Homelands Hire The Human League

British dance festival Homelands moved to distance themselves further from "the superclubbing phenomena' this week, in a press release announcing the addition of The Human League and The Bravery to this year's line-up.

"The old formula of dance festivals doesn't work any more," Homelands chief Darren Hughes declared.

"What's exciting is the extremes between the acts we're bringing and with the addition of The Bravery and The Human League only goes to prove the point. This isn't solely a dance music event anymore it's a real festival," he insisted. "The festival is a true representation of what's going on in clubland."

Despite pioneering synth-pop and selling millions of albums in the process, The Human League experienced mixed fortunes in recent years, despite the career renaissance they enjoyed via electroclash. Chatting to Skrufff in 2001, singer Joanne Catherall (the brunette) admitted that despite all their success they'd virtually run out of money.

"We are not financially secure in the slightest, at least Susan and me aren't," said Joanne.

"Obviously we made a lot of money with the success of "Dare', but we also lost a lot of money recording "Hysteria' and since then we've been on a financial rollercoaster, having enough money to survive but going through months with virtually no money coming through," she explained. "Fortunately we have bypassed signing on the dole yet, but we manage, we survive."

Their parlous finances also meant they ended up performing at events such as School Disco's outdoor festival on Clapham Common two years ago, frontman Phil Oakey told Skrufff at the time.

"I didn't like it and I didn't want to do it. It was a case of owing the organisers a favour, which would have resulted in court action if we had pulled out," said Phil. "I don't really approve of school discos. I think they're naff," he added.

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