40 years on: Top 10 albums of 1980

 Top 10 albums of 1980 (in chronological order)

1. John Foxx - Metamatic
2. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
3. Genesis - Duke
4. The Human League - Travelogue
5. Gary Numan - Telekon
6. David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
7. Simple Minds - Empires & Dance
8. Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids
9. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Organisation
10. Mike Oldfield - QE2

The Sound of the Crowd at 35

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Human League's seminal single The Sound of the Crowd, here's a Spotify playlist.

May 1980

Look, I know I've been through all this a thousand times before, but about this time of year in 1980 was when music started to get interesting for me. There were new records out by Gary Numan, The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, among others. Here's the evidence from Smash Hits (two editions in May 1980):

It's also the the time that Ian Curtis of Joy Division killed himself, which is a pity as I'm sure he would have appreciated some of this new music.

Dare to feel

According to the The Human League forum and this CD-merchant, a double-CD 30th Anniversary edition of The League's seminal synth-pop album Dare is due out on March 26th 2012.

While the main album seems to be as per 2002 21st anniversary issue, there are also some new masterings including the whole US issue mini-album Fascination!, originally issued in 1982.

Full tracklisting as follows:

 
CD 1

1.The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (2002 - Remaster)
2.Open Your Heart (2002 - Remaster)
3.The Sound of the Crowd (2002 - Remaster)
4.Darkness (2002 - Remaster)
5.Do or Die (2002 - Remaster)
6.Get Carter (2002 - Remaster)
7.I Am the Law (2002 - Remaster)
8.Seconds (2002 - Remaster)
9.Love Action (I Believe in Love) (2002 - Remaster)
10.Don't You Want Me (2002 - Remaster)
Bonus tracks;
11.The Sound of the Crowd (Complete) (2012 - Remaster)
12.Don't You Want Me (Extended Dance Mix) (2012 - Remaster)
13.The Sound of the Crowd (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster)
14.Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe in Love) (Instrumental) (2001 - Remaster)
15.Open Your Heart/Non-Stop (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster)
16.Don't You Want Me (Alternative Version) (2012 - Remaster)

CD 2

Fascination! (USA mini album);

1.Mirror Man (2003 - Remaster)
2.You Remind Me of Gold (2012 - Remaster)
3.(Keep Feeling) Fascination (Extended Version) (2012 - Remaster)
4.I Love You Too Much (2012 - Remaster)
5.Mirror Man (Extended Version) (2012 - Remaster)
6.You Remind Me of Gold (Instrumental) (2012 - Remaster)
7.(Keep Feeling) Fascination (Improvisation) (2012 - Remaster)*
8.I Love You Too Much (Dub Version) (2012 - Remaster)
9.Total Panic (2012 - Remaster)

*one hopes that the full-length version of this track is included. this time.

 

The Human League - Dare

I Love 1981 - pt 21
Well it's late Saturday afternoon in November 1981 so what better way to get the party started then getting all tarted up for the night whilst listening to the sounds of The Human League's breakthrough album Dare.
Like Speak & Spell there's already been so much written about Dare - seminal synth-pop album etc., especially in the wake of the recent electro-revival (La Roux et al) and an overall re-evaluation of the genre, now taht almost all pop music is made with electronic instruments.
Band leader and lead vocalist Phil Oakey has often described it as 'over-rated' but there's a little false modesty going on there as it still remains their most successful album to date and their most exploited during the live performances which they still seen very fond of doing. No Human League gig could ever be complete without a rendition of Don't You Want Me, and other Dare racks such as The Sound of the Crowd, The Things That Dreams Are Made Of, or even Darkness which have all recently been performed live.

Shiny synth-pop aside, what ultimately clinches it for the album is its strange mixture of upbeat pop (although still not in the region of the Mode's 'ultra-pop') and darker moments as in I Am the Law and Seconds. Dare managed to carefully tread between the two creating something for everyone: Darkness is a perfect sing-along pop song yet deals with one of our deepest fears, Do or Die will have us up and dancing yet its sci-fi scenarios ("alsatians fall unconscious at the shadow of your call..") are at once chilling and just a bit daft (cf. earlier League tracks such as The Black Hit of Space). Love Action (I Believe in Love) may have one of the catchiest riffs of them all yet deals with the pain and suffering of broken relationships we can somehow all relate to. And this is Phil talkin'.

Considering all that it almost seems a shame that the cheesy yet evergreen Don't You Want Me has to close it all, although it was in fact deliberately tacked on at the end as a 'joke' song. It's a complete pseudo-American soap-opera scenario (Oakey was inspired by A Star is Born for the lyric) which translated so well into the video-with-a-stroy-line format which was just coming into vogue.


All homage of course to the late Martin Rushent's production and overall technical contribution, not least the introduction of the Linn drum machine which finally gave the League, and electronic pop, the programmable beats they so strived for in earlier years (I nearly cried when I first heard Love Action - I thought they'd used 'real' drums..).
It was still early days though: "The programming took hours and hours and we were constantly battling the primitive and unreliable technology," said Rushent in 2008. But no matter: "I spent 28 hours straight writing and programming the brass parts for Hard Times and another 24 hours recording them. Didn’t mind a bit, had a wonderful time."..which is exactly what ultimately transpires on Dare.
So just put on your best party gear, plenty of jewellry and make up (men too), add your voice and have a wonderful eighties-time to the sounds of Dare.

For more on Dare and its making, see The Black Hit of Space's excellent 30th Anniversary Special.

Movement

Now then, how many of you remember staying up "late" (after 10 p.m. was "late") to listen to the John Peel radio show of a weekday night, late 70s/early 80s? Well, for the uninitiated John Peel's nightly show was the place for the real alternative post-punk music that was going around at the time - you'r hear stuff here that you would not hear anywhere else, not even on Kid Jensen. Most of the stuff was so obscure that it basically remained such although the late, great Mr. Peel was famous of course for championing (he even championed the verb "to champion") many an obscure band who then went on to become quite successful, eg. Siouxsie & the Banshees, Generation X, XTC, The Undertones, The Jam, Joy Division and the like.
Each night Peely also featured usually two different "sessions", ie. bands who had gone in to the BBC studios to record three or four tracks especially for the show. These were often religiously taped and duly bootlegged, although many have already seen the light of day since as official releases (OMITD, Ultravox, Gary Numan, New Order to name but a few).

Anyway here comes possibly the first official  'Best of Peel sessions' release: Movement brings together many of those bands and more from the all-important 1977-1979 period. There's quite wide range of styles, not just the new-wavers but also ska from the likes of Madness, The Specials and Selecter and reggae from UB40, Aswad and Steel Pulse - all styles which were covered by Peel.

Of note to LiM is the inclusion of  Being Boiled by The Human League, recorded for their only session in 1978 which has never had an official release, only bootlegs. So here's hoping it's been properly dusted down for the occasion. It's a unique version in that it's kind of half way between the original Fast version and the radically re-vamped Holiday '80/Travelogue version. Well, Blind Youth geeks will know what I mean anyway.

The Sound of The Future

(click for bigger)

Here's an interesting snippet from a feature in Smash Hits magazine of 30 years ago (as ever, thanks to the truly wonderful Like Punk Never Happened archive). A Beginner's Guide to the Human League who were just on the brink of becoming totally massive; in fact the feature/interview focuses on the imminent release of new album 'Dare', which has already been preceded by three hit singles, including the current Open Your Heart.
The 1981 section of the a.m. guide is of course incomplete for 1981 - perhaps not even the mighty League (and the immodest Phil Oakey) could have guessed what was just around the corner..
The question mark over 1982 is somewhat foreboding however, but fair-do's, they did manage a couple of great singles. More anon.



So open your heart, dare to feel and add your voice...

The Human League - Hard Times/Love Action - Soft Cell Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go?

I Love 1981 - pt 15
In which Britain experiences it's first major synth-pop summer and the 12" single with extended dance mixes finally takes on as a mainstream musical art form.

The Human League first advertised theirs as featuring "a disco mix and odd mix, two separate very long versions of both songs". Major ground breaking here in more ways than one. Firstly it features the B side Hard Times before the A side Love Action, and secondly the B side is a kind of instrumental variation on the A side picking up only on the female 'hard times' vocal parts from the main song. Easier to listen to than explain.
The opus is a combination of The Human League's new style dance music with meaning and the late Martin Rushent's production skills who helped them achieve their distinctive sound not least by introducing them to the Linn drum machine. Lyrically, Phil Oakey is the tough Northern bloke (albeit with jewellry and make-up) who comes out with his hard times story "I've been a husband and a lover too..I've lain alone and cried at night...I feel the pain..." but ultimately gives in to, er, temptation, the 'love action' transmitted by.... who? The Daily Mirror published a gossip style story about his broken marriage and his affair with one of the girls (or both? ..can't remember) and we were even treated to a photo of his shock-horor-probe pierced nipple! Love Action ( I Believe in Love) is classic League of course and the one that got them to number 3 and well and truly on the road to fame (and we still haven't had Don't You Want Me yet).

Although Soft Cell were very much in the synth-pop catchment area their electronics were a tad more minimal and seedy compared to the League's lush production. No matter though as their cover of two Motown numbers remains a classic in its own right to this day. Again it's a 'segue' type long mix cleverly bringing together the two songs in a new style electro-dance bonanza which meant DJs could rest for a bit while the punters danced on.
Like The Human League's "instrumentals" 12" B side, theirs also fetaures a dubby trippy instrumental mix which became the blueprint for so many dub/dance crossover re-mixes for years to come. Tainted Love became a number 1 single in 17 countries and even broke the US top 10 in 1982. Famously however the duo made relatively little money from sales of the single as both sides were cover versions, leaving many royalties to their original owners.
Not bad going though for the archetypal odd couple (see Sparks) Marc Almond and Dave Ball who had recorded it as a make-or-break single for Phonogram. Northern Soul from Leeds for the new electronic age. Beep beep!

Martin Rushent RIP

Seem to be doing a few too many 'RIP's lately but unfortunately there goes another.. Producer Martin Rushent has died aged 63.
Us electro-poppers know him best for his work wuth The Human League on 1981's ground-breaking Dare and a year later with the innovative 'Love & Dancing', effectively one of the first albums based on 12" mixes.
He totally transformed The League of course in 1981 when he picked them out, shook them up ..and turned them into someone new. His first work with the band 'Sound of the Crowd' was in the charts 30 years ago. He was their George Martin, giving the band a distinctive musical style, perfectly reflecting Phil Oakey's visual ideas, transforming them from sci-fi geekdom into stars of TOTP. He eventually fell out with the band during the making of a Dare follow-up although still gave us the very wonderful single (Keep Feeling) Fascination.

Apart from his work with the League he also produced many bands in the late 70s such as The Stranglers, XTC, French band Téléphone and The Buzzocks. Indie band Altered Images, were also given a sound and style makeover by Rushent, similar to the Human League's, with their Pinky Blue album. He also assisted Buzzcocks' vocalist Pete Shelley in making a noteworthy 'electro' album Homo Sapien in 1981.
Continuing to work through the eighties he also returned with The Human League with two tracks on their ill-fated 1989 album Romantic?: Heart Like a Wheel and Get It Right This Time. There had recently been talk of a special re-issue of Dare! featuring, bizarrely, drums and guitars.

Here's a few of his better known recordings for your listening pleasure. Rest in peace Martin, and thank you.

The Human League - The Sound of the Crowd

I Love 1981 pt. 9

Smash Hits called it the sound of revivalist groups in the year 2000 trying to reconstruct the genuine sound of the synthesiser "by banging a hammer on a corrugated roof in time to an assortment of fog-horns, humming kettles and finely tuned cake tins". Not a bad description as it really was like nothing you'd ever heard before.
Phil Oakey's Human League Mark II had already made an attempt to achieve pop success earlier in the year, although thankfully in the meantime he and partner Adrian Wright with local boy and tour musician Ian Burden had met up with producer Martin Rushent and together they came up with what was to be their first real milestone to success, "The Sound of the Crowd".

The ad campaign stated "Hear dance and add your voice" which was the new Human League manifesto in an electro-nutshell. Futuristic sounds which you could actually dance and sing along to this time aided somewhat by the new romantic frilly blouses and men's make-up chic, albeit an ilk to which Sheffield's finest never really belonged.
Backing singers and stylish dancerettes Susanne and Joanne finally did get to add their voice to a Human League recording, and were famously called away from sixth-form classrooms as they had to "do" Top of the Pops at the end of April, 1981.You can imagine TOTP producers' and cameramen's dismay when confronted with a set-up with no guitars, no drummer, but just some reel to reel tape-recorders, two keyboards and some pretty weird looking Northerners to capture on video. It was a draw dropping moment for many and the beginning of Oakey and co.'s much longed for chart success. The 1981 Human adventure was just beginning..... Get in line now!

..with continued thanks to Brian McCloskey for Smash Hits updates..

20th Century TOTP

UK telly viewers may like to know that BBC4 are set to re-broadcast all the Top of the Pops shows in their entirety from April 1976 onwards evry Thursday night starting this week!
Why start at AD 1976? I hear you ask, well that apparently was the month when the Beeb actually decided to keep all the shows (presumably on tape) for archive purposes, supposedly for these 'time capsule' type occasions. Hurrah! Should make interesting viewing if only for spotting the daft dancing and "fashions" of the time as bad news is that the music itself won't be very good for quite a bit. Just as an indication, number one in the UK in April 1976 was Brotherhood of Man's Euro-winner "Save Your Kisses For Me" (no, you don't need to sing it thank you).

If anything the new screenings may spawn a new and better quality crop of youtube uploads from the show, as there are plenty of geeks out there willing to record and upload their fave TOTP moments througout the years (cough).
Speaking of which, we came across this rather good youtube channel which is doing just that. The aptly named memorylane1980s channel features loads of good stuff from said decade for your coffee-break sized viewing pleasure. Here's Sheffield band and 80's TOTP regulars The Human League doing one of their best in their 'democratic' line-up, with Phil Oakey dressed in what can only be described as a 'girl's blouse'.
Howzabout that then guys n gals?

It's all done with mirrors, man.

Don't You Want Glee?

Almost 30 years after its original release The Human League's classic 80's track 'Don't You Want Me' has been given a new lease of life thanks to popular TV show Glee. The song was featured in "Blame it on the Alcohol", the latest episode of the show, famous for cover versions of classic songs from the past, broadcast this week in the US. As a result the original version, which was the Christmas number in 1 in 1981, has now shot to no. 5 in the US i-tunes chart.

watch the Glee sketch here



The revival coincides nicely with the release of the band's latest album Credo set to go out on 21st March, with a new single Never Let Me Go also to be released in March, although neither in the US. A spokesperson for the group has stated however that the album "will not be available domestically in the US or on I-Tunes in the US until such time as we have secured a domestic label for the record in that territory."
Don't they want it?

The Human League - Boys and Girls

I Love 1981 - pt. 4
Apologies 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.

Electro-albums ready to go

Some exciting electro-music albums coming up soon with at least four promising albums waiting in the wings:

As already mentioned here godfather-of-electro John Foxx's latest analogue project with Benge (pic. left) takes the form of the first John Foxx & The Maths album Interplay, to be released on 21st March. There's now an official site here and also a remix competition for opening track Shatterproof here. Initial copies ordered from Townsend will be in special deluxe digi-packs. Previewed tracks find Foxx on fine form, still going strong since his Ultravox! days which began way back in 1976.
(Meanwhile we are still waiting for the much needed Metamatic official site makeover).


Sheffield electro-gurus The Human League are also back on the scene. After the long awaited new single Night People, which received mixed opinions and reviews, the new album Credo should be out in March. It's their first since 2001's Secrets and comes some 32 years after The Human League's first long-player Reproduction.
As usual, the band have kept a low internet-profile up to now although an official site has sprung up here and an official Facebook page too.
Live dates continue through Europe and (bizarrely) South America in March and April.


Blackburn duo Blancmange are also re-emerging from the murky depths of the mid-eighties with the brand new Blanc Burn set for release on 7th March. See their myspace page for previews, tour dates and order details. The oddball Lancashire couple released three albums between 1982 and 1985, hitting the singles charts with songs like Living On the Ceiling, Blind Vision and a tongue-in-cheek cover of Abba's The Day Before You Came. It'll be interesting to see what they've come up with this time.


It's not all electro-wrinklies tho as new band Mirrors from Brighton are set to release their debut album Lights & Offerings on February 28th. Check out preview tracks on their myspace page and follow the links to order. It's also worth taking some time to read their excellent blog The World of Mirrors if you can.
I may have posted this before but here's their excellent Look At Me from last year.

PS this post was mostly written just to remind myself of how much stuff I have to order.

Night night people

"..get around town, get around town, where the people look good, where the music is loud.."

The Human League present Night People .. and it's 1981 all over again.. Add your voice..

Human Monster People

The Human League have finally got the ball rolling on new material with an official site, mailing list, and a countdown to the release of the new single "Night People". The track was premièred in Berlin on 4th November at the Electronic Beats Festival. (spoiler video here)

The new album Credo is out "early next year" has been produced by fellow Sheffield electro-citizens I Monster.


IMonster myspace

You remind me of....

Darkstar: Gold - Taken from the album North, released on Hyperdub on 18th October 2010.



original gold.....

Human Creed

Unofficial sources on Facebook today have announced that the new Human League album is to be called Credo. The Electricity Club has posted the news on the social network this morning (although not on its site yet) and "Phil Oakey" (is it really Phil talking?) has also posted "The album is called CREDO to be released early 2011 - The tour is THE NIGHT PEOPLE TOUR 2010 - The first single will be NIGHT PEOPLE released before the start of the tour". No album this year then.
Human League label Wall of Sound have yet to give any offical announcement on the artist page, and what is supposedly the League's "official site" still remains untouched.

What's "credo"? I hear you ask .. simply a statement of belief (from the Latin word credo meaning "I believe"), usually in a religious sense, and commonly translated into English as "creed". Maybe Pope Benedict's recent visit to the UK had some beneficial effects?

Pope in the UK .. the visit to Sheffield remained a secret from the press

Wikileak for The League

Speculation over the new Human League album reached a peak last week as a Wikipedia page cataloguing the album appeared on the global encyclopedia site.
Entitled "Decades (album)" the page takes links its main source as feature in popinstereo which gives song titles with a possible tracklisting.
The dubious Wikipedia entry gives its reasons for the alleged album title Decades, - studio album number 10, three decades of activity etc. - and states the release date as 10/10/2010 on digital download only. The page is well written yet carries a slightly polemical vein citing "the bands (sic.) limited aging fanbase" and Oakey's alleged egocentricity, and attacks the League's non-internet participation policy: "Unlike every other serious pop group the Human League does not even have its own website". It also declares that the album is a 'flop in the making' condemning it as an "Oakey vanity project".
The page has now received a possible deletion notice from Wiki-watchdogs but in line with policy the page will not be "blanked...until the (page) discussion is closed."..which will obviously not be until the album has actually seem the light of day.
Keep feeling anticipation...

No hyper-link to the Wiki page is included in this post.

Listen: The Human League - Get It Right This Time