Human League and Heaven 17 both hit the UK chart

The Human League : Boys And Girls

A new line-up of The Human League has a single in the UK Charts,  the #48 "Boys And Girls". The band's touring plans are on hold until the two new female members, Joanne and Susan, have completed their A levels and left school. By the end of the summer, Phil Oakey will have recruited some top notch musicians and the band will be working on Dare, featuring the worldwide smash "Don't You Want Me".

Heaven 17 : ( We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang

Former Human League members Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh have recruited singer Glenn Gregory. 0n March 6 1981 they release their debut single as Heaven 17,  the UK#45"( We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang". Banned by the BBC, supposedly because of concerns it libelled President Reagan, the song ranked #4 on NME's Top Tracks of 1981.

 

High Rise Living

The Human League : Blind Youth

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In October of 1979 The Human League released Reproduction, their first full studio album. Produced by Colin Thurston who co-engineered David Bowie's "Heroes" and Iggy Pop's Lust For Life with Tony Visconti, Reproduction is one of the first synth-pop albums that would define a sound of a decade. There is even that very 80's-ish trend, the sythn cover of a 60's hit ( You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling)

Johnny Rotten may have dismissed The Human League as "trendy hippies",  but the album received decent reviews. Red Starr of Smash Hits gave the album 8 out of 10, writing:

With their amazing slideshow, strong melodic songs, warm good humour and intriguing all sythesiser line-up, Sheffield's excellent Human League will certainly be among he leaders of the '80's. This first album suffers badly from lifeless presentation but is a grower and still a definite goodie. Greatness is inevitable--be the first one on your block etc. 

Sales were bleak until the world caught up in 1982. That's when Reproduction finally  charted at U.K.#34. 

The Dignity Of Labour

The Human League : The Dignity of Labour

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Five months after a backstage visit by David Bowie who would then tell the NME he'd seen the future of music, The Human League released their first EP, The Dignity of Labour Pts 1-4 in April of 1979. This isn't The Human League of "Don't You Want Me", this is a band made up of 70s experimental sci fi buffs who'd offered the world "Being Boiled" a summer earlier. That was kind of the big bang of synth pop.

This is a strange follow-up: four instrumentals inspired by the Soviet space program. That's cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to ever enter space,  on the cover. It all sounds like Kraftwerk junior to these ears. Best as a music bed for  "Techno 2000" DJ's. 

The clip below also contains the flexidisc with the band arguing about the cover.

Listen to the Voice of Buddha

The Human League : Being Boiled

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In June of 1978, The Human League released its debut single, "Being Boiled". It was an other-worldly bit of electronica, recorded in mono on a two track Sony tape recorder. David Bowie famously hailed the single as "the future of music" and he was right on the money. By the time The Human League topped the American charts in 1982, with "Don't You Want Me ", keyboard players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh had left the band to form Heaven 17 and the U.K. charts were packed with synth pop hitmakers like Yazoo, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and Blancmange.

That was also the year this four year old song was re-released where it hit Top 10 in both England and Germany.