Originally a post punk synthesiser group from Sheffield, the Human League (previously known as the Future) released their first single, "Being Boiled" c/w "Circus Of Death" on Bob Last's Fast Product record label in 1978. Shortly afterwards, they signed up with Virgin Records, and by the early 1980s had become a successful Britishelectropop band. Their first single to chart was 'Empire State Human', which peaked at number 62 in the charts. When Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware left to form Heaven 17 it seemed that Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright, the sole remaining group members, would be unable to sustain the band, which, just before the split, was beginning to achieve wider popularity.
Cover of the Human League's first single released in 1978
However, they recruited bass player Ian Burden, guitarist Jo Callis (formerly of The Rezillos) and, famously, fronted the band with two singers, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, whom they had met in a Sheffield nightclub. At the time, synthpop was starting to become fashionable due to the success of groups like OMD and Ultravox, but female vocals were rarely heard on synth records, so the addition of Sulley and Catherall gave the group a distinctive sound. Re-energized by the addition of new members, the band went on to record their breakthrough album Dare, and have many chart successes.
The band achieved a brief spell of success in the early 1980s with their style of Synth pop music. Their most famous single "Don't You Want Me" reached number one in the UK charts during the Christmas of 1981 and the biggest selling single of that year.
The band also had a number of other hits but their success faded towards the mid-1980s. The Jam & Lewis;-produced Crash LP (1985) did provide a U.S. number one, "Human", but other singles made little impact.
The group made a surprise comeback in 1994. Dropped by Virgin Records after the failure of their album Romantic? (1989), the group were now signed to EastWest and their line-up included producer Ian Stanley, who helped them to achieve a more modern sound. The album Octopus went silver, and the lead-off single "Tell Me When" was the group's first major hit since "Human".
Four CDs attribute songs by The Human League under different names: on 'The Golden Hour Of The Future' there are songs credited to The Human League when they were still The Future, on the single 'I Don't Depend On You' where they call themselves The Men, on the 'Dance Like A Star' Ep, there are also songs attributed to The Future and on 'Love And Dancing', they pay homage to Barry White 's Love Unlimited Orchestra by calling themselves League Unlimited Orchestra
