Joanne Catherall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joanne Catherall | |
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 Joanne Catherall, December 2007
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| Background information | |
| Born | September 18, 1962 |
| Origin | Sheffield, England |
| Genre(s) | Synthpop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer and Dancer |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Years active | 1980 - Present |
| Label(s) | Various |
| Associated acts | The Human League |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Synthesizer | |
Joanne Catherall (born 18 September 1962 in Sheffield) is one of the two female singers of the English synthpop band The Human League.
Born and raised in Sheffield, England. In 1980 Catherall and her friend Susanne Sulley (now known as Susan Ann Sulley) were completely unknown 17-year-old schoolgirls. They were discovered in the Crazy Daisy Nightclub by lead singer and a founder member of The Human League, Philip Oakey. The pair joined Oakey, Philip Adrian Wright, Ian Burden and Jo Callis in forming the most commercially successful line-up of The Human League making international stars of both girls. Catherall, with Sulley, has remained in the band ever since. NME has called the group "one of the best bands of all time".
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[edit] Sheffield 1980 and "The Crazy Daisy" story
In the northern British industrial city of Sheffield in mid-1980 Joanne Catherall was school friends with the slightly younger Susanne Sulley. Both girls were 17 years old and were socially unpopular in their school, Sheffield's Frecheville Comprehensive School, for their non conformist attitude and 'eccentric' dress sense. In an era of British youth culture that was only just out of the Punk phase, where rock and Ska/twotone were the dominating subcultures, Catherall and Sulley stood out as they dressed in a newer more eclectic style (which would later become known as Numanoid or New Romantic in the media (although both girls deny ever being New Romantics). One Wednesday night, like many others, they went together to the futurist Crazy Daisy Nightclub in Sheffield to dance and socialize.
Philip Oakey, the lead singer of the alternative, but relatively unknown electronic band The Human League, also set out that night. The Human League had recently split acrimoniously over creative differences, leaving only two of the original four members, Oakey and Adrian Wright, to continue. Crucially, The Human League was contracted to a European tour starting within a week. Already in debt to Virgin Records, Oakey had to recruit new band members for the tour fast or be sued by the tour's promoters and face bankruptcy and the end of The Human League. Oakey had the idea to go into Sheffield that evening to recruit a single female backing singer for the tour, needed to replace Martyn Ware's high vocals.
Later that evening by pure chance Oakey ended up in the Crazy Daisy Nightclub on York Street, Sheffield. He immediately noticed Catherall and Sulley dancing together, and now states that they stood out from the other girls due to their unique dress sense, immaculate make-up and idiosyncratic but sophisticated dance moves. Deciding that two young girls could look after each other on the tour Oakey asked both girls if they would be interested in accompanying him and Adrian Wright on the imminent European tour.
Catherall now states that she knew immediately it was a genuine offer, as Oakey was well known in Sheffield; she and Sulley already had tickets to see The Human League on the Sheffield leg of their tour. Catherall and Sulley agreed to the offer immediately.
However, with the girls being 17 years old, the final decision about their going on the tour lay with their parents. Both the girls' parents were unhappy with the idea and initially refused to give their consent. This was overturned reluctantly when Oakey, complete with his then-trademark lop-sided haircut, red lipstick and high heeled shoes visited both sets of parents to convince them that the girls would come to no harm and that "he wasn't going to sell them abroad". Catherall and Sulley's school also agreed to the absence as it was thought visiting Europe would be educational for the girls.
The first European tour of The Human League got underway with the two young recruits assigned to improvised dancing and incidental vocals. The girls at this stage were just guests in the group on a salary of £30 a week. Although the tour was a success, the crowds were largely hostile to Catherall and Sulley, as the fans had bought tickets for the original all male line up. Catherall recalls dodging several beer cans thrown at her during the tour. This initial hostility was misplaced and short-lived. During the tour Oakey had experimented with the girls singing on a number of the original tracks and was impressed with the results; he was also impressed with the girls' professionalism and style during the tour. On return to Sheffield both girls were asked to join the line-up full time.[1]
[edit] 1981 and the release of "Dare"
The tour of 1980 was not creatively groundbreaking, but sowed the seeds for further development. On return to Sheffield, Wright and Oakey set about composing and songwriting, while Catherall and Sulley returned to school full time.
The new line up (Sulley, Oakey, Catherall, and Wright) started to gain ground in early 1981 with the release of the single " Boys and Girls". Even though charting at number 48, the single was a weak effort by future Human League standards. Nevertheless it sowed the seeds of interest in the record buying population.
Soon after the lacklustre Boys and Girls came the recruitment of professional musicians Ian Burden and Jo Callis, which sharpened the band's output considerably. Although no one yet knew it, the band had arrived at its most successful evolution. The release of the next single "Sound of the Crowd" was a creative if not vastly commercial breakthrough. It was also the first single to include both girls' full vocals, rather than incidentals and 'adlibs'. Unexpectedly the single raced up the charts, causing them to be invited to play on the UK's principal music programme BBC TV's Top of The Pops with only a few hours notice. The first Catherall would know about her first appearance on UK TV would be Susanne Sulley's mother rushing to collect her and Sulley from school mid-lessons for the rapid drive down to London.
Thus the classic Human League signature sound was born, a sound that would continue for three further decades, well into the 21st Century. Deep synths, Linn drum machine, Oakey's semi sung/semi spoken word baritone vocals, and Catherall and Sulley's feminine interaction. Sound of the Crowd was a major achievement in the British charts, but was quickly bettered by the next single, "Love Action", going to number three in the UK.
By this time, video promos had become highly popular for broadcast TV. Spurred on by the pre-filmed promos and live TV appearances, the band started to refine their personal appearance styles for a commercial audience.
In October 1981, this new version of The Human League released their next album Dare. By now The Human League were in their ascendancy and were becoming extremely popular with the mainstream British public. The cutting edge sound of sequenced synths impressed music fans, while their visual style and presentation also became popular, particularly the mutually contrasting teenage girls (brunette Catherall and blonde Sulley) pulled in male fans and inspired teenage girls as the media picked up on the 'Cinderella-esque' story of the girls' recruitment into the band.
In mid November 1981, with the Human League fully in the public eye and sales of the album Dare soaring, Virgin records decided to pull one more single from Dare. Oakey had always disliked the track "Don't You Want Me" and considered it such a weak choice for a single that he fought bitterly with Virgin Record's executive Simon Draper about its use; believing that it would destroy the band's new found popularity. Oakey finally agreed on the release, with the condition that a poster of the band was included free with the single to 'bribe' fans into buying the "substandard" single..[2]
Virgin Records had more faith, they commissioned an expensive and elaborate promo video to accompany the release of "Don't You Want Me". Shot on 35mm film rather than videotape, the promo was filmed in late November 1981 in Slough, Middlesex, UK. The scenario was 'a movie shoot for a murder mystery film' and is lyrically a conflicting duet between Oakey and Sulley with backing vocals from Catherall.
Premiering in December 1981, the video was played on British television frequently. The memorable opening scene of the video has Catherall, in a fur coat standing on a rural road corner. The night is freezing, she is surrounded by swirling mist and accompanied by the deep opening synth chords. The video captured the imagination on the British public. The effects of the infectious synth sequences and emotional lyrics, as well as the cinematic production values helped to propel "Don't You Want Me" to the UK number one spot. By the end of 1981, The Human League were household names across the UK.
1981 also saw the start up of Cable TV station MTV in the U.S. This was a new station dedicated to playing music videos. However, the station was limited in that, as a relatively new media, there were relatively few music videos available. The syndication by Virgin Records of "Don't You Want Me's" promo to MTV and ensuing airplay brought The Human League to U.S. audiences. The subsequent (and admittedly) unexpected interest prompted Virgin Records to release Dare in the U.S. as "Don't You Want Me" flew up the U.S. charts to number one aided by the effective promo video.
[edit] The Remaining 1980s
In 1982, riding on the success of Dare, The Human League embarked on an ambitious and well anticipated international tour, consolidating their new position as international superstars. On completion of the tour, the group returned to the recording studios to start on the follow up to Dare. In November 1982, the Mowtown-inspired "Mirror Man" single hit the UK charts peaking at number two. Six months later, the group released the single, "(Keep Feeling) Fascination". Aided by a quirky promo video, this single also made number two in the UK and number eight in the U.S.
Following this, however, the recording sessions for their next album became fraught with tension and producer Martin Rushent departed from the project, as did later producer Chris Thomas. They were replaced by producer Hugh Padgham and the seubsequent album Hysteria was released in mid-1984, three years after Dare. Although it entered the charts at number three, the album failed to match the success of Dare and quickly dropped out of the charts.
With Oakey working on side projects, rumours the band had split were perpetuated in the press. However, in 1986, Virgin Records paired The Human League with U.S. production team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The band decamped to the USA to record. Creative tensions bugged their time out there both in the band and with the production team. Sulley and Catherall, who had fortunately absolved themselves of any creative responsibility in 1981 and were exempted from the bickering, were homesick and unhappy in the U.S. Creatively, the U.S. recordings ended in acrimony but not compete disaster.
The well received single "Human" was released in September 1986. A ballad about separation and infidelity; it would give Catherall her most prominent vocals in any Human League single. The promo video was typical of mid 80's gloss and the single peaked at number one in the U.S. and number eight in the UK. The subsequent album, Crash, emerged from the Jam and Lewis sessions, and reached number seven in the UK.
[edit] 1990s
The Human League reconvened for their 1990 album Romantic?, which Catherall contributed vocals for, but the album was not well received, only charting barely and receiving little critical support. By now The Human League consisted solely of Catherall, Philip Oakey and Susan Sulley with supporting musicians.
Then suddenly in 1992, after much acrimony, Virgin Records cancelled the band's contract. Without a recording contract for the first time in 14 years and with mounting debts following the relative failure of their most recent album, the band began to fall apart. Oakey succumbed to depression after the rejection and sought counselling. More seriously, Catherall's best friend and co-vocalist Susan Sulley had a nervous breakdown. It was during this period that Catherall, often described as the quietest member of the band, was to demonstrate her considerable strength of character. She is credited as being responsible for keeping the band together during their darkest period. [3]
The Human League recovered and were able find a new record label quickly, in the form of EastWest records. Using material rejected by Virgin and new material written by Oakey and Sutton, the band released a new studio album in 1995. Propelled by some very radio friendly singles, Octopus returned the band to the UK top 10 for the first time since the 1980s. As well as performing on UK TV music shows, various talk shows were keen to interview the band. On one occasion, during an interview of ITV's 'This Morning' host Richard Madeley made the mistake of telling viewers that the band were making an "80s comeback", prompting an irritated Catherall to firmly put him in his place stating "We've never stopped working, we've never been away!" [4].
Despite the commercial success of Octopus, history would repeat itself when in 1997 EastWest records decided to change creative direction and purged their older signings. The Human League were again let go, and the remainder of the 1990s saw the band refining their live act, playing relatively small venues. In 1997, an offer was made to the band to be part of an 80s nostalgia tour of the US with Culture Club and Howard Jones called 'The Big Rewind'. The tour was then repeated in the UK but with ABC as the opening act instead of Jones. The band who detest being called an "80s" act reluctantly agreed to take part, as Catherall would go on to say "the money was too good to turn down". The decision turned out to be blessing in disguise. This fielded further, albeit nostalgic, interest in the band. Oakey, Catherall and Sulley quickly capitalised on this and refined their set lists to include more nostalgia friendly back catalogue tracks.
On a personal front, in 1998 Joanne Catherall became a mother, the first and only member of the trio to have children.
[edit] 2000s
With renewed interest in the band's back catalogue, they were able to find yet another record label, this time Papillion Records, willing to sign them and facilitate the release of another studio album. Secrets was released in 2001 but the album was not a commercial success, not least of all due to Papillion going out of business. The disappointment of the album's failure and criticism that the band were now too old to be taken seriously again brought the band close to calling it a day. However, Catherall put this into perspective when she explained later during a TV interview for GMTV: "It's not as simple as that (disbanding); we are a business, we own studios, and we employ people who depend on us".
Although the Secrets album was not a commercial success, the live tour that accompanied it was. During the following years, The Human League have put all their effort into playing live and touring; both in the UK and world wide where their live profile has continued to grow steadily. On 23 September 2006 they filled the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles with 18,000 fans their most popular concert to date. When asked how long they intend to carry on, Catherall gave a typically blunt answer "for as long as we are filling stadiums and people still want to see us".
[edit] Today
Even though Catherall and Sulley are now in their mid 40s they are still almost always referred to as "The Human League Girls" in the media. Catherall continues to record, perform and tour with the band whilst still living in Sheffield with her family. Behind the scenes she is involved in the organisational and financial side of the business. She has also guest presented on Music TV channel VH1.
[edit] Influence
For the British Tv drama series Ashes to Ashes set in 1981, the producers stated that they had based one of the principal characters: WPC Sharon Granger (Montserrat Lombard) on the look and style of Catherall in 1981. [5]
[edit] Awards
- 1982 BRIT Awards - (as 'The Human League') - 'Best British Breakthrough Act'
- 2004 Q Awards - (as 'The Human League') - 'The Q Innovation In Sound Award'
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- ^ A Band Called The Human League, Alaska Ross 1982, ISBN 0862761034
- ^ Official Band History, Human League Media Enquiries, http://www.thehumanleague.me.uk
- ^ Human League Media Enquiries http://www.thehumanleague.me.uk
- ^ Interview with Richard Madeley, 'This Morning', UK ITV1, 1995
- ^ BBC Ashes to Ashes - Episode 1 - Shooting Script: 31/08/07 scene23[1]
[edit] External links
Joanne Catherall does not currently have a personal website, and as a matter of band policy there is no official Human League Website. A number of detailed unofficial ones exist:
- http://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/menu.htm
- http://www.humanleague.dk
- http://www.thehumanleague.net
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