THE HUMAN LEAGUE - THE TAVERNER TAPE

This cassette compilation is not actually a commercial release - it was used purely as a demo tape, which the League presented to record companies in their search for a label which could offer them the financial support they needed.


The Dominion jingle is used extensively throughout the cassette (appearing after every song except You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling), and dialogue is also provided by Philip, who poses as a fictional TV presenter, 'Jason Taverner'. This name was almost certainly borrowed from Philip K Dick's novel, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, which also features a television personality named Jason Taverner.

The cassette is not actually titled the 'Taverner tape', but it has become known as this, due to these excerpts of dialogue. (For transcriptions of the dialogue, see the Avoid Those Mistakes section of this site.)

Overall, the compilation is a good representation of the group's sound at the time, mixing pop-oriented tracks (Blind Youth, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling) with instrumentals (Interface, Toyota City) and slightly darker, more leftfield songs (Again The Eye Again, The Path Of Least Resistance, Zero As A Limit). Unsurprisingly, this generated a lot of interest among the record labels in London and the League were quickly signed by Virgin Records.

All tracks written by Marsh/Oakey/Ware, except You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling (Spector/Mann/Weill) and Toyota City (The Human League)

Produced by The Human League, except *unspecified BBC engineer

Cassette not generally available

TRACKLISTING:

1. First Jason Taverner Intro
2. Blind Youth
3. Dominion Jingle
4. Interface
5. Dominion Jingle
6. Again The Eye Again
7. Dominion Jingle
8. Second Jason Taverner Intro
9. Toyota City
10. Dominion Jingle
11. Path Of Least Resistance
12. Dominion Jingle
13. Zero As A Limit
14. Dominion Jingle
15. Third Jason Taverner Intro
16. You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'


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