At the end of March 1981, Phil Oakey of The Human League shared his all time Top 10 with Smash Hits, weeks before the band would release its new breakthrough single "The Sound of The Crowd", a UK#12 hit. By the end of the year the Human League would be one of the most popular and critically acclaimed in the UK, thanks to the album Dare and the single "Don't You Want Me".
By April of 1980, it had been a year since David Bowie called The Human League the future of rock. Now they were being ridiculed by an Undertones song climbing the UK charts called "My Perfect Cousin ("His mother bought him a synthesizer / Got the Human League in to advise her"). They may have been famous but they still hadn't recorded a hit.
The EP they released, Holiday '80, would not change the band's fortunes. The songs include a reworking of the 1979 single "Being Boiled", a cover of Gary Glitter's "Rock N Roll", the Bowie-penned "Nightclubbing" and, as the lead off track, "Marianne". Every sound but the vocals is made with a synthesizer, which rivals Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark could not claim.
Despite failing to reach the Top 40, Top of the Pops invited The Human League to perform "Rock n Roll" on the show. What you don't see is the contribution of Adrian Wright. At the time he was "Director of Visuals", running slideshows and lighting during concerts.
A new album, Travelogue, would be released in May but this version of Human League would not last. Co-founder Martyn Ware would leave with the year to form Heaven 17, leaving Phil Oakley little but the name and a tour starting up within days. He'd hire two teenage girls to join the band as back up dancers and vocalists.By necessity Wright would have to learn to play synthesizers. A quick learn, he's co-write the UK#1 and US#1 hit "Don't You Want Me".
In September of 1979 The Human League released their second single, "Empire State Human". Philip Oakley isn't okay with being human-sized. He would rather be ""tall tall tall" and "as big as a wall wall wall". With some concentration he's able to increase his size to at least 14 storeys high. The single is mindlessly repetitive but it's a clear bid for commerciality and we all know what happens when the Human League finds commercial success.
Phil Oakey compiled this list for the UK music mag Smash Hits in the Summer of 1981 when "Love Action (I Believe in Love)" would peak at #3 in the UK pop charts. By the end of the year the band would release the worldwide smash hit "Don't You Want Me". The Human League recorded loads of catchy hits that combined disco and techno, but this list reveals Oakey's true passion was for dance music. And it should be pointed out Oakey would get to work with Moroder on the UK#3 hit "Together in Electric Dreams".
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