Susan Ann Sulley (born 22 March 1963), formerly known as Susanne Sulley and Susan Ann Gayle, is an English singer who is one of the two female vocalists in the
synth-pop band
The Human League
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...
.
Born and raised in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, England, as a schoolgirl in 1980, Sulley (aged 17) and her friend
Joanne Catherall
Joanne Catherall (born 18 September 1962) is an English singer who is one of two female vocalists in the English synth-pop band The Human League.
In 1980, Catherall was a 17-year-old school girl when she and her best friend Susan Ann Sulley ...
were "discovered" in the
Crazy Daisy Nightclub
The Crazy Daisy Nightclub was a discothèque and dance club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England in the mid-1970s to late 1980s, located originally on the corner of York Street and High Street, Sheffield. It was known as The Beer Keller in t ...
in Sheffield by
Philip Oakey
Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and cofounder of British synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, Oakey has enjoyed an e ...
, the lead singer and a founding member of The Human League. They soon were asked to provide full vocals by Oakey 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, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
, UK, on 22 March 1963. She spent all her early years in the
Gleadless
Gleadless is a suburb and parish[ A Church Near You.](_blank)
Parish Map. within the City of suburb of the city. For her final education, she attended the city's
Frecheville Comprehensive
Frecheville Comprehensive School was a secondary school located in Frecheville, South Yorkshire, England. When built, the school was in Derbyshire, but became a Sheffield city school following a boundary change in 1967. The school opened in 19 ...
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
Joanne Catherall (born 18 September 1962) is an English singer who is one of two female vocalists in the English synth-pop band The Human League.
In 1980, Catherall was a 17-year-old school girl when she and her best friend Susan Ann Sulley ...
. 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
Adrian Wright (1 July 1947 – 28 November 2015) was English Australian actor remembered for his roles in the 1970s children's television series ''Freewheelers'' and the Australian serial ''Prisoner'' in which he played male nurse Neil Murray, ...
, 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 record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...
, 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
Martyn Ware (born 19 May 1956) is an English musician, composer, arranger, record producer, and music programmer. As a founding member of both the Human League and Heaven 17, Ware was partly responsible for hit songs such as "Being Boiled" and " ...
. 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.
However, the girls were 17 and 18 years old and 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 synthpop 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 best k ...
", released in November as the fourth single from the album, Sulley plays a successful actress walking out on her bitter
Svengali
Svengali () is a character in the novel ''Trilby'' which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier. Svengali is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young half-Irish girl, and makes her into a famous singer.
Definition
...
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 and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
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!
''Fascination!'' is an EP released by British synthpop band The Human League in 1983. The EP was issued as a stop-gap release in between the albums '' Dare'' (1981) and '' Hysteria'' (1984). Released in the US and Canada, it was made availab ...
'', 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
"(Keep Feeling) Fascination" is a song by British synthpop group the Human League. It was composed by Jo Callis and Philip Oakey, and produced by Martin Rushent (which would be the last song he produced for the band for seven years).
The song ...
" and "
Mirror Man", which both charted at number two in the UK. The single "
Human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
" from ''
Crash
Crash or CRASH may refer to:
Common meanings
* Collision, an impact between two or more objects
* Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond
* Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating
* Couch su ...
'' 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'' going Gold.
Like Catherall before her, Sulley had a relationship with Oakey.
"One Man in My Heart"
In 1995, the ''
Octopus'' 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 derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
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 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' 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
![Susan Ann Sulley - Clapham 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Susan_Ann_Sulley_-_Clapham_2.jpg)
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
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...
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 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 girl group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spice. Wi ...
of
The Spice Girls
The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and ...
has stated that it was Sulley who inspired her to enter pop music.
Film and television
* 1999 "Hunting Venus" (Buffalo Films, D.
Martin Clunes
Alexander Martin Clunes Order of the British Empire, OBE Deputy Lieutenant, DL (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, comedian, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV (TV network), IT ...
) – Herself
* 2007
VH1 – Presenter
Professional name chronology
Although her
birth name
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth r ...
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
The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...
– (as 'The Human League') – 'Best British Breakthrough Act'
* 2004 Q Awards
The Q Awards were the UK's annual music awards run by the music magazine '' Q''. Since they began in 1990, the Q Awards became one of Britain's biggest and best publicised music awards. Locations for the awards ceremony included Abbey Road Studios ...
– (as 'The Human League') – 'The Q Innovation in Sound Award'
* Nominated for Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
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
English women singers
Women new wave singers
Living people
British synth-pop new wave musicians
Musicians from Sheffield
The Human League members
English women in electronic music