By Carron Stacey, A Humdrum Mum

WHEN?: Friday 14 July 2023

SETLIST: The Sound Of The Crowd; Mirror Man; Heart Like A Wheel; The Things That Dreams Are Made Of; Open Your Heart; Seconds; The Lebanon; One Man In My Heart; Human; Behind The Mask; Love Action; Tell Me When; Fascination; Don’t You Want Me; Being Boiled; Together In Electric Dreams

Let’s just say that I went to church on Friday. The church of The Human League.

• Read on for reasons including A Humdrum Mum’s thoughts on Altered Images and Nik Kershaw

A robed Phil Oakey (now an amazing 67) takes centre stage after a striking synth-driven intro to The Sound of the Crowd. Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall flank him, yin and yang, both 60, and looking stunning in their gorgeous dresses (with a few changes throughout the set!). Can this really be something that dreams are made of?

We’ve been trying to see them for years and bad weather ruined our last planned gig to see them. Was the forecast rain going to spoil this one?

The stage set was two tiered, with the drummer on the top and the two guitarists (or should I say keytarists?) on the bottom. The girls (sorry it should be women, but they’re still young girls to my 10-year-old Sound of the Crowd loving self) stayed on the lower tier but Phil managed to appear everywhere.

On top next to the drummer during Being Boiled, he appeared ethereal, almost priest-like, which is where I get my church reference from. The lights and background set are slick and bright, but not overpowering.

The set is really just the three of them. His voice is intact, the girls’ too. There’s no talking from Phil, just looking (and singing). The songs are faithful reproductions thankfully; however my only complaint is that I could’ve done with 12” versions of most of them to dance for longer.

I’m always using phrases like “soundtrack to my youth”, but these singles really are. We begin with the stark Sound of the Crowd entrance, straight into the sugar sweet Mirror Man, Dare single These Are The Things That Dreams Are Made Of takes us into Open Your Heart, which contain some of my all time favourite lyrics that have helped me through tricky times (‘And if you can’t stand the test, you know your worst is better than their best’) and Seconds.

Their political guitar hit The Lebanon makes me wish they’d been more political; we slow down for Human, and ramp up again for Love Action (with Phil’s romantic advice for us all) and Tell Me When.

The whirling funk of (Keep Feeling) Fascination precedes Don’t You Want Me, surely one of the greatest singles of all time. It’s hard to find another group with such a legacy.

Their encore wows the diehard fans with the ultra-bare Being Boiled and wins everyone over with the almost-cheesey Together in Electric Dreams. During their set, they surprised us with a cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s cover of Eric Clapton’s Behind The Mask (which is a guilty pleasure of mine in any case).

I did remark to Mr Humdrum that it sounded like it was on a Casio, to which he replied, “That is the idea of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.” Oops.

Altogether, let us pray at the altar at the church of The Human League. This really was the thing that dreams are made of.

Altered Images Claire Grogan, now 61, flounces on the stage in a gorgeous red sequinned dress. We love her songs, especially Don’t Talk To Me About Love; that usually appears on my kitchen disco playlist. Their new album Mascara Streakz was released last year and the title track from it went down very well. Claire said she likes to play homage to another group and we were delighted to hear The Ting Ting’s That’s Not My Name.

Nik Kershaw The silver fox, Nik, looks amazing at 65 and his voice is still completely there too. I’d forgotten how much I’d loved Dancing Girls. His version of Chesney Hawkes’ The One and Only went down really well. After all, he wrote it!

• Read more from Carron at her blog A Humdrum Mum
• Main picture courtesy via Facebook Tickets Have you seen The Human League, Altered Images or Nik Kershaw before or heard any of these songs? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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