Phil Oakey may not have been the most versatile singer in the world, he may not have been the most versatile dancer, in fact his every move both vocally and physically seemed as rigid and robotic as the analogue synths and clockwork beats that drove the sound. What he had though was an almost totally accidental gift for crafting perfect pop from the flex of wire and steel he found at hand. You may cringe at the crazy, lopping haircuts, the grating voices of the two backing singers (both of whom seemed peculiarly sexy in a doggish, shop-girl kind of way), the silly costumes and the high heels – but I defy you not be thoroughly hypnotised by the sound itself; as cold and as hard as steel and as delicious as honey on Yorkshire-pudding. The world may now find them famous only for the perennial love anthem ‘Don’t You Want Me’ but it’s tracks like ‘Love Action’, ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’ and ‘Open Your Heart’ that provide the sweetest venom. Hook after hook, riff after riff of pure unadulterated pop. The fact that this material was so groundbreaking in the early eighties seems almost incidental, and yet it has to be said that neither Kraftwerk, Gary Numan or David Bowie brought techno to the masses in quite the league as the League. Always quirky (‘Louise’, ‘Empire State Human’) always intense (‘The Lebanon’, ‘Being Boiled’) and always fundamentally tuneful (‘Mirror Man’, ‘Together In Electric Dreams’, ‘Human’) it’s a remarkable story in sound.
Digitally remastered and accompanied by a second disc of remixes covering 7 of the 11 vinyl promo mixes from earlier this year, and 4 brand new mixes it’s a worthy investment by any standards.
And just for the completist, here is a few things about the league, I bet you didn’t know:
- The band began life in Sheffield, South Yorkshire as Meatwhistle – comprising Ian Craig Marsh and Mark Civico who were later to form the equally beguiling ‘Musical Vomit’
- Ian’s first synthesizer was built from a do-it-yourself synthesizer kit he’d seen in the local library’s copy of Practical Electronics magazine.
- The Dead Daughters, The Underpants, Dick Velcro & The Space Kidettes, Androids Don’t Bleed, Totem Pole, The Hari Willey Krishna Band and Arthur Craven’s Tent Band – were all names for the band at some time in their history.
- Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware teamed up with Cabaret Voltaire, 2.3’s drummer Haydn Boyes-Weston and Glenn Gregory (later Heaven 17) to form The Future.
- Oakey was once a hospital porter in a plastic surgery .
- When Ian met Oakey in a Sheffield nightclub he was wearing women’s tights, a 13 amp plug around his neck and a baked bean tin on his head.
- The famous lop-sided haircut came from a hair model Oakey saw on a bus called Penny.
- The name The Human League was taken from a science-fiction board game called Star Force.
- Philip famously recruited the two teenage backing singers Susanne Sulley and Joanne Catherall when his his girlfriend spotted them dancing at Sheffield’s Crazy Daisy disco.