The Human League

The Human League are a British synth-pop band formed in Sheffield, England, in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album Dare in 1981 after restructuring their lineup. The album produced the hit singles "The Sound of the Crowd", "Love Action (I Believe in Love)", "Open Your Heart" and "Don't You Want Me", which topped the UK Singles Chart and became the country's Christmas number one single of 1981. 'Don't You Want Me' also topped the charts in several countries, including Belgium (Flanders), Canada, New Zealand and the United States. The band received the Brit Award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 1982. Further hits followed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, including the non-album singles "Mirror Man" (1982) and "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" (1983), "The Lebanon" from the album Hysteria (1984), "Human" (a second US number one) from the album Crash (1986) and "Tell Me When" from the album Octopus (1995).

The only constant band member since 1977 has been lead singer Philip Oakey. The original lineup comprised Oakey, synthesizer players Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, and slide projectionist and visual director Adrian Wright. After releasing their second album Travelogue in 1980, both Marsh and Ware left the band to form Heaven 17. Oakey and Wright assembled a new lineup with singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, bassist/synthesizer player Ian Burden, and guitarist/synthesizer player Jo Callis. Wright, Burden and Callis all left the band by the end of the 1980s, since which time the Human League has essentially been a trio of Oakey, Catherall and Sulley with various sidemen.