The Human League are an English synthpop band formed in 1977, who, after several changes in line up, achieved great popularity in the 1980s and a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. Originally a synthesiser based group from Sheffield, England, the only consistent band member since the Human League formed in 1977 is vocalist and songwriter Phil Oakey.
Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were both working as computer programmers in 1977, and combined a love of pop music (such as glam rock and Tamla Motown) with avant garde electronic music. They acquired a Roland System 100 synthesizer and began to create music in their own rehearsal facility. Initially they formed a group called The Future with Adi Newton. Newton left to form the outfit Clock DVA. Ware and Marsh searched for a vocalist, but their first choice, Glenn Gregory (who would be the lead singer of their later band, Heaven 17), was unavailable. Ware instead decided to invite Philip Oakey, an old school friend, and a hospital porter at the time to join the band, "apparently by leaving a note stuck to his door". Oakey accepted the invitation, despite never having been in a band before. Shortly after, they decided to call themselves The Human League. A collection of demos from this period was released on CD in 2002, title The Golden Hour of The Future, compiled by Richard X.
The name "Human League" derived from the game Starforce: Alpha Centauri, which was the second professionally published science fiction wargame, by SPI. In the game, the Human League arose in 2415 A.D., and was a frontier-oriented society that desired more independence from Earth and the terraforming of systems not naturally habitable.
The Human League made a surprise comeback in 1994, now signed to EastWest, with the single "Tell Me When" giving them their first major hit since 1986's "Human", and the accompanying album Octopus going silver. On the album credits, cover artwork and in videos, the group was now presented simply as a trio of Oakey/Catherall/Sulley. In reality however, half a dozen other musicians had input to the record, including producer Ian Stanley (former Tears For Fears keyboard player), continued playing and songwriting contributions from Neil Sutton and "Electric Russell" Dennett, and Oakey co-writing one track with Jo Callis. The next single from the album, "One Man in my Heart" (sung by Sulley), and a remix of "Don't You Want Me", were also UK hits, however the subsequent "Filling up with Heaven" and the non-album "Stay with me tonight" (from the greatest hits compilation in 1996) performed poorly and the band parted company with EastWest.
The band did not release their next album, Secrets, until 2001. The band was still presented as the "Phil & the girls" trio, however Neil Sutton was credited with keyboards, and co-wrote most of the material with Oakey. Despite being extremely well received by critics (the music climate at the time seeing a new interest in electronic pop music with the electroclash movement), the band's new record label, Papillion (a subsidiary of Chrysalis Records), went bankrupt shortly after the album's release, leading to poor promotion and sales.
Throughout the years following, the band have continued to tour, enjoying success as a live act, and releasing a DVD of Brighton show in 2003. In the last few years they have participated in a couple of '80s revival tours, whilst more often going out on the road on their own, playing their many top-ten hits to packed houses throughout the UK and frequently further afield.
On September 22, 2006, the band performed on the ABC television show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.