Early Human League, Revisited
Dehumanisation
Is such a big word
It's been around since
Richard The Third
(Quoted in this blog, March 8, 2004)
People and animals, I've just found a website named after the title of that song. Blind Youth is devoted to the early Human League. Excerpt from the biography:
Ian, Martyn and Adi now set about the business of creating pop music using only electronic instruments - a very common practice nowadays, but virtually unheard of in 1977. At that time, only a few artists, such as German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, were daring to make pop music this way; most purely electronic music was being made by avant-garde artists with little interest in taking the form into the mainstream.
Even the artists with pop backgrounds then experimenting with electronic sounds (e.g. David Bowie, Brian Eno, et cetera) tended to either shy away from using synthesizers for pop music or would combine these sounds with traditional rock guitars and percussion. Most of 1977's electronic pop would emerge from the disco scene; for instance, Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's ground-breaking classic I Feel Love.
Such sounds were a world away from the new wave of punk bands then sweeping Britain, armed with a handful of barely-learned guitar chords and a do-it-yourself attitude born out of exasperation with stagnant rock dinosaurs such as Pink Floyd and Yes.
Martyn: "When punk came along, The Sex Pistols played in Sheffield with The Clash, but I didn't go. To be honest, we thought rock was a bit 'old hat'. We had our own thing going in Sheffield and considered ourselves completely separate from London. We were operating at the quirky end of disco, something more futuristic.
"But punk was the liberating influence that allowed us to do what we wanted to do."
Fast forward to the end:
Ian: "Our intention was to become the first popular synthesizer band that was doing songs with vocals, as opposed to experimental stuff, and we'd been doing a couple of albums and thought that we'd released things that could do that, and nothing ever quite became a hit.
"And then, out of nowhere, Gary Numan came along and stole our glory."...
Martyn: "That was kind of like a cusp for the group....From that point, that's what really broke the morale...all right, so we were mentioned as being influential and everything, but in reality, we were poor. We weren't earning any money out of what we were doing.
"We must be the only group in the world whose fourth member was a slide projectionist... who then went on to get writing credits! Excuse me? That was the point where I left the group, thank you very much! We were completely 'on a mission'..."
The situation was further complicated by the friction between Martyn and Philip....
While it was clear that Philip and Adrian no longer wished to work with Martyn, Ian remained keen to continue working with both Martyn and with Philip and Adrian. Martyn was happy with this arrangement, but Philip was apparently concerned that Ian might inadvertently pass on all their best ideas to Martyn, and he tried to persuade Ian to work exclusively with him and Adrian, though without success.
In November 1980, Martyn and Ian announced the formation of their British Electric Foundation production company, which would be "a cross between what PiL (Public Image Limited) should have been before they became just another group, and the business suss of Chic."...
Meanwhile, Philip and Adrian agreed with Martyn and Ian that they would continue to use the Human League name, on the condition that Martyn and Ian would receive 1% of the League's future royalties, though the group's financial debt to Virgin would remain the responsibility of the new League line-up.
And then comes the aftermath:
The new-look Human League went on to huge worldwide success with the single Don't You Want Me and the third Human League album, Dare!, which sold five million copies and is hailed by many as one of the definitive pop albums of the 1980s. The group (now essentially just Philip, Susanne and Joanne, plus collaborators) have also scored hits with most subsequent albums and singles, and members have collaborated with the likes of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, Giorgio Moroder, The All-Seeing I and even comedian Vic Reeves.
Adrian eventually left the League after the making of 1986's Crash album, during which he found that producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had no need for his keyboard contributions, having drafted in session musicians. Adrian returned to film-making and has worked as a director in the fields of both film and music video....
Ultimately, the original Human League line-up achieved their ambition after splitting - mainstream success came when the re-issued Being Boiled single entered the UK Top 10 in 1982... a song both The League and Heaven 17 now play at their live shows.
Relations between Philip and Martyn are now relatively cordial....
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