The Human League

The Human League are a British New Wave band first formed in 1977 and, after a change in line up, achieved huge popularity in the 1980s. They have continued recording and performing through the 1990s, 2000s and today.

The Human League are so credible it’s incredible. In fact, they’re probably more highly regarded now than they were in 1981 when they released their landmark album Dare! They’re used to everyone from Madonna to Moby, Pet Shop Boys to Robbie Williams, citing them as an influence. But they’re about more than esoteric infiltration there has been mainstream penetration, too, commensurate with a band who gave us the greatest ever Christmas Number 1 single with 1981/2’s ‘Dont You Want Me’, who have had four Top 10 albums and eight Top 10 singles in the UK as well as two US Number 1 singles and sold 20 million records worldwide. Then there are the ‘L’ girls, the new generation of synth-driven female pop artists, who have got in on the League adoring act: La Roux is a known admirer of the electro pioneers, while Little Boots is such a fan she requested Philip Oakeys input on her debut album. Even Lady Gaga professed to be a devotee when she met them.

Not surprisingly for a group who were famously described by David Bowie in 1979 as “the sound of the future”, and indeed the group was once called The Future, The Human League have never been about resting on their laurels or relying on past glories to see them through. The Human League’s unique quality of apartness is notable. “We’re peculiar,” says Susan Ann Sulley, utterly unabashed. “People think pop music is X Factor and S Club 7 and we’re still hankering after a Roxy-Bowie-Donna Summer-Chic version of pop. We don’t fit in. People don’t quite appreciate how strange we are.”

Over the years, the Human League has been sampled and covered by various artists including George Michael and Robbie Williams. The band has been a huge influence for many electro-pop acts including early Depeche Mode, Madonna, Moby, and countless others.