an early techno-pop act that received extensive MTV airplay, they are regarded as one of the leading artists of the 1980s Second British Invasion of the US.In early 1977, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, who had met at youth arts project Meatwhistle, were both working as computer operators. Their musical collaboration combined pop music (such as glam rock and Tamla Motown) with avant-garde electronic music. With the price of electronic components dropping in the mid-1970s, equipment became more affordable for the average consumer; Marsh and Ware purchased a Korg 700S synthesizer together and learned how to play it. Their musical reputation spread, and they were invited to play at a friend's 21st birthday party. For the party, Marsh and Ware formed themselves into an informal band called The Dead Daughters. After a few more low-key, private performances, Marsh and Ware decided to officially form a band. Joined by their friend Adi Newton and another synthesizer (a Roland System-100), they formed The Future and began to create music in their own rehearsal facility in a disused cutlery workshop in the centre of Sheffield. The association with Adi Newton was short; Newton left The Future and went on to form Clock DVA. Ware at this point decided that they needed a singer rather than a third synthesizer player.Marsh and Ware's first choice, Glenn Gregory, was unavailable (Gregory eventually became the lead singer of their later band Heaven 17). Ware then decided to invite an old school friend, Philip Oakey, to join the band. Oakey was working as a hospital porter at the time and was known on the Sheffield social scene for his eclectic style of dress. Although he had no musical experience, Ware thought he would be ideal as lead singer for The Future as "he already looked like a pop star". When Ware called on Oakey, he found he was out, so asked him to join The Future by leaving a note stuck to his front door. He accepted the invitation, but early sessions were awkward. Oakey had never sung in front of an audience before, could not play keyboards and only owned a saxophone (which he could barely play). Listening to one of Marsh and Ware's demos, Oakey was inspired to write some lyrics which later became the single "Being Boiled".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.