The Human League

The Human League are along with Billy Idol my favourite band who I will constantly refer back to when wondering disc to spin on my deck / digitally activate.

They started out as The Future in the mid 70’s though the music from that period only surfaced in the early 2000’s as The Golden Hour of the Future. Their subsequent albums Reproduction and Travelogue.

After Travelogue, the group split in two and Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright carried on under The Human League name and recruiting four others (Including Joe Callis from The Rezillos) with Martin Ware and Ian Marsh setting up Heaven 17 with Glen Gregory.

The Human League were founded in 1977 with Phil Oakey, Marsh and Ware (later Heaven 17 and BEF with Glen Gregory) and Adrian Wright. Richard X has taken many of The Human League’s sounds and mixed them in with today’s bands. However, he recently released a compilation – The Golden Hour of the Future which brought together some previously unreleased recordings. Some of it is pretty hard listening to be honest – in fact, the 12″ Dance Like a Star features better tracks than the CD (in my opinion).

When Phil and Adrian went their separate ways in 1981, Dare is now seen as the synth dance album that really broke the Human League and genuinely groundbreaking whilst competing with their peers at the. Dare was the first album I bought and then the Unlimited Dancing remix album by Martin Rushent. Their last albums was Secrets, and was a cracker. There is a connection between many of the artists I have liked over the years and they are Chris Thomas and Martin Rushent. The latter produced Dare (and Generation X’s first album) and also Altered Images I noticed and Chris Thomas produced Hysteria who I’m assuming is the same Chris Thomas that produced the Sex Pistols and a lot of INXS records. Connections all over the place!!

I waited years and years to see them, I missed them in their 1994 tour as I was too ill to go (bought the tickets but was in the grip of glandular fever) and eventually got to see them at Hackney Ocean in late 2003. However, they did not come on until 10.30 and had to leave at 11.00 so only got to see a few songs – was very aggrieved. The latest tour was very expensive so skipped it again.

Need to know more, then click below for some superb (unofficial) web sites:

I’ve collected quite a few Human League bits and pieces, below are some of the 12″‘s I’ve collected though some have definitely disappeared!!

I have a mass of Human League records – this is a rare black picture disc of Dare – for more information on the Human League discography go to http://www.discogs.com/artist/Human+League%2C+The