Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955)[2] is an English singer-songwriter who is the frontman and co-founder of the synth-pop band The Human League.

Oakey's father worked for the General Post Office and moved jobs regularly: the family moved to Coventry when Oakey was an infant, to Leeds when he was five and to Birmingham when he was nine, attending Catherine-de-Barnes primary school near Solihull and gaining a scholarship to the independent Solihull School.

In Sheffield in 1977, Oakey's former schoolmate Martyn Ware, along with Ian Craig Marsh and Adi Newton,[7] had formed a band called the Future.

Although Oakey had little music experience, he was well known in the Sheffield social scene for his eclectic dress sense and classic motorcycle.

The new band played their first live gig at Psalter Lane Arts College in June 1978 (a blue plaque now marks the spot) and signed to Fast Records.

Despite this, the band still had no hit singles and, dogged by the lack of commercial success, Oakey and Ware's working relationship became increasingly strained.

During the autumn of 1980, on the eve of a European tour, the tension reached a breaking point and Ware departed, taking Marsh along.

Facing financial ruin with the tour promoters threatening to sue him, Oakey had less than a week to assemble a new band.

In an unplanned move, Oakey visited a Sheffield city-centre discothèque called The Crazy Daisy and recruited two teenage girls whom he saw dancing there, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall, to join the band.

In 1986, Oakey accepted an offer to work with American producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, which resulted in the release of the album Crash and the single "Human," which became another international hit and reached #1 in the U.S.

Thanks mainly to the efforts of Catherall, by 1993 Oakey and Sulley had recovered and the band signed to East West Records, followed by the release of the gold-selling album Octopus in 1995 and the hit singles "Tell Me When" and "One Man in My Heart.

After the failure of the project, Oakey lost faith in the record industry and changed the band's focus to more lucrative live work.

His first collaboration was producing the Spanish-released single "Amor Secreto" by Nick Fury in 1983 for which he also played synthesiser, together with Jo Callis.

[3] In 1990, Oakey provided guest vocals on "What Comes After Goodbye," the one-off release by the short-lived Sheffield dance band Respect.

In 2008, Oakey worked with Hiem, a band fronted by former All Seeing I lead singer David "Bozz" Boswell, for the song "2 am."

In early 2009, Oakey collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on their tenth studio album Yes, supplying vocals for the intended bonus-disc song "This Used to Be the Future."

Also in 2009, Oakey collaborated with British female synthpop artist Little Boots on her first album, Hands, recording the duet track "Symmetry.

[3] Before 1977, during the era of punk rock, Oakey adopted various styles; at one time having a crew cut, he later had collar-length hair and once appeared in a club wearing a household power lead with a plug as a necklace.

Soon after the Future transformed into The Human League, Oakey wanted a look that would make him stand out from other lead singers.

The 1980 addition of teenage schoolgirls Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall to the band complemented his look.

"[9] At the time of the 1986 Crash album, Oakey wore designer clothes and a manicured look that was inspired by Sean Young's character in the film Blade Runner.

album, Oakey wore denim and leather and readopted his lopsided hairstyle from 1981 in a rebellion against "the male model look of Crash."

When the band reunited in 1995, Oakey, approaching the age of 40, appeared with designer clothes and a suave, short, neat haircut.