The Human League’s Philip Oakey Talks About The Synthpop Group’s First U.S. Tour In 15 Years

The Human League: (L-R) Susan Ann Sulley, Philip Oakey and Joanne Catherall

credit: Perou

Over the years, the legendary British synthpop act the Human League would occasionally appear at a festival gig in the U.S., but they hadn’t played a string of dates in that territory for 15 years. “Everything like that gets harder and harder as the years go by, it seems,” explains Philip Oakey, the group’s lead singer and co-founder, about touring the States. “I think there’s less money in the music industry and you’re constantly trying to find a way of financing these things.”

But that has changed now as the Human League — which consists of Oakey and longtime backing and lead singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley — are headlining the Generations tour in the U.S., with fellow acts Soft Cell and Alison Moyet. The three acts kicked off their joint tour this past Tuesday in San Diego.

“Towards the late ’80s and the early ’90s, I don’t think we did anything [regarding live performances],” Oakey recalls. “Then we got the chance to do a tour supporting Culture Club in ’98…That enabled us to kick off playing live again.”

To a fan of ‘80s British pop music, this triple bill is a dream come true. Both the Human League and Soft Cell had breakthrough successes with their hits “Don’t You Want Me” and “Tainted Love” in 1981, respectively; Moyet emerged as one half of the synthpop duo Yazoo with former Depeche Mode keyboardist Vince Clarke that same year. Oakey says that the League has previously crossed paths with Soft Cell and their singer, Marc Almond, a few times.

“There’s quite a circuit of sort of ’80s shows over in Europe,” Oakey says. “We must have played with Marc half a dozen times, which has always been a high spot. I’ve always thought that, as groups go, us and Soft Cell are sort of the perfect bill for people who like the stuff from that time. So that’s been great.

“I think we only met Alison on TV a couple of times back when the hits were really happening,” he continues. “She’s always been one of my absolute favorite singers [from Yazoo]. I’m a huge Vince Clarke fan. So I’ve always kept up. I love those early [Yazoo] songs. “Only You,” I think, is one of the best pop songs ever written. And Alison, she’s an amazing singer.”

Those attending the Generations tour will hear all three acts play their most popular songs. In the case of the Human League, those hits include such tracks as “Don’t You Want Me,” “The Sound of the Crowd,” “Mirror Man,” “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and “Human.”

“We try and play as many of the songs that people will recognize as possible,” says Oakey. “But I don’t think that quite fills a full set in America. We had less hits in America certainly than we had in Britain and maybe in Europe. We did a track with the Yellow Magic Orchestra along the way, which sort of went astray. I think their record company went bankrupt just before it was released. So, so that wasn’t a real record. But it’s great to do that song. It’s “Behind the Mask,” which Eric Clapton had a big hit with. But it was actually written by the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Later on, I think Michael Jackson added some new words to it, but we do that live. We try and find some interesting stuff.”

Oakey says he has an affinity for the U.S. “I love being in America myself. I miss it if I don’t go there. It’s really strange because I’m the most boring English guy, but somehow America suits me. So I just love being there.”

Next year, the Human League will turn 50, a milestone that even amazes Oakey, who first hooked up with co-founders Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware after the dissolution of their previous band called the Future. The original Human League lineup released two albums — Reproduction (1979) and Travelogue (1980) — before Ware and Marsh departed in 1980, leaving Oakey and Adrian Wright to rebuild the band with Ian Burden, Jo Callis and, very importantly, Sulley and Catherall.

“We were scared to death, really,” Oakey recalls about that transitional period. “I mean, we had taken big advances from [Virgin Records co-founder] Richard Branson, so we were sort of obliged to carry on. But I’ve got to say it was more from a viewpoint of trying not to quite look as idiotic as we thought we were going to. So without trying, we assembled the team that could make a good record and a good career. And so we just breathed out and carried on doing it.”

The new Human League released their commercial breakthrough album Dare in 1981, which resulted in hit singles, including the smash hit “Don’t You Want You Me.” It went to number one first in the U.K., and then later in the U.S. Forty-five years later, the song remains a classic.

“We were absolutely astonished,” Oakey recalls. “I think it had been quite a long time. There’d been a lack of U.K. acts doing well. Maybe the Police were the last people to have a big hit before us. And MTV was a really big thing. We thought, ‘Oh, well, all those guys over there are better-looking than we are.’ We thought we would get lost. But I think the strength of the song got it through.. mainly by the prime songwriter on it, Jo Callis. By the time he’d written the riffs and the chords, really, it was going to be a winner. “

The League continued to have hits after “Don’t You Want Me” both in the U.K. and U.S., for the rest of the 1980s, including “(Keep Feeling) Fascination,” “The Lebanon,” “Human” (produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) and “Heart Like a Wheel.” While most of their peers from the MTV era creatively and commercially struggled in the 1990s, the League rebounded with 1995’s underrated Octopus album.

“We didn’t have a record label at the time,” Oakey recalls. “And Ian Stanley was being A&R at a record label; he took on that we were going to make an album, and we went in and got a pretty good album together. I’m very proud of that album.”

The Human League has continued to record albums and tour in subsequent decades, primarily in the U.K., which makes this Generations tour in the U.S. unique. Their last record was 2011’s Credo.

“There are always plans, and I’ve always, always got stuff going,” Oakey says when asked about the possibility of a new League album. “I’ve got to say that the way the music industry works is less direct. We tend to be a little bit direct and linear. And I enjoyed that thing of making 100,000-200,000 albums, putting them in the shops, and hoping that people would sell them. I’m still only fitfully interested in putting things on the internet and things. We’ve got so much stuff waiting around, but it’s how you make it work now.”

After 45 years, the core and recognizable Human League lineup remains Oakey, Sulley and Catherall. “Somehow, we stick up for each other,” Oakey reflects about the three of them. “Obviously, we do have internal rows…but we all believe it’s us against everyone else. We’re allowed to shout at each other, but if anyone else comes and has a go, they’ll find all three against them.”