July 14, 2023
Kew The Music, London
The joy of British summertime is you never know what the weather has in store, but a rainy Friday afternoon couldn’t stop thousands of fans descending upon Kew Gardens for a night of ‘80s nostalgia, topped off with the mighty Human League!
Through drizzle, Nik Kershaw opened the show with classics like Wouldn’t It Be Good, I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me – noting the blatant irony throughout – and the songwriter’s version of The One And Only, before Altered Images took to the stage with a lively Clare Grogan shimmying through hits from across the decades, from Happy Birthday and Don’t Talk To Me About Love to the title song from their latest LP, ‘Mascara Streakz’.
But it was the synth-pop trio – Philip Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley – who were the main attraction, entering to ‘Dare’ (1981) track The Sound of the Crowd and touching on tunes from across the eras.
The ladies’ backing vocals shone through on Mirror Man as Oakey bounced around the stage, while The Lebanon from 1984’s ‘Hysteria’ had the crowd chanting along. The Yellow Magic Orchestra collaboration Behind The Mask proved another pleaser all round.
Arriving on stage in a long cream coat and trousers with a loose shirt, Catherall and Sulley appeared on either side of the stage and in juxtaposing black looks, both dancing and delivering strong vocals throughout the 90-minute set.
Sulley took centre stage for her 1995 classic, One Man In My Heart, offering a rarely-seen side to The Human League, before a run of classic anthems, including Love Action (I Believe In Love), Tell Me When and (Keep Feeling) Fascination signalled the end of the main set – but not before the trio launched into their biggest hit, Don’t You Want Me.
The iconic single from their seminal ‘Dare’ record, the duet between Oakey and Sulley was the perfect singalong moment, as their voices faded into the background, overpowered by the sheer force and passion of the sea of fans.
After bidding farewell, it wasn’t long before the group – who had by this point accumulated several costume changes – returned to the stage once more, this time with their debut single, the classic Being Boiled, which this year celebrates its 45th anniversary, and later rounding out the night with the shimmering Giorgio Moroder production of Together In Electric Dreams.
As the night came to a close, the buzz in the park was electric as one of the greatest bands to come out of the past half-century delivered a masterclass in synth-pop with live vocals among the best of their career and an energy that proved infectious.
So good they were, in fact, that we didn’t even notice the rain had stopped!
