Travelogue

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With a new line-up, sound, and vocalist, Ware decided that the band needed a new name. It would also allow them to approach record companies again from a different angle. Ware suggested "The Human League", after a group in the science-fiction board game StarForce: Alpha Centauri. In the game, the Human League arose in 2415 A.D. and were a frontier-oriented society that desired more independence from Earth. Oakey and Marsh agreed on the new name, and in early 1978 The Future became The Human League. [7] [ unreliable source?] The original Human League in July 1980. From left to right: Oakey, Wright, Marsh, Ware. A change in management at EastWest in 1998 saw the cancellation of the band's contract once again. Afterward, the band co-headlined with Culture Club and Howard Jones on VH1's 1980s "Big Rewind" nostalgia tour [29] and made other concert and public appearances throughout 1997–2000. At the end of 2005, together with EMI, the band released a compilation album of remixes. Called The Human League Original Remixes and Rarities, it was aimed at the DJ/Dance market in the US and UK. The Human League / A Very British Synthesizer Group: four-disc anthology". superdeluxeedition.com. 14 September 2016 . Retrieved 22 November 2016. The next single from the album was the ballad " One Man in My Heart", which features Sulley on lead vocals. It reached No.13 in the UK and was unique in that it was the only single by the Human League to feature a female only lead vocal until "Never Let Me Go" in 2011.

Yellow Magic Orchestra Versus Human League, The – YMO Versus The Human League (CD) at Discogs". discogs. 21 April 1993 . Retrieved 30 January 2014. Travelogue hinted at an auspicious future, but ultimately its success couldn’t resolve The Human League’s internal contradictions. Their personnel subsequently split into two camps in November 1980, though this schism later produced two new world-beating pop groups. Oakey and Wright’s Mk II Human League returned refreshed with the insurmountable Dare, and Ware and Marsh formed the stylish Heaven 17 with vocalist Glenn Gregory.

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The final result of the sessions was the Crash album. The album featured much material written by the Jam and Lewis team, and showcased their Yamaha DX7-led sound. It had a US No.1 single, " Human" (No.8 in the UK), but other singles performed relatively poorly. The album, while making the Top 10 in the UK, was not as popular as previous releases. Disheartened by being sidelined in Minneapolis and with the direction the band had taken, Adrian Wright left the band to work in film. Crash was generally more popular in the US and internationally than in the UK. The band toured in the UK and internationally in 1986 and 1987 to capitalise on their high-profile at this time. Using Future material, the Human League released a demo tape to record companies under their new name. The tape contained versions of "Being Boiled", "Toyota City" and "Circus of Death". Ware's friend Paul Bower of Sheffield new-wave band "2.3", who had just recorded a single for Bob Last's Edinburgh-based independent label Fast Product, took their demo to Last and he signed the band.

At the end of 2012, the band undertook the 'XXXV Tour' across Europe and the UK to celebrate 35 years in existence. The shows were critically acclaimed. The UK's Daily Telegraph said "as good a night's entertainment as you are likely to find anywhere on the planet". [41]The Human League were one of the headline acts in the line-up at Spillers Wharf on 30 May 2009, in the Newcastle/Gateshead Evolution festival, and were one of the headline bands for Dubai's first music festival, the 'Dubai Sound City' festival, between 5 and 7 November 2009. Travelogue entered the UK album chart at #16, which was also its peak, and remained on the chart for nine weeks in 1980 – a vast improvement on their debut album, Reproduction, which failed to chart at all the year before. However, that did not prevent the departure of founding members Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who went on to form Heaven 17. Remaining members Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright moved The Human League in a new direction with a new lineup. When they began to make a commercial impact the following year, Travelogue re-entered the chart in August 1981 for a further 33 weeks, and was certified Gold by the BPI in May 1982.

Whereas Reproduction was more or less the same, travelogue plays itself with the same instrumental sets and patch notes used on reproduction, but with more of a focus on commercial accessibility than their debut ever maintained. While this is true it is still far more different from what mainstream listeners would experience with the new lineup's next album, which by comparison doesn't sound as good or doesn't hold up as well. In 2016, the band performed their 'A Very British Synthesizer Group' European and UK tour to accompany the release of the multi-disc anthology of the same name. [43] In winter 2018, they undertook an extensive 'Red Tour' in Europe and the UK. The sleeve repurposes a photo, "Sunset Silhouettes Trapper and Dogs Crossing Saganagons Lake, Ontario", which featured in a 1962 edition of the National Geographic magazine. In August 1978 the band recorded a session for John Peel, including a re-worked version of "Being Boiled." [10]Retaining the Human League name came at a heavy price for Oakey. As the band's sole remaining member, he was responsible for all Human League debts and commitments. Furthermore, the terms of the Virgin contract required him to pay Ware and Marsh one per cent of royalties of the next Human League album. The split also jeopardized the band's upcoming tour. With the first performance only ten days away and the music media reporting that the Human League was finished now that "the talented people had left", promoters started threatening to sue Oakey if the concerts were not completed as contracted. In 2000, the tribute album Reproductions: Songs of The Human League was released. It contains cover versions of 16 of the Human League's songs, including performances by Ladytron, Lali Puna, Momus, Future Bible Heroes, Stephin Merritt and The Aluminum Group. [48] In March 2014, "Don't You Want Me" re-entered the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart, thanks to a social media campaign from the fans of Aberdeen F.C., who won the Scottish League Cup the previous weekend. They have adopted the song as a terrace chant, citing their midfielder Peter Pawlett with the lyrics changed to "Peter Pawlett Baby". [42] The band has been the subject of, and appeared in, various TV documentaries and features, including Channel 4's Made in Sheffield and the BBC's Young Guns: The Bands of the Early 1980s. In June 2007, Sulley and Catherall presented a documentary on Sheffield's pop music history entitled The Nation's Music Cities for VH1.

Although the group has been retrospectively identified with the New Romantic movement of this period, [21] according to Dave Rimmer, author of New Romantics: The Look, "at the time [they] were no such thing." [22] The band themselves have also consistently and strenuously rejected the label. The Sheffield scene in which the Human League formed predated New Romanticism and took more influence from Kraftwerk. Bands in the Sheffield scene were also referred to as Futurists, [23] although Oakey himself has said: "We thought we were the punkiest band in Sheffield." [24] Ankeny, Jason. "The Human League Biography". AllMusic . Retrieved 24 January 2017. Synth pop's first international superstars, the Human League were among the earliest and most innovative bands to break into the pop mainstream on a wave of synthesizers and electronic rhythms, their marriage of infectious melodies and state-of-the-art technology proving enormously influential on countless acts following in their wake. The only constant band member since 1977 has been lead singer and songwriter Philip Oakey. Keyboard players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh both left the band in 1980 to form Heaven 17, leaving Oakey and Adrian Wright to assemble a new line-up. The Human League then evolved into a commercially successful new pop band, [2] with the line-up comprising Oakey, Wright, vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, bassist and keyboard player Ian Burden and guitarist and keyboard player Jo Callis. Wright, Burden and Callis all left the band by the end of the 1980s, since which time the band has essentially been a trio of Oakey, Catherall and Sulley with various sidemen.

Credits (12)

Just like the last album, there's a mix of pop songs and more experimental / instrumental songs which compliment each other nicely, and then there's in-betweens like 'Dreams of Leaving' and 'Crow and a Baby' which mix both experimental and popular rhythym styles. I'm 100% certain that the drum patterns for 'Crow and a Baby' are well used in modern Electronic Dance Music, which makes this album rather prophetic for certain styles of music which would emerge. In 1987, Ian Burden also left the band. In November 1988, a greatest hits compilation album was released that reached No.3 in UK. This was preceded by the release of the single " Love Is All That Matters" from Crash. Throughout the following years, the band has continued to tour frequently, enjoying success and popularity as a live act. In 2004, they released The Human League Live at the Dome, a DVD of a live show filmed at the Brighton Dome, complete with a compilation CD called Live at the Dome. In November 1982, the Motown influenced electropop single " Mirror Man" reached No.2 in the UK chart, just missing another Christmas No.1, which was taken by a novelty record by Renée and Renato. [18]