The Human League at Royal Albert Hall

Madonna, La Roux, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, Little Boots - where would these acts be without synth pioneers The Human League? It could have all worked out so differently, though. Back in the mid '70s, Sheffield computer operators Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh formed experimental band The Dead Daughters, playing the theme to Doctor Who live at friends' parties. They later roped in old school friend and hospital porter Philip Oakey, became The Future, then The Human League (derived from the wargame Starforce: Alpha Centauri), and churned out doomy nascent electroclash. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols labelled them 'trendy hippies'. The Undertones pilloried them in the song My Perfect Cousin. However, Oakey campaigned for a more commercial sound - the arguments escalated, and Ware and Craig Marsh pushed off to form Heaven 17 (who ended up sounding pretty commercial themselves). Oakey enlisted teenagers Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, who he saw dancing in Crazy Daisy Nightclub, to add some glamour, while producer Martin Rushent honed the band's sound in the studio. The result was triple platinum album Dare and the multi-million selling single Don't You Want Me... It all went a bit downhill after that - but thanks to La Roux, Little Boots and their ilk, the band are cred again. Heaven 17, too.