Susan Ann Sulley
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Susan Ann Sulley (born 22 March 1963), formerly known as Susanne Sulley and Susan Ann Gayle, is an English singer. She is one of the two female vocalists in the
synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...
band
the Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic music, electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their t ...
, contributing co-lead vocals on the conflicting duet "
Don't You Want Me "Don't You Want Me" is a song by British synth-pop group the Human League (credited on the cover as the Human League 100). It was released on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from their third studio album, '' Dare'' (1981). The band's be ...
" with the band's founding member and lead singer Philip Oakey. Born and raised in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
, England, Sulley was, with friend Joanne Catherall, discovered while schoolgirls aged 17 as customers in the Crazy Daisy Nightclub in Sheffield by Oakey. He soon asked them to provide full vocals as an experiment. Sulley is a joint business partner in the band, which still records and performs. The Human League has dominated Sulley's life: she has been a singer all her adult life and has never had any other full-time job. She explains: "Joanne and I weren't ambitious; we didn't want to be in a pop group. We were just two girls at school who wanted to go to university."


Early life and education

Sulley was born in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
, UK, on 22 March 1963. She spent all her early years in the Gleadless suburb of the city. For her final education, she attended the city's Frecheville Comprehensive School from the late 1970s until mid-1981. Her best friend from the age of 13 was fellow lifelong Sheffield resident and Frecheville student Joanne Catherall. By early 1981, she was calling herself 'Susanne Sulley', a familiar amalgamation of her two first names, a nickname by which she had been casually known at school. Whilst still at school in 1980, she had a part-time job in a Sheffield hairdressing salon and a casual summer job selling ice cream at a Sheffield cinema, the only jobs she has had in her life apart from music.


Sheffield 1980 and "''The Crazy Daisy''"

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 Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...
, Oakey had to recruit new band members in a matter of days for the tour or be sued by the tour's promoters, face bankruptcy, and see the end of the band. Oakey went into Sheffield one evening to recruit a single female backing singer for the tour, needed to replace the original high backing vocals of the now departed Martyn Ware. He immediately noticed Catherall and Sulley dancing together in the Crazy Daisy and now states that they stood out from all the other girls in the club due to their unique dress sense, immaculate make-up, and idiosyncratic but sophisticated dance moves. Without preamble, Oakey asked both girls to join the tour as dancers and incidental vocalists. Catherall now states that she knew 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 Doncaster leg of their tour. Catherall and Sulley agreed to the offer immediately, despite having no singing or professional dancing experience. Because the girls were 17 and 18 years old, the final decision regarding going on the tour lay with their parents. The parents of both the girls 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. Catherall and Sulley's school also agreed to the absence, as it was thought visiting Europe would be educational. The first European tour of the Human League got underway with the two young recruits assigned to dancing and incidental vocal duties. 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 fans had bought tickets for the original all male line-up. Catherall recalls dodging several beer cans thrown at her during the tour and was often heckled. 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 determination during the tour.


1981: ''Dare'' and "Don't You Want Me"

The group recorded '' Dare'', their most commercially successful album to date, in 1981. The release of the album also coincided with a steep rise in the use of music videos and the launch of MTV. In the video for "
Don't You Want Me "Don't You Want Me" is a song by British synth-pop group the Human League (credited on the cover as the Human League 100). It was released on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from their third studio album, '' Dare'' (1981). The band's be ...
", released in November as the fourth single from the album, Sulley plays a successful actress walking out on her bitter Svengali lover (played by Oakey), who laments her success and departure. Set on a "film shoot" on a wet winter night, Sulley sings directly to the camera whilst walking through the atmospheric set, immaculately made up and wearing a distinctive trench coat. The single, aided by the classic video, was a commercial breakthrough for the group, going to number one in the charts in both the UK and the US. Sulley was still at school when ''Dare'' was recorded and often jokes that she "has never had a proper job in her life".
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
18 November 1995


The remaining 1980s

The international stardom that ''Dare'' brought was short-lived. The group took three years to release their next full album, 1984's '' Hysteria''. A stop-gap EP, '' Fascination!'', was issued in America in 1983. From these releases, the group had a number of top-ten singles in the UK and the US, including " (Keep Feeling) Fascination" and " Mirror Man", which both charted at number two in the UK. The single "
Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
" from '' Crash'' was the group's last real commercial success of the decade, charting at number one in the US and number eight in the UK. From then, the group's mainstream popularity plunged, with subsequent releases not even breaking the top forty. It also was about 1986 that she stopped calling herself Susanne, opting for the more formal Susan. The mid-to-late 1980s were not a particularly happy time for Sulley, as she had to deal with the personal problems unexpected international fame brought her. Also, internal disputes and pressure to produce more hits caused conflict, and eventually splits, within the Human League. When asked in late 1995 to describe that period, Sulley said: "I hated the 1980s; it was horrible… absolutely all of it."


The 1990s

In 1990, the band released their last album for Virgin Records, '' Romantic?'', which included the minor hit single "Heart Like a Wheel". The ''Romantic?'' album did not re-capture the group's huge commercial success of 1981; with the album's second single "Soundtrack for a Generation" flopping, Virgin chose not to renew the band's recording contract. During the recording of ''Romantic?'', Sulley suffered the first of two nervous breakdowns, exacerbated by a disastrous short-lived marriage. Although disheartened, the group remained together and persevered with new material. The Human League made a surprise comeback in 1994, now signed to East West Records, with the single "Tell Me When" giving them their first major hit since 1986's "Human" and the accompanying album ''
Octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
'' going Gold. Like Catherall before her, Sulley had a relationship with Oakey.


"One Man in My Heart"

In 1995, the ''
Octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
'' album gave the UK another hit single with " One Man in My Heart". This provided Sulley her highest public profile in the band's history. The song was a
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
sung by Sulley on lead vocals, with Oakey and Catherall providing supporting vocals. The stylish accompanying video, set in a Parisian café, gave (the now 32-year-old) Sulley the best opportunity to demonstrate her considerable screen presence since "Don't You Want Me". Although only moderately successful (it reached number thirteen in the UK charts), it was described years later in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' as "one of the best love songs of the 1990s", and has been remixed and re-released a number of times since.


2000 to the present

The group regularly play to sell-out venues worldwide. In 2006, they played to an audience of 18,000 at the Hollywood Bowl, and appeared on the network US television show '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. In late 2006, the Human League completed another tour of the UK and Europe, again with many venues sold out. In a 2007 interview, Sulley stated that the main effort of the Human League in the immediate future was the recording of new material, with the possibility of a new studio album, while continuing to play live at a variety of venues both in the UK and internationally. Sulley, when asked (in 2004) to pick the highlight of her career, said: "I think it's still happening. I think the fact we're still doing it now. After all these years – I'm 41 now, and really, I shouldn't be in a pop group any more, but I am and it's still my job! I wake up in the morning and I haven't got to go to a nine-to-five. I've got this life and I'm very, very lucky!


Influence

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...
of the
Spice Girls The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ("Scary Spice"), Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They have sold over 10 ...
has stated that it was Sulley who inspired her to enter pop music.


Film and television

* 1999 '' Hunting Venus'' (Buffalo Films, D. Martin Clunes) – Herself * 2007 VH1 – Presenter


Professional name chronology

Although her
birth name The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
is Susan Ann Sulley, she has been known professionally by a number of variants throughout her career; the table below shows the chronology. Because she rarely corrects journalists using an incorrect name, it is possible to find any of these currently in use in the media.Online Biography
, www.susanne-sulley.net
Note: Her middle name can be spelled either ''Ann'' or ''Anne'' by the media and is only used professionally


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' * Nominated for
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in 1982 for ''Best International Act'' (as 'the Human League')


Further reading

* ''Story of a Band Called "The Human League"'' by Alaska Ross (Proteus July 1982)


External links

*
Interview, The Independent 04/07/2010


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sulley, Susan Ann 1963 births British women new wave singers English women rock singers English new wave singers Living people English synth-pop new wave musicians Musicians from Sheffield The Human League members English women in electronic music