Review of Human League: Live At The Dome

Introduction

The Human League burst into public consciousness in 1981 with four hit singles and a 5 million selling album called Dare. The last of these four singles was Don`t You Want Me, a single that seems to have defined the group with the general public, but one which ironically the group themselves didn`t want released. Against the group`s expectations, the single burst through the charts and settled in comfortably as 1981`s Christmas number one.

To many it must have seemed that the Human League came from nowhere, but there was a pre-1981 history. The Human League was formed by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, with Phil Oakey joining shortly afterwards. The group released two critically acclaimed albums in Reproduction and Travelogue, but tensions between Oakey and Marsh led to a split just prior to a tour. The story of how Oakey found the two girls in a Sheffield disco is the stuff of folk-lore, but it clearly worked as one year on the world was at their feet.

The League have since released another five studio albums (plus the Dare remix album Love And Dancing), although the time between releases seemed to stretch over the years. A general rule, though, was that there would always be at least one hit single from each one. This rule was broken with the 2001 release of Secrets, a critically acclaimed album argued to be their best since Dare. The lack of a hit single had nothing to do with the quality of the album, and more to do with the implosion of the independent record label upon which the League were rostered.

Since then, the Human League have embarked on several tours across the UK, US and Australia, either as a normal tour or part of the Here And Now-type package, but always headlining. This DVD documents the last night of their 2003 tour at the Brighton Dome, a tour where I caught them at Glasgow in early December.

The live band lineup consists of Phil Oakey, Susan Anne Sully and Joanne Catherall on vocals, with David Beevers (programming), Neil Sutton (keyboards), Nic Burke (keyboards & guitar) and Errol Rollins (electronic drums & percussion).

Video

Presented in a 16:9 aspect ratio, the picture is clear and free from any damage. The lighting works as well on the screen as it would have done in the live setting. The Human League have a purpose built all-white set, from the synthesisers down to the mic stands, and it just adds to the overall tone. A number of cameras were used for filming and some good editing gives you good views from all angles, the main shots are from the camera track just in front of the stage.

Audio

You get the choice between 5.1 Surround or 2.0 Stereo for the main show, the 5.1 just bouncing and bleeping out of the speakers.

Features

Interview - presented in two sections. The first is with Oakey, Catherall and Sulley, and is quite a candid interview about the band`s career from the early Dare days through to the present. Surprisingly, Sulley gets to say the most but it is never boring and some of the comments are quite candid.. The second section is with Oakey by himself, and here he gets to wax lyrical about the pre-Dare days and his relationship with Martyn Ware. These are clearly off the cuff interviews rather than staged EPK material, so you get a lot more detail than you would normally find.

Behind The Scenes - footage from the US tour of the same year. Edited into small segments, it mainly consists of small snippets of the band and support crew but does also include a couple of performance pieces, most notably Don`t You Want Me at the Mardi Gras. Also contains a funny and priceless rehearsal of Hard Times in a dressing room with Burke and Sutton playing `air` instruments, Sutton self-consciously cracking up a couple of times.

Gallery - a slideshow of tour photos set to music. These are more of the holiday variety than the posed or live shots you would normally see of bands. This is more of an intimate extra and definitely one for the fans.

Biography - a text piece that essentially explains the history of the group for those who don`t know it.

Conclusion

It`s probably obvious by now, but I`m a little biased when it comes to the Human League. Along with a host of other electronic or New Romantic bands, notably Ultravox and Gary Numan, this was the soundtrack of my youth. Music and fashions move on, and some progress while others don`t. A lot of the latter fall by the wayside, but somehow the Human League have hung on and kept that appeal. They have compromised slightly, both in the making of the Jam and Lewis album Crash and the 95 release Octopus, but overall have stuck to their guns as an unashamedly synth-oriented dance band.

Live they are as strong as any band with a good set of musicians to carry the vocalists through each performance. The music is tight and the energy is evident to anyone who witnesses them in action. The only limitations are in the vocal ranges of the three singers. All have previously admitted that they don`t see themselves as good singers, and in truth that doesn`t really matter. The songs sound as good as they`ve always done, and any Human League fan knows the strength and weaknesses of their vocals. Oakey`s voice does start to show the strain towards the back end of the show but that was due to the strain of rehearsing for three different tours in one year, as he admits during the interview. Give him his due though, he doesn`t ease up and finishes the set with as much energy and passion as at the start.

The tracklisting is a typical current Human League setlist and lasts for just over an hour and a half so you get value for your money. Casual listeners will hear the songs with which they are most familiar and some new ones to hum along to. With an entertaining live set and some nice extras, this is a must-have for fans and a dip in the water of one of the early synth trendsetters for everyone-else.