discovery all the sweeter. The fun was part and parcel of the cultural fight.

Oakey will see your‘ 80s revival and go you one better. Growing weary of the modern sounds broadcast on his local BBC radio stations, he’ s retreated a few centuries back to nothing but classical music.“ Obviously, all synth guys like Bach,” he says.“ And everything all around that era— Bach, Monteverdi, Handel, and some of that stuff. Maybe not Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, where it’ s a little bit much. But I like choral music— I love hearing people sing who are really good at singing, and I try to sing along. But I can not do. it. I listen to‘ The Messiah,’ and I go,‘ How did they DO that?’ And the Christmas oratorios! Bach’ s‘ Christmas Oratorio’ is one of my favorites.” But mainly, the sonorous-toned singer is looking forward to the like-minded stage team-up with Moyet and Soft Cell’ s frontman, Marc Almond. He’ s not touting any new material— just a time-tested repertoire of chestnuts, many of which have taken on new, almost political gravity, like“ The Lebanon,” an area which— at this writing

— is being mercilessly bombed by Israel in an ongoing war with Iran. Humbly, Oakey cites Almond as owning“ the most touching voice of our generation, which means I simply love to see Marc onstage. And beyond( Soft Cell’ s) huge dance anthems, they reinvigorated the torch song for the synth generation. So I will. Never hear“ Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” without a lump in my throat. And since the first days of Yazoo, I’ ve adored Alison Moyet— from being the voice of one of the foundation bands of synth-pop to her thrilling solo work, I could only ever hear her in awe.” And catching all three stellar outfits in one sprawling summer concert? Who could ask for a better pick-me-up tonic for dark, depressing times? Oakey paused long enough for a pre-“ Generations” chat recently ….

IE: How, as a kid, did you first discover that you could sing? Or think,“ Hey! I’ ve kinda GOT something here”? PHILIP OAKEY: Well, no— I never thought that! I thought I COULDN’ T sing! And you know, I think I struggled for 20 or 30 years. And finally, they have improved in-ear monitoring, and I. Can hear myself, and now I’ m quite often in tune. But I am not a confident singer.

IE: You’ ve often recalled that your very first comprehensive Human League tours were“ shit.” You actually thought they were terrible? PO: Well, I just don’ t think we were very good. Because we came out of punk, we were too rebellious. We thought that it was

The Human League circa 1986

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