SPILL FEATURE: GENERATIONS LATER: FOUR DECADES OF UNSTOPPABLE RHYTHM AND LEGACY – A CONVERSATION WITH PHILIP OAKEY OF THE HUMAN LEAGUE

GENERATIONS LATER: FOUR DECADES OF UNSTOPPABLE RHYTHM AND LEGACY

A CONVERSATION WITH PHILIP OAKEY OF THE HUMAN LEAGUE

It’s oddly reassuring in today’s topsy-turvy world to note that, more than 40 years after he became a megastar, Philip Oakey, star man of the Human League, can still be reached on a number for his native Sheffield. He still loves it, too; the affection in his voice for his city never wavers, especially when teasing this Manchester-based reporter about the tranches of money that have flowed my city’s way in the last decade (“I think you took ours too!” he smiles).

However, he’s not entirely a homebody (“I quite like waking up in places that aren’t Sheffield, even though I love it!” he cracks, at one point), and no wonder, because the Human League are still very much alive and kicking in what will now be their fifth decade.

On top of the usual avalanche of festival dates for the ever-popular electronic pioneers, they’ve announced something big – something huge, even. For the first time in years, they’ll be touring the United States, and, better yet, they’ll be ending it in Niagara Falls, ON, in July. “It’s what we do!” says Oakey, enthusiastically. “We’re always trying to tour, and it’s hard getting a tour that works right across North America…so we just do it whenever we possibly can.”

They’ll be taking in some new destinations on this tour, too, as Oakey jokes: “It’ll be new for us in some ways. We’ve never been to New Orleans, which always surprised me [The Human League will play there June 17] – up till now, I thought there was a sign on the freeway: ‘Human League – not welcome here!’

Fellow 80s legends in Soft Cell and Alison Moyet will buttress the sprawling 21-date tour, and for all the logistical challenges of getting three big acts together, that’s something that excites Oakey: “I always get nostalgic for the old big tours, when you’d see like…The Beatles, Tom Jones, and Dusty Springfield…you never really get chance to be bored! So, I can’t wait for this bill.”

He continues, showing his admiration for his tour-mates: “Working with Alison and Marc [Almond of Soft Cell] is incredible, Marc’s one of the great, great acts of that time, he had a depth of vision that really means something….and Alison, she’s a fantastic vocalist, and has that amazing connection with Vince Clarke, probably the great synth singer-songwriter of the 80s…fantastic!”

THE GENERATIONS TOUR FULL INFO

The tour is also, at least in part, celebrating the album Dare, the album that launched a thousand ships (yes, it’s the one with “Don’t You Want Me Baby”). Oakey confesses that he at times thought the album was a “bit down”, citing the post-punk scene they came up in alongside luminaries such as Joy Division as the reason (and they were backed for stardom by both David Bowie and Siouxsie and The Banshees, too), but has developed a new love for it over the last year: “We were very connected to punk… that brilliant thing of deciding we can make our own thing, we can get a tape recorder, we’ll make some stuff, and we throw some records out, was very, very good for us. That said, if someone asked our best album, I’d say the Greatest Hits(!)…because I always thought it [Dare] reflected the scene we were in at the time, and it was a bit down and stuff…synth was less happy than it is now. But when we did a tour doing the whole thing, I started to appreciate it more in that context, and it’s still the one everyone refers to.”

That’s with good reason, as 40 years on, there’s one clear message: those songs still matter. Between themselves, Almond and Moyet, all three acts seem to have not just endured, but thrived in the modern era, suddenly finding a new spotlight and fanbase that gives them a new lease of life. As Oakey says, “People are nice now, so we get a chance to talk to young people. They often know about music that we don’t hear about, and now that it’s harder to find what good music is about, that’s great. We can often look out and most of the audience is young. We do a festival or something, and it’s, like that, you know? Then we do a Town or City Hall Show, and it’ll be more likely those people who have followed us for 40 years. It’s a nice blend.”

The constant churn of live dates and tireless work ethic has served The Human League well, although it does, in some ways, come down to a simpler truth. “We needed the money, mate!” laughs Oakey. He’s half serious, but he has a point; he goes on to explain the realities of the modern music industry, where record sales are no longer king, but live dates are. “To keep a business running for nearly 50 years now, you’ve got to go and do whatever you can. Now that’s touring. That’s lucky, really, as it’s quite fun to wake up one morning and be in Cardiff!”, he cracks.

However, that economic reality, and some artistic ones, are why you won’t see a new Human League record any time soon: “I never stop having ideas, but it’s what you do with it at the other end, really. Not just in terms of distribution or what it’ll get you, but you need a good producer; every fertile time in our career has been associated with one. Nowadays, there’s a lot more good groups than good producers…and we can’t self-produce, I’ve never had the ears for that, I’m tone-deaf!”

As untrue as that will no doubt sound to any Human League fan, there’s a clear joy in Oakey’s continual approach to work. The fact that the lineup has remained stable through most of its life probably helps, too. Oakey is philosophical about the future, sounding like a man very content with his lot. “Yeah, we do seem to work a lot, which is good,” he said. “I don’t know what else I would do…I think the future just involves playing to anyone we can go and play to for as long as we can.”

Then, the most disarming quote of all, not least because it’s hard to believe it’s true: “You know, I’m 70…”, he says, a smile in his voice. “All I want to do now is go around the world and see the people that like us, try and play the songs as well as we can, and enjoy it as much as we can,” he says, ending our chat on the perfect note.

In truth, I could’ve talked to Oakey for most of the day (and until I checked the clock, we threatened to do so); he’s full of humour, warmth and stories, with one particular story about playing a tour show in Belgrade under what essentially amounted to armed guard scarcely believable, were it not for the fact that this band covers every quarter of the earth, and somehow finds fans everywhere.

Still pumping out excellent shows across the globe, their North American tour promises to be a synth-soaked tonic of joy in what can sometimes be a jaded, and at times embittered world. If you’re smiling as much as I was at the end of this interview after you see them, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise: they clearly still love what they do, and you get the impression they’re not ready to stop sharing that with everyone yet.

Tour Dates

06/02 – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, San Diego, CA
06/04 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
06/05 – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA
06/06 – Hard Rock Live, Wheatland, CA
06/08 – Marymoor Live, Seattle, WA
06/11 – Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre, Salt Lake City, UT
06/12 – Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
06/13 – Mesa Amphitheatre, Mesa, AZ
06/16 – Texas Trust CU Theatre, Dallas, TX
06/17 – Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, LA
06/19 – Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA
06/20 – The Amp Ballantyne, Charlotte, NC
06/21 – Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, TN
06/23 – The Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
06/24 – Masonic Temple Detroit, Detroit, MI
06/26 – Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY
06/27 – Wang Theatre, Boston, MA
06/28 – The Met Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
06/30 – Filene Center, Vienna, VA (on sale February 27th)
07/01 – MGM Northfield Park, Northfield, OH
07/02 – Fallsview Casino Resort, Niagara, ON

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