大象传媒

There's a palpable feeling of excitement in the festival marquee before The Human League come onstage. The band kick off with the second single from new album Credo, 'Never Let Me Go'. It isn't the most memorable of tracks and frontman Phil Oakey letting Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall take over for most of the vocals is probably not what the audience expected. However being bored is not an option, as during this first song most people are simply straining to get a glimpse of the stage to see what the band are wearing and how they've aged since their 80s heyday. Oakey is wrapped up in leather jacket, shades and hood prompting a few audience members to vocally wonder how a person famed for having the defining haircut of the 80s copes with changing trends and modern relevance? He answers by removing his hood to reveal a shaved head. It's all a bit Matrix-esque with the sunglasses, leather and everyone onstage wearing black, framed by white keytars and a white futuristic electronic drumkit.

And it really is the future. Songs that the majority of the audience first heard over 25 years ago still manage to maintain a mystery provided by the ominous synths and foreboding voice of Oakey. The band's songwriting style has stayed consistent enough that the older and newer songs are not markedly dissonant, the only difference perhaps being the more tongue in cheek sense of humour with the blistering 'Night People' rhyming "freezers" with "cheeses". The icy 'Egomaniac' carries a sound heavier then the League's 80s pop, a sound that they shied away from at the time favouring mainstream melody, more akin to Heaven 17 in its dramatic posturing, fuller synth sounds and vague threat.

The audience enjoy it all, head bobbing motions becoming feet-tapping becoming actual dancing. Singing along is shared between new and old songs alike, voices being added to 'The Sound Of The Crowd'. When everyone is fully warmed up to the point of sweating, 'Empire State Human' moves things back to the sparse, avant-garde sound the band had in their first incarnation, before Sulley and Catherall joined. Complaining of throat problems Oakey looks strained during solo songs like this and 'Being Boiled', and by the time the girls return and 'Don't You Want Me' kicks in, he seems relieved to have the audience help him out. As Joanne sings "I still love you" she points at the audience and they howl the words back, making it an unexpectedly poignant moment.

A sweaty topless man scales the barrier to take the mic, tunelessly delighted with himself before security remove him. Oakey looks mildly disgusted at the invasion, but an encore saves the day, with 'Together in Electric Dreams' preventing the last voice we hear to be that of a half naked stranger.

Elizabeth McGeown