The Human League

The Human League are a synthpop band formed in the late 1970s, who achieved great popularity in the 1980s and a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. Originally a post-punk synthesiser based group from Sheffield, England, the group has seen n

The Human League are a synthpop band formed in the late 1970s, who achieved great popularity in the 1980s and a limited comeback in the mid-1990s. Originally a post-punk synthesiser based group from Sheffield, England, the group has seen numerous line-up changes over the years, the only consistent member being vocalist and songwriter Phil Oakey.

The Human League emerged from the fertile music scene which emerged in Sheffield following the advent of "punk rock" in Britain in 1976. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig-Marsh, both working as computer programmers at the time, and combining a love of pop music (such as glam rock and Tamla Motown) with avante garde electronic music, acquired a Roland System 100 synthesizer and began to create music in their own rehearsal facility. Initially they formed a group called The Future with Adi Newton. Newton left to form the outfit Clock DVA. Ware and Marsh was in search for a vocalist, and their first choice was Glenn Gregory (who would be the lead singer of their later band, Heaven 17), but was unavailable. Ware instead decided to invite Philip Oakey, an old school friend, and a hospital porter at the time to join the band, "apparently by leaving a note stuck to his door". Oakey accepted the invitation, despite never having been in a band before. Shortly after, they decided to call themselves The Human League.