Phil Oakey

Born and bred in Sheffield, Phil co-founded the group The Human League in 1977. The groups first single "Being Boiled" was released in 1978 (but would have to wait 4 years before hitting the UK singles chart). October 1979 saw the release of their first album, "Reproduction", complete with a somewhat distasteful album cover. One year later, the band released a second album, "Travelogue" and shortly afterwards Phillip recruited Susanne Sulley and Joanne Catherall, two schoolgirls that he met dancing in a club, to join the group. "The Human League"'s major breakthrough occurred in 1981 with the release of their third, and arguably best album, "Dare". The single, "Don't You Want Me" became a huge hit in both the UK and the US and is still considered a classic. Their fourth album, "Fascination", provided two further hits "Keep Feeling (Fascination)" and "Mirror Man", but the group's fifth album, "Hysteria", was not what was expected from them. The first single from "Hysteria" was the unusually political "The Lebanon" (well meaning but somewhat clumsy in the style of the "War Song" by 80s contemporaries Culture Club). Philip decided to record a solo album with disco producer Giorgio Moroder in 1985 and this coupling led to the theme for the film Electric Dreams (1984), which was also a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. A change of direction followed in 1986 when The Human League recorded their next album "Crash" with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The song, "Human", penned by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis gave them their second US number one hit as well as a return to the UK Top 10, but the follow-up, "I Need Your Loving", did not fare so well. After an absence of four years, the band released yet another album titled "Romantic?", but it was not a glorious comeback with only one minor hit single, "Heart Like A Wheel". Matters improved slightly with 1995's "Octopus" spawning their first UK Top 10 single, "Tell Me When", in almost as many years. Their last album to date was released in 2000, called "Secrets", leading to an appearance on BBC's Top of the Pops on August 15th and a minor hit, "All I Ever Wanted".