Human League, The

DJWerkz, May 28, 2002

Continuing from Mr. Tech above...Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware after leaving Oakey and Wright formed B.E.F., or, The British Electric Foundation.
If you have the Japanese import of the Holiday 80 EP on 12" vinyl, it has a large picture label of the original Human League, Oakey, Wright, Marsh and Ware.
B.E.F. issued an album on cassette tape only called Music for Stowaways for their first release, this was totally instrumental, and this is where the classic We Dont Need This (Fascist Groove Thang) first appeared as an instrumental. Next came a vinyl version of this album but with a minor track change, A Baby Called Billy (some dispute still rages as to whether this has any reference to Billy Mackenzie of the Associates who later recorded three tracks with Marsh and Ware under the B.E.F. moniker), featured on the vinyl version only. The vinyl record was sought after at the time as it was marketed for export only, but I remember seeing loads of these at the time. B.E.F. later produced two compilation albums, nine years apart I might add, with various guest vocalists appearing. The first early 80s album was more in tune with the 80s sound, but the early 90s album seemed to be hinting towards that Level 42 type Funk Fusion sound. All great stuff though. The first compilation album was also released as a 7" box set, which is a very nice collectors piece.
I have just burned a very nice CD-R with complete original artwork of the first Music for... releases which include all the early tracks.
On a final note, March and Ware also produced some songs for solo members of the 80s dance troup, Hot Gossip. Most of these seem to be early Human League covers, such as, I Dont Depend on You (originally recorded by The Men, but was the first Human League line-up). These productions along with many others can easily be found on ebay and www.Netsounds.com

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