Chart entered : 3 May 1980
Chart peak : 56 ( 46 on re-release in 1982 )
Number of hits : 22
As Smokie departed, another, very different, Yorkshire band arrived in the charts.
The Human League had their roots in a community arts project sponsored by Sheffield City Council called Meatwhistle. Through that, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware met and started working together making electronic music in 1977. Both were 21 year old computer operators though with different companies. Ian had been guitarist in a confrontational art group called Musical Vomit in 1973-4 while Martyn was briefly in a group called Underpants. Both came under the Meatwhistle umbrella.
After playing a few parties together as The Dead Daughters they drafted in another friend with a synthesiser, Adi Newton and became The Future. They found record companies completely uninterested in their material and Newton left to form his own band Clock DVA. Though Martyn had a more than serviceable singing voice he decided the band needed a frontman and singer rather than another keyboard player. After another Meatwhistle alumnus Glen Gregory turned them down Martyn turned to an old school friend Philip Oakey. Philip was also 21, married and working as a hospital porter. He had no musical experience but was a well known Sheffield scenester for his flamboyant dress sense. He agreed to join the band.
They changed their name to The Human League almost straight away. They produced a demo tape of three songs which another Meatwhistle associate Paul Bower passed on to the boss of his record label Bob Last. Last liked it and offered them a single deal on the label Fast Product.
Their first single "Being Boiled" was released in June 1978. Phil wrote an esoteric lyric about the plight of silkworms destroyed during the sericulture process to a slow doomy synth-pop instrumental with a simple two-note motif. He then intoned portentously over the top. It was hardly going to set the charts alight but it good reviews in the NME and an appearance on So It Goes. Not all their peers were impressed ; future label mate John Lydon famously described them as "trendy hippies". The record would become an unlikely Top 10 hit in 1982 following their huge success with Dare ; earlier records charting on re-release would become a regular feature of the next few years.
The League started playing live around the same time and created a buzz. Martyn and Ian became concerned at the amount of gob landing on their synths and soon started playing behind perspex screens which of course concentrated the assault on poor Phil. They also recruited Adrian Wright , a former film student as "Director of Visuals" to come up with slide shows to distract the audience while they were playing. They got support slots with The Rezillos and Siouxsie and the Banshees and in December 1978 a visit from David Bowie who subsequently told the NME he "had seen the future of pop music".
In April 1979 they released a 12 inch EP "The Dignity of Labour" comprising four synthesiser instrumentals . "Part 1" is the most accessible with its stately Kraftwerkian melody. The rest are interesting doodles which outstay their welcome. It also came with a free flexi-disc of a free-form conversation between Phil and Bob Last.
The EP was their last record for Fast. The majors were now interested and just weeks later they signed with Virgin. Last was compensated by becoming their manager. After banking their advance and supporting Iggy Pop in Europe the group returned to England to record their first single for Virgin. To their horror Virgin insisted on a complete change in their sound wanting a disco-flavoured single with female backing vocals provided by Lisa Strike and Katie Kissoon. The band reluctantly complied with the proviso that it should be released under a pseudonym, The Men. "I Don't Depend On You ". It's a lumpy awkward-sounding record with a Bernard Edwards - style bendy bass line leading alongside the synths and the girls' assured vocals making Phil sound very uncomfortable by comparison. To the band's undoubted relief the record wasn't a hit and Virgin backed off.
Their second single for Virgin in September 1979 was "Empire State Human", a fizzing electro-pop fantasy about a man's desire to ever increase in size as a metaphor for megalomania . The chanted chorus showed some commercial acumen but it still wasn't a hit which didn't bode well for the album "Reproduction" released a month later. Marred by a repulsive cover to start with , the album is a good representation of their interest in macabre dystopian sci-fi with some interesting lyrical ideas but most of the songs are too slow and sombre and it starts to sound a bit samey by the last track. There wasn't another potential single on it and it didn't chart until 1982.
The band were now in big trouble. Both they and Virgin were spooked by Gary Numan's sudden success and feared they had missed the boat. Virgin unceremoniously cancelled their December tour. Nevertheless they were not dropped and started work on their second album.
"Holiday 80" is a rather strange hotch-potch of material. Though often referred to as an EP it was actually a double pack single to begin with, then two separate but overlapping 7 inch singles with just three of the four tracks. "Marianne" is a badly produced robotic lament for the loss of a childhood lament with a particularly brutalist drum machine and a more prominent than usual vocal contribution from Martyn. It's a good song poorly presented. "Dancevision" is an instrumental relic from The Future days that sounds like Kraftwerk played at the wrong speed and is in fact impossible to dance to. "Being Boiled" is a cleaned up version of the debut single with extra synth twiddles and a more confident vocal. The last track is a six-plus minute medley of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll" and Iggy Pop's "Nightclubbing". The band no doubt regret their enthusiasm for Glitter but it's a suitable tribute to his minimalism updated for the eighties. The segue into "Nightclubbing" is rather clunky and it becomes a bit of a plod from there on.
Despite the confusing promotion the single charted and got them on Top of the Pops , the original line up's only appearance on the programme. Although "Marianne" was supposed to be the lead track the band chose to do "Rock And Roll" ( "Nightclubbing" didn't appear on either of the separated singles ) instead. Adrian appeared with them as a third keyboardist although he hadn't played on the record. The public didn't quite get it and the record stalled after reaching 56 but at least they were off the mark.
I've never quite got into the early Human League and think all parties benefited from the subsequent split. "That" album pretty much deserves all the platitudes.
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