SYNTH - POP TITANS THE HUMAN LEAGUE HAVE SERVED UP SOME OF THE MOST ICONIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC OF THE LAST 40 YEARS CLASSIC POP MEETS THE BAND TO HEAR THEIR IN IMITABLE TAKE ON AN IMPRESSIVE BACK CATALOGUE

ALBUM BY ALBUM

1979 – 2011

From the controversial cover of their debut album Reproduction, the iconic, simply framed image of lead singer Philip Oakey on their masterpiece Dare and perfectly composed shot of the latter incarnation of the band for Secrets, The Human League have never been short of instantly eye-catching artwork for their music.

We’ve profiled two of their design genius collaborators in previous issues of Classic Pop. Malcolm Garrett, the man who hooked up with the band on their first two albums, appears in Issue 6 and we ran the art of Ken Ansell – who worked with The Human League on numerous projects including Dare, Hysteria and The Sound Of The Crowd – under the critical microscope in Issue 30.

But what do the band themselves think about their cover art over the years? Classic Pop sits down with Philip, Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley to get their personal takes on how they’ve presented their image to the world at large as well as some behind-the-scenes stories, too…

REPRODUCTION (1979)

“I’m still slightly horrified by the cover there. That was supposed to be a dancefloor in a maternity ward and it ended up looking like there’s people stamping on small children. One of Noddy Holder’s children is one of the [kids], so the cover wasn’t supposed to be that horrific, and probably put quite a lot of people off.”

PHILI

TRAVELOGUE (1980)

“Yeah, that was interesting, we got our independence again. We found an old vet’s in Sheffield to use as a studio, got our own eight-track and we [recorded] it in there. It was a bit horrifying because we had to sort of get all leads and things that were fixed halfway up the walls on the stairs.”

PHILIP

”WE WERE THINKING ‘WHAT’S HAPPENED IN HERE, IT’S A BIT DISTURBING’.”