40 Fun Facts About The Human League

Before Don't You Want Me became the 1981 Christmas number one, how did singer Philip Oakey rate the song?

Oakey thought it a weak filler track and hid it at the end of side two of Dare. His label overruled him and released it as the album's fourth single.

Where did Philip Oakey find teenagers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall when rebuilding The Human League?

Oakey spotted the pair in a city nightclub, Sheffield's Crazy Daisy, days before a tour was due to start. Neither had sung or danced professionally.

Which rock star watched The Human League in December 1978 and told the NME he had seen the future of pop music?

David Bowie turned up in the audience when the band had released just one independent single. Within six months they had signed to a far bigger label.

Which band did founders Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh form after walking out of The Human League in 1980?

Heaven 17 scored a number two hit with Temptation in 1983. Under the old contract the departing pair also earned one per cent of the royalties on Dare.

The cover of The Human League's 1981 album Dare was designed to look like an issue of which magazine?

Vogue had run a cover bearing the single word Dare, which gave the album its title too. The portraits were cropped close so that dated hairstyles would not age the sleeve.

Fans of which football club sent Don't You Want Me back into the UK top 20 in 2014 after a cup win?

Aberdeen supporters had turned the chorus into a terrace chant for midfielder Peter Pawlett. Their social media campaign followed a Scottish League Cup win.

Martyn Ware named The Human League after a frontier society of the year 2415 that appears in what?

A sci-fi board game called StarForce: Alpha Centauri supplied the name. Its Human League wanted more independence from Earth.

What did Philip Oakey have to obtain before his two new teenage singers could join The Human League's 1980 tour?

Their parents' consent came only after Oakey and Adrian Wright visited both homes and promised to keep the girls safe. The school agreed too, judging the trip educational.

Philip Oakey sang the 1984 hit Together in Electric Dreams with which synth pioneer, one of his own musical idols?

Giorgio Moroder declared Oakey's first take good enough, though the singer thought he was only rehearsing. The single reached number three and is often wrongly credited to The Human League.

The Human League's 1986 US number one Human is a ballad in which a reunited couple both confess to what?

Infidelity is admitted first by Philip Oakey in the verses, then by Joanne Catherall in a spoken reply. Oakey called it probably his best vocal, though it took a month to record.

What was Philip Oakey's day job in 1977 when old schoolfriend Martyn Ware invited him to become a singer?

Hospital porter Oakey had never sung in public, but Ware thought he already looked like a pop star. The invitation was a note stuck to his front door.

Which singer's huge 1979 synth hit stole the electronic-pioneer role from The Human League before they had charted?

Gary Numan scored his huge hit in mid-1979, just before the band's debut album failed to chart. Oakey later named the spoken passages of Are 'Friends' Electric? as an influence on Human.

Human League founder Martyn Ware later revived which singer's career by producing her 1983 cover of Let's Stay Together?

Tina Turner also sang for Ware's production company, the British Electric Foundation. He went on to co-produce Terence Trent D'Arby's debut album.

Which entrepreneur's record label signed The Human League in May 1979 and stayed with them until 1992?

Richard Branson's Virgin Records at once demanded a more commercial first single. The band complied, but hid behind the pseudonym The Men.

Which prize did The Human League collect at the 1982 Brit Awards, held months after the release of Dare?

Best British Newcomer went to the band on a night when Dare also won its producer a trophy. A year later they were shortlisted for the Best New Artist Grammy.

Which 1976 film musical inspired Philip Oakey to turn Don't You Want Me from a male solo into a duet?

A Star Is Born gave Oakey the idea of a quarrelling duet; until then the women had sung only backing parts. Susan Ann Sulley says she got the role by luck of the draw.

What was non-musician Philip Adrian Wright hired to do on stage when he joined The Human League in 1978?

Wright was asked to project slides and film as Director of Visuals, after the band feared their first gig had looked static. He later co-wrote Don't You Want Me.

To which American city did The Human League fly in 1986 to record with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis?

Minneapolis was home to Flyte Time Studios, where the pair had just finished Janet Jackson's Control. The band's four-month stay produced the album Crash.

Which veteran producer, known for his work with the Stranglers and Buzzcocks, shaped The Human League's 1981 album Dare?

Martin Rushent moved the band to his own studio in Berkshire and built each song up from a simple drum machine pattern. The album topped the UK chart.

Which filmmaker made the video for Don't You Want Me before shooting his first feature film, Electric Dreams?

Steve Barron said the idea came from a François Truffaut picture: a film within a film within a film. The video was shot near Slough in November 1981.

Philip Oakey revealed in 1988 that The Human League's 1982 hit Mirror Man was written about which fellow pop star?

Adam Ant was the subject, Oakey admitted while promoting a greatest hits album. He had kept it secret for six years for fear of offending him.

The Human League's Love and Dancing was credited to the League Unlimited Orchestra in tribute to which soul star's band?

Barry White led the Love Unlimited Orchestra in the disco era. The 1982 record, a set of largely instrumental remixes of Dare, reached number three in the UK.

Which punk-era band name-checked The Human League in their 1980 top ten hit My Perfect Cousin?

The Undertones' song about an insufferable relative has his mother call the band in for synthesiser advice. It reached number nine before the League had a hit of their own.

The Human League's 1978 debut single Being Boiled, with words by Philip Oakey, is a protest against which trade?

Silk farming was the target of the lyric, which Oakey wrote within two days of hearing the music. The original was taped in mono in an abandoned factory for £2.50.

Which instrument did Philip Oakey own, but barely play, when he joined the future Human League as a singer in 1977?

A saxophone was all he had: he could not play keyboards and had no stage experience. Within days he had written the words to the band's first single.

Which band beat nominees The Human League to the Best New Artist prize at the Grammy Awards in February 1983?

Men at Work took the award at the 25th Grammys. The nomination followed Don't You Want Me topping the US chart for three weeks in the summer of 1982.

For The Human League's (Keep Feeling) Fascination video, a London house and its street corner were painted which colour?

Orange paint covered the house, the road and even a parked car, forming a giant map marker seen from the air. The area was awaiting demolition.

Which organisation condemned The Human League's synthesizer-built album Dare when it came out in 1981?

The Musicians' Union feared such bands could perform concerts at the touch of a button, and mounted a campaign to keep music live. The album went to number one regardless.

Which single, released on Boxing Day 1994, gave The Human League their first UK top ten hit for eight years?

Tell Me When reached number six and topped a UK airplay chart for two weeks. It came out on a new label two years after their old one had dropped the band.

Why did The Human League call their long-awaited 1984 follow-up to Dare by the title Hysteria?

The album was named for its tense recording sessions, during which two producers walked out before a third finished the job. It still entered the UK chart at number three.

Which Sheffield band, fronted by Martin Fry, joined The Human League on the 2008 Steel City Tour of the UK?

ABC shared the bill on a tour Philip Oakey devised to celebrate Sheffield's early-1980s electronic scene. Former members of the group had also produced the League's album Secrets.

Which singer was Martyn Ware's first choice to front the future Human League in 1977, but proved unavailable?

Glenn Gregory got the job in the end: when Ware and Ian Craig Marsh quit in 1980, he became the singer of their new group.

Guitarist Jo Callis, co-writer of Open Your Heart, joined The Human League in 1981 after playing in which punk band?

The Rezillos, from Edinburgh, had the League as a support act in 1978, and both bands were managed at some point by Bob Last. Callis wrote their hit Top of the Pops.

With which pioneering electronic group did The Human League release a joint EP in 1993?

Yellow Magic Orchestra invited the band to collaborate in the lull after their record label dropped them. The EP came out mainly in Japan and Asia, with the two women's vocals to the fore.

At which famous American venue did The Human League play to 18,000 people in October 2006, one of their largest shows?

The Hollywood Bowl date in Los Angeles came a month after the band had played on US network television.

The Human League's 1980 album Travelogue includes a cover of a famous advertising jingle for which drink?

Gordon's Gin had used a tune written by Jeff Wayne. Travelogue gave the band their first real chart success, peaking at number 16 in the UK.

Which songwriter co-wrote 1st Man in Space, the 1999 All Seeing I single sung by Human League frontman Philip Oakey?

Jarvis Cocker co-wrote it with the Sheffield band, one of several local acts Oakey has guested with. Oakey has also recorded with Pet Shop Boys and Little Boots.

Under The Human League's short-lived 1981 scheme of labelling singles Red or Blue, what did a Red label signify?

Dance tracks carried the Red tag, starting with The Sound of the Crowd, while Blue marked pop songs. Susan Ann Sulley joked that Red was for posers.

Which duo's single Save Your Love kept The Human League's Mirror Man from the 1982 UK Christmas number one?

Renée and Renato held the top spot while Mirror Man stalled at number two, a year after the band's own Christmas number one.

The Human League's Love Action (I Believe in Love) borrows part of its title from a 1976 song by which rocker?

Lou Reed recorded I Believe in Love on his album Rock and Roll Heart. Oakey later said that an unnamed elder referred to in the lyric is Reed too.