In May 1980, the band toured the UK. Philip Adrian Wright was now playing incidental keyboards in addition to his visuals role. It was the last time all four members performed together live. Also in May, the band released their second studio album Travelogue. More commercial-sounding than Reproduction, it peaked at No.16 in the UK, giving the band their first real success. As a result, "Empire State Human" was re-released and the band made their second appearance on Top of the Pops, even though it only reached No.62 in the singles chart.

The band has been the subject of, and appeared in, various TV documentaries and features, including Channel 4's Made in Sheffield and the BBC's Young Guns: The Bands of the Early 1980s. In June 2007, Sulley and Catherall presented a documentary on Sheffield's pop music history entitled The Nation's Music Cities for VH1. Because the imposed style had not worked, Virgin permitted the band to return to their original style and the band recorded and released their first full studio album Reproduction in August 1979. The album and the single " Empire State Human" failed to make an impact on the charts. After these flops, Virgin cancelled the band's December 1979 tour. By this time, the Human League's role as UK electronic pioneers was usurped by Gary Numan, when his single " Are 'Friends' Electric?" became a huge hit in the UK in mid-1979. [7] [ unreliable source?]Interview Philip Oakey GMTV 1995 Transcribed: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 April 2012 . Retrieved 5 November 2012. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link)

Bauder, David (20 April 1995). "League has a single effort worthy of note". Park City Daily News . Retrieved 14 October 2020. With the addition of bassist Ian Burden and former Rezillos guitarist Jo Callis, the all-new League made one of the greatest albums of all time , ‘Dare’, a ten-song suite of shimmering, intelligent original electronic pop, punctuated by the singles ‘Sound Of The Crowd’, ‘Open Your Heart’, ‘Love Action’ and, of course, ‘Don’t You Want Me’, an immortal pop classic which no petrol advert can taint. Their renewed success prompted the band to tour again for the first time since 1987, and they conducted a tour of the US and UK in 1995. Subsequent singles " Filling Up with Heaven" and the non-album single " Stay with Me Tonight" also reached the UK Top 40, and a new remix of "Don't You Want Me" was released to capitalise on the band's revitalised profile. This was in the run up to a new "greatest hits" compilation in 1996, but which proved less successful than their first "Greatest Hits" album from 1988.Capitalising on the success of the album and their recent No.1 hit single, " Being Boiled" was re-released and became a Top 10 hit in early 1982. The band toured for the first time together internationally. Concurrently, Dare (later renamed Dare!) was released in the US by A&M Records and "Don't You Want Me" also reached No.1 there in the summer of 1982. A remix album of Dare entitled Love and Dancing was released under the group name " The League Unlimited Orchestra" (a tribute to Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra), reaching No.3 on the UK album chart. This is one reason why the show you will see tonight differs from so many of the 80’s nostalgia tours currently doing the rounds. The Human League – who were never about youth revolt, and therefore do not find themselves embarrassed by singing their older songs today – see what they do, making adult, quality electronic pop, as an ongoing project. Without a doubt, these songs will stir memories and associations within you: that’s what great pop music DOES. But the band themselves are mercifully untouched by retro cheesiness, and always keenly aware of the musical climate, last time I saw Philip I happened to be carrying a copy of ‘Dare’, and he told me I ought to be listening to Ladytron and the Alpinestars instead. Kilgo, John (3 March 1995). "Mainstream: Music Meeting" (PDF). The Network Forty. p.18 . Retrieved 2 April 2020. Listinn Topp 40 (18.02.1995 – 25.02.1995)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 18 February 1995. p.24 . Retrieved 1 February 2018. The next single from the album was the ballad " One Man in My Heart", which features Sulley on lead vocals. It reached No.13 in the UK and was unique in that it was the only single by the Human League to feature a female only lead vocal until "Never Let Me Go" in 2011.

At the end of 2012, the band undertook the 'XXXV Tour' across Europe and the UK to celebrate 35 years in existence. The shows were critically acclaimed. The UK's Daily Telegraph said "as good a night's entertainment as you are likely to find anywhere on the planet". [41] Susan Sulley said that the rejection of Secrets was "the lowest the band had been since 1992 and, after putting in so much time and effort in to an album that then failed, nearly causing them to call it a day." [31] Don’t You Want Me’, a clever duet between Oakey and Sulley, examining the death of a love affair from both perspectives, was a song the band never wanted to release as a single, but it became the biggest selling single of 1981, and proved that the best Christmas Number Ones are the ones which aren’t about Christmas at all and, if this year’s chart topper can even come close, it really will be a seasonal miracle.The Human League were one of the headline acts in the line-up at Spillers Wharf on 30 May 2009, in the Newcastle/Gateshead Evolution festival, and were one of the headline bands for Dubai's first music festival, the 'Dubai Sound City' festival, between 5 and 7 November 2009. Together In Electric Dreams’(Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder cover) (found on 1985 ‘Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder’ album) The band's first single under Virgin Records was the disco influenced " I Don't Depend on You", released in July 1979 under the pseudonym " The Men". The single did not chart and had very little in common with the previous work of the Human League. It did, however, feature female vocals by guests Lisa (Liza) Strike and Katie Kissoon, sounding like the yet-to-be-formed future Human League of 1981. [12] The final result of the sessions was the Crash album. The album featured much material written by the Jam and Lewis team, and showcased their Yamaha DX7-led sound. It had a US No.1 single, " Human" (No.8 in the UK), but other singles performed relatively poorly. The album, while making the Top 10 in the UK, was not as popular as previous releases. Disheartened by being sidelined in Minneapolis and with the direction the band had taken, Adrian Wright left the band to work in film. Crash was generally more popular in the US and internationally than in the UK. The band toured in the UK and internationally in 1986 and 1987 to capitalise on their high-profile at this time.