The Human League
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40 free The Human League trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Human League began as an experimental electronic outfit in Sheffield in the late 1970s and went on to become one of the defining pop groups of the following decade. Few bands have reinvented themselves so completely: a line-up split that looked like the end instead led to Dare, an album that still turns up on lists of the greatest ever made. This quiz covers the whole story: the early singles and the name, the departures and unlikely new recruits, the making of Dare and Don't You Want Me, the videos and sleeves, the American years, and the comebacks and tours that followed. The questions run from easy openers to deep cuts for long-time fans, and every answer comes with a short explanation. It suits anyone who loves synth-pop and the 1980s charts, or who simply knows the chorus and wants the tale behind it.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Before Don't You Want Me became the 1981 Christmas number one, how did singer Philip Oakey rate the song?
A weak filler track
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.
Q 02Where did Philip Oakey find teenagers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall when rebuilding The Human League?
In a city nightclub
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.
Q 03Which rock star watched The Human League in December 1978 and told the NME he had seen the future of pop music?
David Bowie
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.
Q 04Which band did founders Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh form after walking out of The Human League in 1980?
Heaven 17
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.
Q 05The cover of The Human League's 1981 album Dare was designed to look like an issue of which magazine?
Vogue
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.
Q 06Fans of which football club sent Don't You Want Me back into the UK top 20 in 2014 after a cup win?
Aberdeen
Aberdeen supporters had turned the chorus into a terrace chant for midfielder Peter Pawlett. Their social media campaign followed a Scottish League Cup win.
Q 07Martyn Ware named The Human League after a frontier society of the year 2415 that appears in what?
A sci-fi board game
A sci-fi board game called StarForce: Alpha Centauri supplied the name. Its Human League wanted more independence from Earth.
Q 08What did Philip Oakey have to obtain before his two new teenage singers could join The Human League's 1980 tour?
Their parents' consent
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.
Q 09Philip Oakey sang the 1984 hit Together in Electric Dreams with which synth pioneer, one of his own musical idols?
Giorgio Moroder
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.
Q 10The Human League's 1986 US number one Human is a ballad in which a reunited couple both confess to what?
Infidelity
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.
Q 11What was Philip Oakey's day job in 1977 when old schoolfriend Martyn Ware invited him to become a singer?
Hospital porter
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.
Q 12Which singer's huge 1979 synth hit stole the electronic-pioneer role from The Human League before they had charted?
Gary Numan
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.
Q 13Human League founder Martyn Ware later revived which singer's career by producing her 1983 cover of Let's Stay Together?
Tina Turner
Q 21Philip Oakey revealed in 1988 that The Human League's 1982 hit Mirror Man was written about which fellow pop star?
Adam Ant
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.
Q 22The Human League's Love and Dancing was credited to the League Unlimited Orchestra in tribute to which soul star's band?
Barry White
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.
Q 23Which punk-era band name-checked The Human League in their 1980 top ten hit My Perfect Cousin?
The Undertones
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.
Q 14Which entrepreneur's record label signed The Human League in May 1979 and stayed with them until 1992?
Richard Branson
Richard Branson's Virgin Records at once demanded a more commercial first single. The band complied, but hid behind the pseudonym The Men.
Q 15Which prize did The Human League collect at the 1982 Brit Awards, held months after the release of Dare?
Best British Newcomer
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.
Q 16Which 1976 film musical inspired Philip Oakey to turn Don't You Want Me from a male solo into a duet?
A Star Is Born
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.
Q 17What was non-musician Philip Adrian Wright hired to do on stage when he joined The Human League in 1978?
Project slides and film
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.
Q 18To which American city did The Human League fly in 1986 to record with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis?
Minneapolis
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.
Q 19Which veteran producer, known for his work with the Stranglers and Buzzcocks, shaped The Human League's 1981 album Dare?
Martin Rushent
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.
Q 20Which filmmaker made the video for Don't You Want Me before shooting his first feature film, Electric Dreams?
Steve Barron
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.
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.
Q 24The Human League's 1978 debut single Being Boiled, with words by Philip Oakey, is a protest against which trade?
Silk farming
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.
Q 25Which instrument did Philip Oakey own, but barely play, when he joined the future Human League as a singer in 1977?
A saxophone
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.
Q 26Which band beat nominees The Human League to the Best New Artist prize at the Grammy Awards in February 1983?
Men at Work
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.
Q 27For The Human League's (Keep Feeling) Fascination video, a London house and its street corner were painted which colour?
Orange
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.
Q 28Which organisation condemned The Human League's synthesizer-built album Dare when it came out in 1981?
The Musicians' Union
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.
Q 29Which single, released on Boxing Day 1994, gave The Human League their first UK top ten hit for eight years?
Tell Me When
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.
Q 30Why did The Human League call their long-awaited 1984 follow-up to Dare by the title Hysteria?
Its tense recording sessions
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.