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Relative
stuff...
"It`s
time to join Steve McGarrett and the team"
Half man,
half woman from the 1932 film "Freaks"
Remind
you of anyone?
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Eddie's Memories
In the early 80's I was
obsessed with The Human League. It wasn't just the music, or
the look, or the fact that they came from Sheffield (most of
my family are from South Yorkshire). It was EVERYTHING about
them!
This page reflects my memory of
1981 and the impact The Human League had on my life. I was 15
at the time and going through teenage anguish, which made the
impact even more profound. 1981 was a special year in my life,
made even more special by The Human League.
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The rise...
Between the years of 1978 and 1980, the
Human League were an experimental group of 4 young
men doing something very diverse in the field of
electronic music. Ignorant of the punk scene at that
time, they decided to take a path along the opposite
end of the then current music scene, I suspect
through their own interest in computers and
electronics, to create something haunting, which at
times reflected life in Sheffield`s industrious
communities and concrete jungles.
The
lyrics to their compositions were works of art,
clever, intuitive, but always sinister in a strange
sort of way.
Freaks
Whilst
Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware were quite happy to
play their synthesizers in the background, Phil Oakey
stole the limelight with that revolutionary haircut
which was an exact copy of the style worn by the
"half man, half woman" in the 1930`s film
"Freaks", although Phil said it was based
on a horses tail. This could have been his cover so
as not to admit he`d seen the film as it was banned
at the time, but don`t quote me on that.
Tubeway Army
Mind
you, in those days I was only 12 or 13 years old and
wasn`t really interested in the music scene until
Tubeway Army, fronted by Gary Numan, had a hit with
"Are Friends Electric" in 1979. Seeing Gary
on Top of the Pops for the first time was mind
blowing to say the least, everyone was talking
about him! Soon after that I became
interested in John Foxx, former lead singer of
Ultravox when he had a top thirty "hit"
with the classic Underpass which I always maintain
was 2 or 3 years ahead of its time sound-wise and a
total "let rip with the synths"
Sound of the Crowd
In 1981 I had my first taste
of the Human League when they released "Sound of
the Crowd" which I recorded off Radio 1`s top 40
show simply because it sounded electric, and I must
admit, I didn`t think much to it at the time. Sound of the Crowd
must have hit the higher places in the chart around the time my
parents took me to Ibiza, because I always watched Top of the Pops,
but did not see the League's appearance. However, on
subsequent hearings, the music got better and better,
but I still didn`t know who they were or what they
looked like, and presumed that because they were a
pop group, they must come from London.
Love Action
And then it happened! Love Action was released, and
John Peel played it on his show late at night. WOW!!!
I need more, desperately ! I tuned into Top of the Pops
to see them, and the perfect song! How could it get
any better? I`ll tell you how, THAT HAIRCUT! "I
want to be Phil Oakey!", I shouted in my mind.
What a cool looking group! Totally perfect! And to
top it all, Philip Adrian Wright with that cheeky
little smile, completely unmoved by the music! This
could not be real! My life had been turned upside
down by a group of people from Sheffield!
Straight to the top!
Disappointingly,
the haircut was short lived, but not the music. The
album "Dare" was just full of classics such
as "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of" and
"Do Or Die" plus of course, the hits. It
was inevitable this album should go to number 1.
And so
did "Don't You Want Me", at number 1 for 8
weeks at Christmas 1981. In January of 1982,
"Being Boiled" was re-released and entered
the charts for a while, paying back some respect to
the early years of the Human League and where they
had come from.
E Smith
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