Phil was absolutely GORGEOUS when he was younger like this; I had such a massive crush on him lol; went to see the League on the "Dare" tour in 1981, was so amazing; actually met them too backstage, so funny they were, totally down to earth and "normal" and the girls looked like girls who worked on the perfume counter in Boots chemist on Saturdays haha. Totally approachable and accessible, lovely they were, so ordinary!!!
Not taking anything away from him - I really enjoy early Human League but thats a stretch...Your homework... u might want to look into the likes of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Lennon/McCartney, Ulvaeus/Andersson, The Bee Gees, Elton John/Taupin, Burt Bacharach, Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell. In terms of song writing they are leaps and bounds ahead even if their songs are not your thing and musicianship....they could not even play when they did some of my favourite stuff (ie Empire State Human) - the average session musician or cruise ship horn player has more music skill and knowledge and by a large margin.... again not taking anything away you dont have to be a great musician to be an awesome act... Vince Clarke (hero of mine) could write some great tunes but was never much good as a keyboardist for instance...
Philip Oakey was gorgeous in this video clip.I have been in love with him in many years.I have been a fan of The Human League 1995-1998 and 2012-present.
as an Australian, this clip has made me laugh on the floor in fits. i CANNOT believe theyre having TEA while PHIL OAKEY, one of the most avant-garde ppl i can remember, is on. crazy
What a fantasic video. Phil trying not to utter his distain for new music sampling technology while visibly showing his utter distain in his body language!
Phil Oakey..Love that bloke..well answered questions too..Human League..legends! Interviewees dull. Electric Dremas is such a magical song too..I misss the Human Laegue and what happened to the girl with the blonde swoop?
Jesus Christ - poor Phil. Remains charismatic even in a studio filled with a few windbags. he oozes charisma. Drinking cups of tea in the background - that shit is hilarious
LOL his expression after the interviewer said "take it you wouldnt dream of taking a machine like this on stage with you when you are doing a live performance" is priceless!!!!! I couldn't stop laughing.
0:49 Well I do agree with Phillip in a way. But I have to say that back in the Punk era, there were a lot of bands that had barely any musical experience that made some great music. Oh and 2:00 is my favorite part, lol
There are still brekkie /news presenters around now who are as thick as Angela Rippon but I excuse her as very few people understood anything about synths/computers back then. Phil Oakey as ever is being a really nice guy in spite of these fools on this weird show.
I've never heard of Angela (big suprise, I'm American! LOL) but I actually like her! She seems a very bubbly, very cool woman. I like her interviewing style. The mix of her and Phil and how he was responding to what she was saying to the camera was pretty interesting and funny. LOL
you couldnt stage this any better , hahahahhaa its just so funny , poor Phil bet he just thought beam me up Scotty. Nice cup of tea , while Ray hammond has been playing with his incredable Emulator hhahaha thanks for the post
No Emulator(to my knowledge) on the Blade Runner soundtrack. The main instrument used was the Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer. You'll also hear Roland VP-330 Vocoder Plus' strings and choir sounds.
God Were People Really That UnOpen To New Things Phil Was Totally UnImpressed there! At Least The Middle Aged Emulator Guy Stepped In and Corrected Them. I Liked It When She Said 'So When You GO On a Live Show and you Don't Take One Of These On How Do You Cope' And Phils Body Language and What He Said In Reply 'We Do?!' Just Summed It Up. I Couldn't Believe How Closed Minded People Were!!!
I suspect Phil was talking about AFTER Ian and Martyn left, when the Human League was just him, Philip Adrian Wright plus Joanne and Susan. None of them were musicians, and it was only when Jo Callis and Ian Burden were brought in that the songs for Dare were written. It's those songs that are still being played today along with all material since that were written by the League mk2. One listen to 'Secrets' shows just how good they still are at writing great pop songs :-)
Hard to believe that was nearly 30 years ago and an Emulator cost then around £8K I recall... Which was peanuts compared to the cost of a Synclavier or Fairlight. Phil eroneously suggests that the Bladerunner soundtrack was entirely produced using an Emulator when in fact it was Vangelis using amongst predominantly, a Yamah CS80. But don't hold that against him, he talks a lot of sense.
Interesting when Phil Oakey criticizes ex-members Martyn Ware and Ian Marsh by saying "For 2 years.. we never really got anywhere." ...After the big fight between Oakey and his ex-bandmates, Ware and Marsh already left and formed Heaven 17.
In fairness, feelings were very raw between the two camps at that time. I doubt that Ian and Martyn were particularly flattering about Phil at the time either. It was a very wise move by Martin Rushent (producer of Dare) to get the Human League out of Sheffield for the recording sessions. Of course, any tension between the two bands is long forgotten, they were reconciled years ago.
That was Angela Rippon : the first ever female newsreader. Don't suppose she realised that she was in the presence of a future legend! How cringy when she referred to him as Phil Oakley. Two things wrong there : 1. He apparently prefers the full name of Philip and 2. There's no L in his surname!!!
very different times - a great big box like that would've seemed so silly compared to real instruments. You can't really blame them, it's new technology.
Phil looks like he's thinking "Why am I here?!" And no, ecoplastico, he's not gay; any bio about the League will tell you he dated both the girls (not at the same time, obviously). He's just a staight guy who looked good in makeup!
Its as if he and Robert Smith were brothers. They look similar, the Human League music could sound similar to The Cure's sometimes and they both wore makeup, lol.
Probably stripped by Dm as well , did you know the art of noise famous drum on beatbox came from rusty egan smashing doors at trident studios , they were used on visage beatboy when the album was ready in 83 but released a year later
Angela Rippon comes across as ridiculously twee in this interview and sounds like someone's granny instead of the late 30s something that she actually was. Poor Philip Oakey having to be subjected to that, I bet he couldn't wait to get out of there.
Just to clarify : Angela Rippon is still on tv today, co-hosting a program called, 'rip-off Britain' : she was actually the first female national newsreader in the UK. I don't think she is actually as pompous as she appeared in this video! ;0)
same principles just different media... USB2.0 sticks, smart media... etc... but yeah take your point... I was doing the same with my C64 cassette deck at the time ;-)
a single great individual stylist [phil],surrounded by excellent examples of english national style [without which,england/english would be just a bunch of usa-american wannabes!]
Why the fuck is everyone standing around drinking tea ? I feel for Phil its' like he has gone to an old peoples home and has been forced to here shit off pensioners who just waffle on a load of crap. If i was Phil i would have got up and said " Fuck this im going down the pub "
I do know I live in Birmingham, England have done all my life and been to Sheffield aswell which is where Phil Oakley lives to this day that's where The Human League came from. It is typical tacky English 80'S TV. Angela Ripon is a snobby arrogant cow she thinks she knows everything
Angela Rippon is a pain in the arse in this! It felt like she was trying to belittle Phil, you can see he wasn't happy to be there by his body language. Poor bloke was surrounded by ignorance.
Poor Phil; he deserves a medal in the category of "ability to control oneself from going postal in the presence of fools" lol. He definitely suffers fools badly haha. Such an insult to his intelligence; he could barely get a word in edgeways here with those posh nobs twittering away, although some of what the guy in the Christmas jumper with the beard said was true actually.
As a helicopter was just about to land at the TVS Southampton Studios the security guard stop our car and said you have to wait a minute as there is a helicopter due to land. 15 minutes we sat there before my father asked how much longer do we have to wait. Security guards reply in an excited voice was, you may be lucky.enough to see Ann Diamond.when the helicopter lands My father reply I wouldn't step out side my front door to see Ann Diamond. One security guard shoot down in flames..
