4. The Human LeagueThe Dignity Of Labour Pts. 1-4
The Human League was probably my favourite band once I started hearing their stuff. My brother had all of it and I would get him to tape it for me. Dare, Travelogue and Reproduction and then this, The Dignity Of Labour. It’s intriguing because I didn’t really understand it. There weren’t any vocals and it was all sort of industrial synth stuff. It was just very beautiful and I didn’t know why… The black and white photo on the sleeve, the muted colours – that was sort of confusing because it was nothing like The Human League that did Dare. But yeah, I just kept playing that one more and more really as I got older. It made a big impression on me then.
Then I figured out from the names on the sleeves that some of The Human League had become Heaven 17, and my brother would say, "Yeah, yeah, don’t you know, you fucking idiot?" He’d give me a copy of the Smash Hits or something… I bought a book on The Human League that had the history of the band in it and all these old photos of them standing around Sheffield. I even did a project in class on them with my own pictures I drew. I was pretty obsessed with them. I didn’t want to dress up like Phil Oakey though; I think there was a limit. But I was a bit older then; I was 10 so I was growing up. I was just well into all their music. The synth sounds were what made it for me I think, but I didn’t think about it like that then you know. I was into a lot of the electro-pop stuff at that time. OMD, a little bit of Depeche Mode, the singles mainly, Tears For Fears, probably a bit later. Howard Jones, even.
