Human League

Unofficial releases. However, it could be said that the Mary Chain's great legacy was the realization that punk rock/industrial noise was not diametrically opposed to pop melody, that the two could be woven together into music far more than the sum of its parts. Recently, the band have joined of a number of 80s revival tours, Oakey now describing this as being in a Human League tribute band. Contemporary bands such as The Raveonettes simply would not exist without the Mary Chain's influence. Four CDs attribute songs by The Human League under different names: on The Golden Hour Of The Future there are songs credited to The Human League when they were still The Future, on the single "I Don't Depend On You" where they call themselves The Men, on the "Dance Like A Star" Ep, there are also songs attributed to The Future and on "Love And Dancing", they pay homage to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra by calling themselves League Unlimited Orchestra. The Mary Chain's influence remains to this day, an influence that has been confirmed by the numerous cover versions of Mary Chain songs. The album Octopus went silver, and the lead-off single "Tell Me When" was the group's first major hit since "Human". Their debut album Psychocandy, along with the Cocteau Twins, was a huge influence on the British Shoegazing movement of the late '80s as well as on numerous American bands.

Dropped by Virgin Records after the failure of their album Romantic? (1989), the group were now signed to EastWest and their line-up included producer Ian Stanley, who helped them to achieve a more modern sound. The Jesus and Mary Chain are easily one of the most influential bands of all time in indie circles. The group made a surprise comeback in 1994. In 2005, some six years after the Mary Chain split up, their Heat track, taken from the Sound of Speed compilation, was used in a television advertising campaign for Coor's Beer in the UK. number one, "Human", but other singles made little impact. William left the band following that show and the band finished up their US and Japanese dates without him. The Jam & Lewis-produced Crash LP (1985) did provide a U.S. Though it was not until October 1999 that the split was made official, on September 12 1998 the Reid brothers had a falling out onstage during a sold out gig at Chicago's famous House of Blues club about 15 minutes into their set.

The band also had a number of other hits but their success faded towards the mid-1980s. For Sub Pop they recorded 1998's Munki album, which would turn out to be their last before splitting the following year. Their most famous single "Don't You Want Me" reached number one in the UK charts during the Christmas of 1981 and was one of the biggest selling singles of that year. Following the final album in their odds-n-sods trilogy, 1995's Hate Rock N' Roll, the Mary Chain parted ways with Blanco y Negro, their record label of over a decade, and signed to American indie rock label Sub Pop. The band achieved a brief spell of success in the early 1980s with their style of Synthpop music. Following the tour to support the album and the release of another compilation of odds-n-sods, The Sound of Speed, they returned to the studio to record their fifth album proper, the largely acoustic Stoned & Dethroned which would see release in 1994. Re-energized by the addition of new members, the band went on to record their breakthrough album Dare, and have many chart successes. The single was followed by the release of the album Honey's Dead in 1992.

At the time, synthpop was starting to become fashionable due to the success of groups like OMD and Ultravox, but female vocals were rarely heard on synth records, so the addition of Sulley and Catherall gave the group a distinctive sound. Spitting feedback and punk rock bile in every direction, the track was banned from Radio and the video was banned from TV play due to its potentially offensive lyrics ("I wanna die just like JFK, I wanna die in the USA".) The Reid brothers had not calmed down after all, proving that they could still rage, kick and spit with the best of them. However, they recruited bass player Ian Burden, guitarist Jo Callis (formerly of The Rezillos) and, famously, fronted the band with two singers, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, whom they had met in a Sheffield nightclub. They proved their detractors wrong with their next single, Reverence. When Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware left to form Heaven 17 it seemed that Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright, the sole remaining group members, would be unable to sustain the band, which, just before the split, was beginning to achieve wider popularity. It seemed that they had calmed down. Their first single to chart was 'Empire State Human', which peaked at number 62 in the charts. By this time, the violence that was originally associated with the band was practically non-existent and the Reid brothers were being less antagonistic and aggressive in general.

Shortly afterwards, they signed up with Virgin Records, and by the early 1980s had become a successful British electropop band. Boasting heavy use of synthesized bass and keyboards, the album was not received quite as well as its predecessors though it was still a strong, consistent album, and contained the singles Head On and the Dylan ode, Blues From a Gun. Originally a post punk synthesiser based group from Sheffield, the Human League (previously known as the Future) released their first single, "Being Boiled" c/w "Circus Of Death" on Bob Last's Fast Product record label in 1978. Following the odds-n-sods collection Barbed Wire Kisses in 1988 and constant touring, the album Automatic was released in September 1989. A fan site devoted to pictures of the Human League in concert during 2004. (http://www.redpenguin.net/bandphotos/human-league.php). The fluid nature of the Mary Chain's line up continued throughout their entire career, with a revolving door of drummers, bassists and guitarists being recruited for TV appearances and gigs whenever they were required, the only constants being the Reid brothers. Secrets Online, excellent fan site with indepth Human League coverage both past and present. (http://www.league-online.com/). The gigs were very poorly received and they quickly reverted back to live drums, drafting in Richard Thomas for two years, subsequently replaced by Steve Monti in 1990.

Blind Youth, a site dedicated to the early post-punk works of Human League. (http://www.blindyouth.co.uk/). In 1987 and 1988 they toured without a drummer, instead employing a roadie to play a tape of drum tracks through the PA system. A Human League fan site (http://users.bigpond.net.au/human-league/home.htm). Ironically, the band's live shows, at one time considered the most exciting element of the band and the reason for most of their success, were now overshadowed by their records. "Rock And Roll Is Dead" (2003) was a single from fellow Sheffield band, Kings Have Long Arms, that paid tribute to Oakey and eventually was re-released with Oakey doing some guest vocals. Featuring a more melodic sound, the album was recorded almost entirely by the Reids themselves, replacing live drums with a drum machine, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews by the British music press. Today" (2003) was a single from Alex Gold featuring Oakey on vocals. He was replaced with John Moore, though he was gone as well by the release of the band's second album, Darklands, in September 1987 (Moore went on to form Black Box Recorder with Luke Haines).

"L.A. Following the release of the follow up single Some Candy Talking, Bobby Gillespie left to front Primal Scream on a full time basis. "Together In Electric Dreams" was a solo single for Oakey rather than the whole League, but has been included on Human League albums as if it were by the whole band. The record received unanimously positive reviews and is now considered a landmark recording. 'The Human League Interview'. The album fused together the Reid's two primary influences, the indie guitar noise of The Velvet Underground with the '60s pop leanings of Phil Spector and The Beach Boys. 'The Human League Promo Mix CD' (not available). The same year, the band signed to Blanco y Negro and released the You Trip Me Up and Never Understand singles which were soon followed by their debut album Psychocandy.

'The Golden Hour Of The Future'. The music press were present at the show, and this event subsequently became known as "The Jesus and Mary Chain Riot". 'Dance Like A Star' (EP). By the time the Mary Chain started their short set, the audience was already in the mood for violence, and because of the size of the audience, the riot that occurred was far bigger and wilder than any other that had occurred at a Mary Chain gig. 'The Future Tapes' (unreleased). Support band Meat Whiplash had stirred up violence before the Mary Chain even set foot onto the stage by throwing a wine bottle into the audience. 'In Darkness' (a bootleg demo album). On March 15, 1985, the Mary Chain played a gig at the North London Polytechnic in front of one of their largest crowds up to that point.

'Taverner Tape' (1978). The violence that followed the band's every action culminated in an event that is now a part of indie folklore. 'Human League Cassette' (1978). He would simply make sure people from the music press were present while these events naturally transpired, and so ensuring blanket coverage in the music papers. League Live (DVD). All of this delighted manager and Creation Records boss Alan McGee, who obviously found it very easy to get attention for the band. The Very Best Of (EMI, 2 CDs, CD2 is all remixes, also on DVD). Many shows culminated with the Reids trashing their equipment, which was often followed by the audience rioting.

"All I Ever Wanted". Any reporters or photographers from the music press would be verbally insulted and spat at. Secrets (The Japanese version has three bonus tracks)