From a DIY debut that cost £3 to make, to the sleek pop perfection of Open Your Heart, here are 10 standout tracks from the Sheffield synth maestros
“OK. Ready. Let’s do it.” The final words uttered by the murderer Gary Gilmore before his execution in 1977 became the first words uttered by the Human League on their debut single the following year. Being Boiled, according to Martyn Ware – who founded the group alongside Ian Craig Marsh and Phil Oakey – cost £3 to make, using two synthesisers, a microphone and a tape recorder; it was recorded in a disused factory room lined with apple packaging. Along came Adrian Wright, with his minimal musical skills, but a host of mood-setting slides, helping to create a visual identity for the band, just in case Oakey’s amazing hair wasn’t quite enough. John Peel was soon a fan, and Being Boiled sold 3,000 copies within three months. A re-recorded version made it to No 55 as part of the Holiday 80 EP, but the sign that the band had finally arrived was when a reissued version of the original flew to No 6 in 1982 in the slipstream of Don’t You Want Me’s success. Now firmly established as the pioneering record it is, it’s had a remarkable afterlife, especially in the hands of Richard X, who “mashed” it with TLC’s No Scrubs and used it as a base for Liberty X’s cover of Rufus and Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody.
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Continue reading...by Ian Wade via Electronic music | The Guardian
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