Human League

On This Day 01/11/1995 Human League

On this day, 1 November 1995 pop band Human League played St David’s Hall on there greatest hits tour.

Formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album Dare in 1981 after restructuring their lineup.

The album contained four hit singles, including the UK/US number one hit "Don't You Want Me". The band received the Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 1982. Further hits followed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, including "Mirror Man", "(Keep Feeling) Fascination", "The Lebanon", "Human" (a second US No. 1) and "Tell Me When".

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,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.

LIVE LINE UP:

Philip Oakey - vocals

Joanne Catherall - vocals

Susan Sulley - vocals

Neil Sutton - synthesizer

Russel Dennett - synthesizer, guitar, vocals

Fergus Geronde - percussion

Phil Edwards - synthesizer

David Beevers - technica

Setlist

Being Boiled

These Are the Days

Love Action (I Believe in Love)

Filling Up With Heaven

A Doorway?

The Sound of the Crowd

Housefull of Nothing

Mirror Man

Blind Youth

Seconds

The Lebanon

The Stars Are Going Out

(Keep Feeling) Fascination

Stay With Me Tonight

One Man in My Heart

Human

Don't You Want Me

Tell Me When

Human Nature

(Gary Clail / On-U Sound System cover)

Encore:

Together in Electric Dreams

(Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder cover)

On This Day 09/01/1987 Human League

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On this day, 9 January 1987, synth-pop band Human League played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on the band’s Crash tour. Support was provided by Drum Theatre.

The band was promoting their fifth studio album Crash, released on 8 September 1986 by Virgin Records. The album would provide the band with their second US number-one single, "Human", the same year. It was produced by the American production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who also wrote several tracks.

The album name was taken from a moment in the studio during the recording. Oakey described it thus:

It's from a crash cymbal, because it's a disco album again with lots of cymbals. One day somebody said "what sorts of cymbals do you want, a ride or a crash?", and we thought, "what a great title!"

The album quickly became an unexpected success. One of Jam and Lewis's compositions, "Human", became the Human League's second number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 and their first UK top 10 single in over three years, peaking at number eight.

Follow-ups "I Need Your Loving" and the 1988 release "Love Is All That Matters" were less successful, failing to reach the UK top 40. The album itself peaked at number seven in the UK (where it has been certified Gold for shipments in excess of 100,000 copies) and number 24 on the US Billboard 200.

Oakey stated his discomfort with the record in 1995, saying: "The Jam and Lewis album [Crash] was just like being a puppet for four months. It was interesting to pick yourself out of the industrial north of England and dump yourself in Minneapolis. Great experience, but it just wasn't our album.



LIVE LINE UP:

Philip Oakey - vocals

Joanne Catherall - vocals

Susan Sulley - vocals

Ian Burden - bass & vocals

Neil Sutton - synthesizer

Russel Dennett - syntesizer, guitar, vocals

Jim Russell - drums

Meyrick - guitar, vocals

David Beevers - technical

SETLIST:

Hard Times

Money

The Things That Dreams Are Made Of

The Real Thing or I Need Your Loving

Do Or Die

Human

The Sound Of The Crowd

Love Action (I Believe In Love)

Jam

Love On The Run

Seconds

The Lebanon

Together In Electric Dreams

Party or I Need Your Loving

Mirror Man

Don't You Want Me

(Keep Feeling) Fascination

Rock'n'Roll