Joanne Catherall
| Joanne Catherall | |
|---|---|
In concert with The Human League at Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands in April 2011
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| Background information | |
| Born | 18 September 1962 |
| Origin | Sheffield, England |
| Genres | Synthpop |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Virgin Records, A&M, EastWest, Papillon, Wall of Sound |
| Associated acts | The Human League |
Joanne Catherall (born 18 September 1962) is one of the two female vocalists of the English synthpop band The Human League.
In October 1980, Catherall was an unknown 18-year-old school girl when she and her best friend Susan Ann Sulley were discovered in Sheffield's Crazy Daisy Nightclub by Philip Oakey, the lead singer and a founder member of The Human League. At short notice she and Sulley were invited to join the band's European tour that was in crisis after the original group had split. The pair then joined Oakey in forming a new and commercially successful line-up of The Human League, in turn making an international pop star of Catherall.
Catherall has remained in the band ever since, working constantly over the next 30 years. Today, she is a joint business partner in the band, which continues to record and tour.
In Sheffield in mid 1980, Catherall was a school friend of the slightly younger Susan Ann Sulley. Both girls were 17 years old and attended Sheffield's Frecheville Comprehensive School. One Wednesday night in late October, Catherall (who had just turned 18) and Sulley went out together to the futurist Crazy Daisy Nightclub in Sheffield city centre to dance and socialise.
Philip Oakey, the lead singer of the alternative, but relatively unknown electronic band The Human League, was also out in Sheffield that night. 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, 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 that 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.
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