The Human League - Sue
speaks out...
Susan Sulley of the Human League spared a few minutes to have a chat about joining the New Romantic chart toppers, 24 years of touring and saving Richard Branson's empire!
Susan Sulley from the Human League popped in for a
chat with BBC Radio Sheffield's Bernie Clifton ahead of their Christmas tour
around
The band have been busy this year
having toured South America and
Susan and Joanne had an interesting story in how they became members of the band, she said most people don't believe the story.
"Everyone thinks it was made up," said Susan.
"But it was the Crazy Daisy [club]
here in
"The original group had split-up, and for Phillip to keep the name 'Human League' he was contracted to do a tour of Europe, so they wanted some more memebers because they thought it would look a bit odd - 2 guys on stage.
"So Phillip went to the local nightclub that played their sort of music - originally he was looking for one girl, but he saw me and Joanne together, and he thought we looked quite good together.
"He thought we were obviously friends and could look after each other - we were still at school doing our A-levels… but eventually they [parents] relented and said we could go."
So they must have been displaying some serious dancefloor moves?
Susan was picked from the dancefloor and asked to tour with the band.
"We never could dance [laughs], we wave our arms in the air and shake our bottoms and hope for the best basically and we've done that for 24 years now.
"At the time it was right at the height of what people now call New Romantic's and it was also at the latter end of punk rock.
"What Phillip said was that in a nightclub full of very, very outrageous people, what Joanne and I looked like was quite classical - he said we looked as though we would fit in anywhere and we wouldn't date.
"He said that was the first thing that he saw about us - that we didn't have. We didn't have wild red Mohican haircuts or we weren't in wedding dresses - we'd got hats on and baggy trousers, but he said it was quite stylish - I'm sure he's regretting that ever since!
"Our parents were very against us going - but my dad did realise that if something had have happened, as it did, he would have regretted stopping me... and school thought it would be educational! They thought we would visit museums and things [laughs].
"Phillip never actually asked us to join the group - he just said 'would we go on the tour?' - but what happened was we all got along so well, we started all going out together to nightclubs and things when we got back from the tour.
"When Phillip and Adrian stated to make the album 'Dare' Phillip rang up one day and asked us if we could have a day off school and would you like to come and sing on this track - we said yeah, ok, and went down and things just progressed really.
After 'Sound of the Crowd' became a hit we went on to make 'Love Action' and we went to make 'Dare' - following the album was the summer that Joanne and I left school.
"Suddenly it was looking like it was gonna take-off quite big, and the manager of The Human League said, 'do you want to join the group?'
"They put us on a £32 a week wage, which we were still getting when 'Don't You want Me' was number one… I'm not joking at all!
"We went to places that in my widest dreams I would have never thought that I would end up… and even now we've been doing it for 24 years, I still get the same sort of buzz and kick out of doing it.
"This year we've already been to
On Richard Branson…
"Richard Branson said that we saved Virgin Records from bankruptcy… the record that had done really well for them was Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
"But after that they'd had minor success but nothing major… and then we went quite mega and he still says in his book that we saved him from bankruptcy!"
On not being a tribute…
"We've never stopped working, we've made records throughout our career, some of them have not been as successful as others… and we've never stopped performing.
"It's still the core three of us, Joanne, Phillip and myself - with Neil, Nick, Dave and Rob. These people we've been working with for around 20 years.
"We always do some old songs, 'Don't You Want Me' and 'Love Action' - but we do some new songs as well - we're very fortunate that after 24 years people still want to see us."
On looking good…
"I go to the gym five times a week… when we go away I always try and ask Simon, our manager, to put us in hotels that have either got gyms or swimming pools.
"When you're doing a concert and you're on stage for an hour and a half it's like a work-out because you're running around all the time.
"You don't stand still very often... yeah I do work hard at it and I think as you get older you have to look after yourself."
" I think we all love it [touring] more than we ever did because we know that we're quite good at it now.
"We've all perfected our crafts, we can all enjoy it and see it for what it is, and it's just the best job - we are so lucky.
The band are releasing a 'live' DVD that was recorded in Brighton with some extra's at around Christmas time - but you can catch them at the Doncaster Dome on 6 December, 2004