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THE HUMAN LEAGUE
+ Tycho Brahe
@ Newtown, Sydney,
8th March 2024
(Live Review)

Review and photos by Alec Smart (@alecsmart_fotos)

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The Human League, the highly influential synth-pop band from Sheffield, England, performed at The Enmore Theatre in Newtown, Sydney, on Friday 8 March.

The core trio, singer-songwriter Phil Oakey and vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, backed by three talented musicians, performed their multi-platinum 1981 album Dare in full, alongside other chart-topping songs from their 45-year career.

They were supported by Queensland synth-pop revivalists Tycho Brahe, who accompanied the Brits on their nationwide tour.

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Tycho Brahe, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Enmore Theatre was packed to the gunwales for the concert, with the audience mainly seated, apart from a fenced-off standing area down the front (with steel crowd-barriers below the stage pushed so far forward there was no manoeuvre space for photographers!).

Unusually, additional tickets were sold for the rear foyer area, separate from the actual theatre arena, where patrons usually loiter by the bar between bands.

Due to the theatre’s acoustics, the sound that ricocheted out to the foyer was dismal, and those who purchased this second-rate option with a limited view of the stage were stood behind the mixing desk, between the bar serving-area and a merchandise stall.

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Tycho Brahe, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Tycho Brahe are named after the pioneering Danish astronomer (1546-1601) who redefined the Earth’s position in the Solar system in a time before telescopes.

Whilst on the subject of stars, Tycho Brahe, the band, have recently released a new song to coincide with The Human League tour, titled Supernova and available to listen to here.

This comes shortly after the release of another new song, the catchy up-tempo number Only A Sin (Risk Aversion), with the music video here.

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The musical enterprise, currently a trio, was founded in Brisbane in 1993 by long-time collaborators Ken Evans and Georgina Emery. Considering they have released four albums, Don’t Feel That Way (2005), Avarice (2002), Tasty (2001), and Cassiopeia (2000), plus numerous songs and EPs in three decades, to launch two new songs in the space of a few months before undertaking a national tour is a successful partnership.

On their webpage, Tycho Brahe describe themselves as “Reclusive veterans of the live music scene, Tycho occasionally gig around their home city of Brisbane and beyond, either as a duo or augmented by additional personnel. Between shows they retire to Tycho Central, a bunker full of vintage synthesisers, drum machines and science fiction memorabilia.”

Their music was captivating, with some songs reminiscent of the dark minimalism of Joy Division; others nearer The Human League in their melodiousness.

They finished their set with Tainted Love, the 1964 Motown song originally recorded by Gloria Jones and reworked in 1981 by Yorkshire duo Soft Cell, which became a number 1 hit in 17 countries and synonymous with the 1980s synth-pop sound.

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The Human League performed two sets and an encore at Enmore Theatre, the second set consisting of their phenomenally successful 1981-released album Dare, sandwiched between other songs that have distinguished their long, unbroken career.

After the three backing musicians set up on a raised platform with two keytars and an electronic drum kit, the triumphant trio, consisting of the original singer-songwriter and backing vocalists, strode to the front – Phil Oakey, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall.

Susan wore a shimmering dress while Joanne favoured a black suit (they made two more costume changes during the course of the concert). With his shiny bald head, long black coat and dark circular sunglasses, Oakey resembled the character Morpheus from The Matrix science fiction movies (played by actor Laurence Fishburn).

The band began the night with Mirror Man, the first song written by the revitalised line-up of The Human League in 1981, after a disastrous fracture way back in October 1980, which launched a new and forward-looking version of the band that has endured for four decades and four years.

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The lyrics of Mirror Man are somewhat vague, but apparently criticise a performer who is so desperate to please his fans he has lost touch with his core self. Oakey once revealed that this song was about Adam Ant, who began his musical career as a punk rocker and became a global superstar fronting Adam and the Ants when the New Romantic movement took hold.

This was followed by Tell Me When, (Keep Feeling) Fascination, Heart Like A Wheel, The Lebanon, One Man In My Heart (on which Sulley took on lead vocals), and ending with Human, before the trio departed the stage in preparation for the night’s main act – performance of the Dare album in full.

As both pioneers and leaders of synth-pop – defined by its primary use of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers (although they utilise a drummer on tour) – The Human League were at the forefront of the first wave of 1980s electronic dance music.

They are also associated with the subsequent New Romantic trend, characterised by Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, A Flock Of Seagulls and Soft Cell, which was also predominantly synthesiser-based music and featured glamorous clothes and fantastically tousled hair. However, they firmly rejected the label.

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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For their performance of Dare, Oakey returned in a grey suit, the women in sparkly black dresses. Veteran fans then enjoyed what was, for many, a key part of the soundtrack to their youths. Iconic dancehall songs like Seconds, The Sound Of The Crowd, Love Action, and the album’s closer, Don’t You Want Me, which had everyone singing along enthusiastically, contributed to the nostalgia-fest.

After a break, the band finished the night with a two-song encore, Being Boiled and Together In Electric Dreams. The latter is from the soundtrack to the 1984 science fiction film Electric Dreams, which Oakey co-wrote with composer Georgio Moroder. The Human League adopted the song long ago as part of their live set.

Incidentally, Being Boiled sounds very similar to the Visage song Fade To Grey, the same three-chord progression, C – E – A (albeit Fade to Grey uses minor, not major chords).

Sectors of the Enmore Theatre audience recognised this too, and sang “aaah, we fade to grey..” while the familiar sequence played.

I’ve often wondered how these two synth-pop classics, both released around the same time, came to share the same inherent melody at their heart.

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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The Human League released Being Boiled in 1978, with limited success, but re-released it in 1982, after their success with the Dare album, and it reached Number 6 in the UK music charts.

With Visage’s version, the original melody was written by Chris Payne of Gary Numan’s band in 1976, who rehearsed and recorded it with Billy Curry of Ultravox (who added a bass riff). But it wasn’t released until 1980 when Ultravox vocalist Midge Ure wrote a set of lyrics and the trio gifted it to Steve Strange and his band Visage, who enjoyed huge international success with the mournful melody.

Numerous mash-ups of these two songs appear on YouTube. Chris Payne, the principle tunesmith for the Visage version, describes how he created his song here.

Incidentally, Adam Clayton from U2 tried to copy the chord sequence when he was composing a song, resulting with U2’s lead single on their War album, New Year’s Day.

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Set List

Mirror Man
Tell Me When
(Keep Feeling) Fascination
Heart Like A Wheel
The Lebanon
One Man In My Heart
Human

Dare album:

The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
Open Your Heart
The Sound Of The Crowd
Darkness
Do Or Die
Get Carter theme (instrumental)
I Am The Law
Seconds
Love Action (I Believe In Love)
Don’t You Want Me

Encore:

Being Boiled
Together In Electric Dreams

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Check out Alec Smart’s (@alecsmart_fotos) full gallery of this event HERE

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Human League
early history:

The Human League was founded in Sheffield, England, in 1977 by friends and fans of electronic music, Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware. Initially called Future, Ware recruited former school classmate Philip Oakey and the band name was changed to The Human League, inspired by a rebellious interstellar state in the science-fiction board game StarForce: Alpha Centauri.

Subtitled “Interstellar Conflict in the 25th Century”, and released in 1974, Starforce was the first mass-market science fiction board wargame. The playing strategy involved moving spaceships across a zone of 74 star systems in the range of 40 light years using telekinetic powers in order to neutralise enemy StarGates.

Oakey brought in Adrian Wright, who devised background visuals and stage lighting that remain synonymous with the band’s live shows, and the band developed a reputation as a great live act. Wright later joined the band on keyboards.

In December 1978, after witnessing a live show, an enthusiastic David Bowie declared to NME music weekly that he “had seen the future of pop music!” In May 1979, they signed to Virgin Records.

Unfortunately, a series of poor decisions and disagreements saw their shooting star wane, and instead Gary Numan seized the crown as a beacon of synthesiser-based electro-pop, adapting a course previously pioneered by German innovators Kraftwerk in the mid 1970s.

Meanwhile, Human League disintegrated in acrimony just two weeks before a scheduled October-November UK and European tour. Marsh and Ware went on to form Heaven 17, whilst Oakey decided to soldier on, because he had considerable debts to pay and faced bankruptcy if the tour was cancelled.

With Wright still on board, Oakey recruited a session keyboardist, then, in a tale that has since become legendary, Oakey decided the band needed a female vocalist.

However, when he roamed Sheffield city centre one night with his then-girlfriend, seeking someone who might be available, at the drop of a hat, to take off on a European tour before the end of the month, he returned with double his expectations.

In the Crazy Daisy Nightclub, Oakey observed two schoolfriends, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, dancing together, and promptly invited them to join a reincarnated version of Human League on tour.

As it transpired, the girls were both aged just 17, so permission was needed from their respective parents and the school for them to take time off and travel. Furthermore, neither had any experience in singing or dancing professionally, but, thankfully, they both had pleasant singing voices and after the tour was complete – with reportedly mixed reactions – Oakey invited them to remain permanently with the band.

The following year Sulley and Catherall lent their vocals to a new set of songs, which record label Virgin released throughout 1981 to high acclaim. The ensuing album, Dare, launched October 1981, soared to the top of the charts and cemented The Human League’s position as leaders of the new age of synth-pop.

The album, Virgin Records’ second number one after Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells in 1973, reportedly saved the label from impending bankruptcy.

The fourth single from the album, Don’t You Want Me, became the coveted Xmas Number One (a hotly-contested tradition in Britain every year, generally won by the King of Bland, Cliff Richard). This was despite Phil Oakey’s protestations that Don’t You Want Me was the weakest track on the album that wouldn’t amount to anything.

It went on to sell millions of copies worldwide (the 25th best-selling song in UK history), and remains the band’s most successful and recognised release.

In 1982 The Human League won Best Breakthrough Act at the annual Brit Awards.

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Follow THE HUMAN LEAGUE
Website – Instagram – Facebook 

Tycho Brahe on Bandcamp

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The Human League, Enmore Theatre, Newtown, Sydney. Photo: Alec Smart

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Press Release 17th August 2023 (below) HERE

‘DARE!’
March 2024

Tickets sell out within days of tour announcement!

New dates announced in Sydney and Melbourne
Change of dates in Perth

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Destroy All Lines and Metropolis Touring present

THE HUMAN LEAGUE
– DARE! 2024

Wednesday 6 March – Brisbane – Fortitude Music Hall – SOLD OUT –
Friday 8 March – Sydney – Enmore Theatre – SOLD OUT –
Saturday 9 March – Melbourne – Palais Theatre – SOLD OUT –
Monday 11 March  – Adelaide – AEC Theatre
Wednesday 13 March – Sydney – Enmore Theatre – SECOND SHOW –
Thursday 14 March – Melbourne – Palais Theatre – SECOND SHOW –
Saturday 16 March – Perth – Astor Theatre (Show moved from Thur 14 March) – SOLD OUT –
Sunday 17 March – Perth – Astor Theatre (Show moved from Weds 13 March) – SOLD OUT –

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AMNPLIFY – DB