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I finally bought a copy of 'Rip It Up And Start Again' the book by Simon Reynolds which tells what happened after punk rock. Post-punk, as the Music Genre Board officially designated it in 1980, was what happened. RIUASA is a great book, which is accompanied by a great compilation CD of the same name. It came out five years ago and I should have bought it then but I didn't. Then last week I saw it in Dragon records in Belfast for £8 second hand, which always makes a book more attractive to me. Among the stories of Pere Ubu, The Slits, Orange Juice , Specials, and a whole lot more, Simon also writes about Sheffield and the Human League. I have to own up to being an index trawler when I see a music book, looking under 'U' for my own wee band but I didn't expect us to feature in a book about post punk. But there, between Ultravox and Underwood, Simon, is Undertones, The. We're in the chapter about The Human League. It seems we were the baddies who "took the piss" out of them just as their "Travelogue" LP was released. (This was before "Dare", the LP which eased their financial problems.)
Fair enough, in My Perfect Cousin we did have the line
'His mother bought him a synthesiser, got the Human League in to advise her"
but it was only because they were the only synth band we knew whose name fitted. I didn't mean any harm, your honour. It was a joke. Sorry, OK ?

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