I Love 1981 - pt. 4Apologies in advance if you'll be reading quie a lot about this band in the I Love 1981 series, although actually it was really was The Human League's year so it can't be avoided.
We start off with their first 'post split' single Boys and Girls, which - oooh the irony - didn't feature the newly recruited girls at all, except for the front cover and a few publicity shots. Male exploitation of female as marketing tool? Well, maybe, but Phil & Adrian's discovery of Susanne Sully and Joanne Catherall at a Sheffiled disco ("they were dressed as Gary Numan or something") turned out to be the boys' best move since leaving their day jobs.
The song is still very much 'old style' gritty analogue electronic fayre and rooted in the more industrial Travelogue sound (you'll find it on the CD re-issue in fact). It had been premièred on the tour at the end of 1980 and it was decided to release it as single (also in nifty limited edition gatefold sleeve, fact fans) as the band were still pretty broke and owed Virgin quite a lot of money.
It still failed to become the Top 10 smash hit that Oakey still hankered after however, reaching only no. 48. Boys and Girls a pretty weird affair: sort of a sing-song chorus and clever clever verse but you couldn't really dance to it and, to my knowledge, was played only by John Peel (possibly Kid Jensen ) on the radio (I know, I stayed up late one night and taped it and the spooky Tom Baker B-side off Peely). But it was still a necessary and vital stepping stone towards better things .. better watch the calendar-y-aaar.
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