THE HUMAN LEAGUE TOUR DATES 05.07.2025 - Llangollen Pavilion TOM BAILEY TOUR DATES 05 JULY Brit Fest- Ashley Hall Showground, Altrincham, UK
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Summer is off to a great start in the East Midlands!
As part of our extended weekend excursion to the UK, we couldn’t help but find our way up to Derby (approx. 45-50min. NE of Birmingham) to see the beginning show of their Derby Summer Sessions series of concerts, starring The Human League, Tom Bailey (ex-Thompson Twins), and Blancmange (sponsored by TK Maxx as it’s known over there for legal reasons, not TJ Maxx).
The Summer Sessions concerts are in their successful second year and play other similar size towns; but this year in Derby, most shows have been pulled inside into the city’s brand-new event venue, Vaillant Live, instead of being held outdoors in Markeaton Park under a big circus-style tent. The 207-acre park was ideal for many, and they expressed their displeasure about the move, but Vaillant Live is an impressive venue on its own.
Located on Colyear Street, near the end of their pedestrian city centre area (which explains my difficulty in locating it), it’s a state-of-the-art 3500-capacity venue with an open floor, large back balcony, and smaller side balconies.
The multi-purpose £46m structure already has concerts, comedians, family and sporting events on its calendar, so should remain busy and fills a need for a concert venue in town, since the Assembly Rooms had a fire there over a decade ago, and have yet to rebound.
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The evening began with a short set from Blancmange, an underrated (at least in the US) synth-pop band from London composed of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe who scored four Top 20 songs over three albums in the 80s.
After breaking up in 1986, they reformed and released 2011’s Blanc Burn, only to have Luscombe need to retire for health reasons, but with Arthur (who has been very prolific in recent years) continuing with a different and often experimental sound.
The setlist concentrated of course, on the 80’s-era material, including their biggest hit, the middle eastern-inspired “Living on the Ceiling” and two other UK top ten singles, “Blind Vision” and “Don’t Tell Me”.
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Still in his late 60s, Tom Bailey is enjoying a bit of a rebirth over the last decade, having made his biggest success leading The Thompson Twins from the late 70s to the early 90s. After a hiatus, he returned to live stages in 2014, and has been playing live consistently, releasing a solo album, Science Fiction, in 2018.
Bailey and his all-female band emerged all dressed in white, and began their 48-minute set with Thompson Twins’ first top 10 single, 1983’s “Love on Your Side”, then shifted the music thirty-five years forward with the title track to his recent solo album. “Shall we have some fun?” Bailey remarked with the harmonica intro of The Thompson’s “You Take Me Up” signaling the hit song.
Bailey’s voice still resonates and the three-piece band (aka The Sisters of Mercy- Charlotte Raven- keyboards and cello; Paulina Szczepaniak– drums; Alice Offley- bass / backing vocals) were musically spot-on all night and fun to watch.
They even worked in a natty Talking Heads cover before ending their night with the Thompsons’ biggest hit on both sides of the pond– “Hold Me Now.” We’re so glad Bailey is back performing and though he eluded us a few times in the recent past, it was worth the wait finally see him live.
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Like Bailey and the Thompsons, The Human League is also from the steel workingman’s town of Sheffield (along with the likes of Def Leppard, Arctic Monkeys, and Pulp among others) and whose influence is well respected and renown in the UK and Europe. The US, though, mostly thinks of them as a two (maybe three) hit pop wonder – how wrong we were on this side of the pond.
The band began with a more experimental sound in 1977, eventually solidifying their lineup and sound on the 1981 album, “Dare”, which yielded them four hit singles and a Brit Award the following year.
Amazingly, the core lineup of founder Philip Oakey and singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley remains intact and still clearly enjoys performing, making several costume changes, and thrilling audiences.
The band has continued releasing albums, compilations, and live releases with regularity and counts the likes of Moby and Pet Shop Boys as acknowledging them as an influence. The band has been covered and sampled by everyone from George Michael and Robbie Williams to LCD Soundsystem, and more.
Their seventy-four-minute headlining set barely took a breath, except in the form of extended instrumentals so the trio could change outfits, and lesser-known songs (in the States) like “Mirror Man” and “Heart Like a Wheel” instantly became familiar once played. Their backing band, fully lit stage, and enhanced screen graphics all combined for a mesmerizing and truly enjoyable performance.
2001’s “All I Ever Wanted” is filled with vocoder and keytar, set to a throbbing electro beat, but hardly sounds dated, and Oakey donned a long black coat on the still-political and charged “The Lebanon” from their fourth album, 1984’s Hysteria (hey, did Def Lep nick that title a few years later!?).
Sulley took the lead for the 1995 ballad, “One Man in My Heart” (I’m seeing a lot of “heart” in their song titles), Oakey mentioned the band hadn’t played Derby since 1982 (!!), and called out their former guitarist, Jo Callis, as well as Jyoti Mishra aka White Town, in the crowd watching (anyone remember 1996’s “Your Woman,” also sampled in Dua Lipa’s “Love Again”).
The band ended the main set with the one-two punch of their biggest hits, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and “Don’t You Want Me”, the latter of which found the crowd singing the first verse and chorus back to the band in full voice, before they could even approach a mic.
The encore began with a real chestnut- 1978’s “Being Boiled”, their debut single which established them as a name on the UK electro scene, though with a much darker theme and a slicing synth sound. “Together in Electric Dreams” from 1985 would end the evening, the title track from a poorly received film, but important in that Oakey collaborated with famed musician/composer Georgio Moroder on, for a joyous and positive anthem that was ideal to send everyone home with.
A trip across the pond to be taken back in time forty years, courtesy of The Human League, Tom Bailey, and Blancmange, turned out to be even better and more fun than expected, and well worth the journey to hear these songs of yesteryear played live once more (and was better than any fireworks on the 4th!).
THE HUMAN LEAGUE at Vaillant Live, Derby UK (2025-07-04)
THE HUMAN LEAGUE at Vaillant Live, Derby UK (2025-07-04)
THE HUMAN LEAGUE at Vaillant Live, Derby UK (2025-07-04)
TOM BAILEY (Thompson Twins) at Vaillant Live, Derby UK (2025-07-04)
TOM BAILEY (Thompson Twins) at Vaillant Live, Derby UK (2025-07-04)
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| John C ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥X / twitter.com ♥ bsky.ap |
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