SOUND OF THE CROWD - BBC TV 1981

SOUND OF THE CROWD for BBC TV  'Top of the Pops'  30/04/1981

This very early Human League TV appearance  is on BBC TV  'Top of The Pops'  30th April 1981 and is a first for the new line up. It is probably the earliest commercial recording of Susan and her first appearance on TV.  The single "Sound of the Crowd" was the Human League's first single to break the Top 20 in the UK. The girls have now been in the band about 5-6 months and Susan has only just turned 18 (some 5 weeks previously). She tells the story that the appearance was at very short notice and her mother had to rush to 'rescue' her and Joanne from school for the drive down to the London BBC studios.

 The girls have not had time to style themselves for TV and are at their most original.  Apparently for this appearance Susan wore clothes she had previously bought from a second hand shop in Sheffield and Joanne wore some of her mothers cast offs. It was the start of a look that  was soon characterized, sometimes negatively but often affectionately as "the Topshop look". (Topshop is a cheap British female clothing retail chain found in most towns). Susan still has brown hair and her ubiquitous early '81 hair-tie is evident.

Still relatively unknown to the general public, this key TV appearance would be an important  step up the ladder of public consciousness for THL . Unbeknown to the band, the super stardom of Christmas 1981 and "Don't You Want Me" is now only 7 months away!