THE GROUP HAD SPLIT IN HALF, WITH THE TWO MUSICIANS BIDDING FAREWELL, LEAVING THE SLIDE PROJECTIONIST AND A SINGER WITH MINIMAL MUSICAL SKILLS – IT MUST BE SAID, THE REBIRTH OF THE HUMAN LEAGUE LOOKED UNLIKELY. TO ADD TO PHILIP OAKEY AND ADRIAN WRIGHT’S WORRIES, THERE WAS ALSO A TOUR THEY COULDN’T AFFORD TO BACK OUT OF. SO PHILIP WENT DOWN THE DISCO…

IAN WADE

Relations between the two halves of The Human League’s original line-up were turbulent, to say the least. Frustrated at the lack of success and feeling they’d been usurped by the likes of Gary Numan and OMD, and Virgin starting to look at their account and realising that not much in the way of funds were coming in, things came to a head between Phil Oakey and Martyn Ware, with two differing sets of opinions as to where the band’s future lay. Ware eventually walked out, and taking his side of the argument, Ian Craig Marsh followed. Efforts at reconciliation were to no avail, with such suggestions as including two new bands under a Human League sub-label being abandoned. Eventually, it was agreed that Oakey would continue with the Human League name, while Ware and Marsh would form a new project. While this meant Bob Last now had two acts to manage, it left Phil and Adrian with spiralling debt and Ware and Craig Marsh with a relatively clean sheet. Ware would also receive 1% of any royalties the next album would make – which, as time was to tell, turned out to be quite beneficial.

It could safely be said that the split wasn’t jolly. “I just thought we were finished. It was the bitter rivalry that kept us going at first. We wanted to show them that we could survive,” Oakey told the NME. “We had a big row with Virgin about sticking with synths – they wanted us to get a proper drummer, we wanted to prove that it could all be done with synthesizers. That was the original Human League idea and we’ve stuck to it. We didn’t want to take the easy way out.”

“MY MOTHER SAID ‘NO, YOU CAN’T GO OFF AROUND EUROPE WITH A POP GROUP’” 

JOANNE CATHERALL

Ware was slightly cattier. “We’ve got the talent. They haven’t.”

TURNING IT AROUND

In what has since become surely the greatest synth-pop story ever told, Phil related to Record Mirror what happened next to his side of the band. “I decided we needed some back-up singers. One night we went down to a disco and saw these two girls dancing together. I went up to them and asked them to come on tour with us.” Joanne Catherall confirmed this version of events; “Susanne and I used to go to this futurist nightclub called Crazy Daisy in Sheffield. One night we were dancing, and Philip stopped Susanne and said ‘I’m from a band called The Human League. We were watching you and your friend dancing… would you like to do a tour of Europe with us?’ My mother said to me ‘No, you can’t go off around Europe with a pop group! It’s out of the question.’” As Sulley explained to the NME, “He wanted a tall black singer… and he got two short white girls who couldn’t sing.”