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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD record for Virgin Records (originally for Virgin's DinDisc subsidiary).
The group was founded by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, and they formed the core of the outfit until 1989, when the group split. McCluskey then retained the name and continued to record and tour as OMD with a new line-up.
In late December 2005, OMD's official website announced a 2006 reformation, for both live performances and a new album, with rehearsals beginning in summer 2006.
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Encyclopedia
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD record for Virgin Records (originally for Virgin's DinDisc subsidiary).
The group was founded by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, and they formed the core of the outfit until 1989, when the group split. McCluskey then retained the name and continued to record and tour as OMD with a new line-up.
In late December 2005, OMD's official website announced a 2006 reformation, for both live performances and a new album, with rehearsals beginning in summer 2006. The tour began in 2007, featuring the classic line up of McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes and Cooper. Spring 2008 saw a further tour announced for October that year.
Early history
As teenagers, Humphreys and McCluskey were involved in several unsigned Wirral Peninsula bands, including Equinox, Pegasus, and the short-lived Hitlerz Underpantz. McCluskey would usually sing and play bass guitar, whilst electronics enthusiast Humphreys initially began as a roadie, graduating to keyboards. The pair shared a love of electronic music, particularly Brian Eno and Kraftwerk. The debut performance of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was in October 1978 at Eric's Club in Liverpool. See Erics website set up 2009.
By 1978, McCluskey & Humphreys put together seven-piece (three singers, two guitarists, bassist, drummer, and keyboard player) Wirral 'supergroup' The Id, whose line-up included drummer Malcolm Holmes and McCluskey's girlfriend Julia Kneale on vocals. The group began to gig regularly in the Merseyside area, performing original material (largely written by McCluskey and Humphreys). They had quite a following on the scene, and one of their tracks ("Julia's Song") was included on a compilation record of local bands called Street to Street. Meanwhile, Humphreys & McCluskey collaborated on a side-project called VCL XI (named after a misreading of a valve from the diagram on the back cover of Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity album; the name of valve is actually written with Arabic numbers, VCL 11, and not roman numbers). This side-project allowed them to pursue their more bizarre electronic experiments, often working with tape collages, home-made kit-built synthesisers, and circuit-bent radios.
In 1978, The Id split due to the traditional musical differences. McCluskey briefly sang with electronic Wirral quartet Dalek I Love You. However, he eventually rejoined Humphreys, and their VCL XI project was renamed Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. They began to gig regularly as a duo, performing to backing tracks played from a Teac 4 track tape-recorder christened "Winston" (after the antihero of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-four). Finding themselves on the cusp of an electronic new wave in British pop-music, they released a one-off single, "Electricity", with celebrated independent label Factory Records (the single sleeve was designed by Peter Saville, whose distinctive graphics provided OMD's public image well into the mid-80s), and were then quickly snapped up by Virgin subsidiary DinDisc. The unusual graphics that feature on the sleeve were partially inspired by Andy and Paul's original musical notation style. Unable to read or write music, they adapted a series of symbols, each one representing different instruments.
In 1979 they were asked to and supported Gary Numan on his first major British tour. They were always grateful to Numan for his help and support ( he let them travel on his bus and use his trucks to transport their gear) They returned the favour some 13 years later when they asked Numan to support them on their arena tour in the mid 90s.
Classic line-up
The eponymous first album (1980) showcased the band's live set at the time, and was basically recorded by the Humphreys/McCluskey duo, although included some guest drums from Id drummer Mal Holmes, and saxophone from Wirral musician Martin Cooper. It had a simple, raw, poppy, melodic synthpop sound. DinDisc arranged for the song "Messages" to be re-recorded (produced by Gong bassist Mike Howlett) and released as a single (right) - this gave the band their first hit. Dave Hughes a founder member of Dalek I Love You who joined OMD in early 1980 featured in the "Messages" video.
A tour followed, Winston the tape recorder was augmented with live drums from Mal Holmes, and Dalek I Love You's Dave Hughes on synths. Hughes then left OMD in November 1980, replaced by Martin Cooper.
The second album Organisation (perhaps a reference to the band which preceded Kraftwerk, founded by Kraftwerk's original members Florian Schneider-Esleben and Ralf Hütter) followed later that year, recorded as a 3 piece with Humphreys, McCluskey and Holmes. It was again produced by Howlett, and saw a rather moodier, dark feel. The album spawned the huge hit single "Enola Gay", named after the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The tour for this album saw a 4-piece band line-up, with saxophonist Martin Cooper (another Dalek I Love You alum) recruited for keyboard duties. Howlett then presided over the recording of a further hit single, "Souvenir", co-written by Cooper & Humphreys. It ushered in a striking lush choral electronic sound. The song also became OMD's biggest hit to date.
1981 would see the release of what many consider OMD's magnum opus (and it was also the peak of their commercial success in the UK and Europe) - the Architecture & Morality album. The 4-piece went into the studio with Richard Mainwaring producing. Cooper then temporarily dropped out and was replaced by Mike Douglas, but this change was reversed by the time the album was released and a tour embarked upon. The album's striking sound saw OMD's original synth-pop sound augmented by the Mellotron, an instrument previously associated with prog rock bands. They used it to add very atmospheric swatches of string, choir and other sounds to their palette. Hit singles "Joan of Arc" and "Maid of Orleans" (which became the most successful single of 1982 in Germany) were taken from the album. A somewhat interesting footnote is that "Joan of Arc" and "Maid of Orleans" were originally both titled "Joan of Arc"; the name of the latter single was only changed after publishers forced OMD to re-title it "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" and later simply "Maid of Orleans".
1983 saw the band lose commercial momentum somewhat, with the release of their more experimental Dazzle Ships album, which mixed melancholy synth ballads and uptempo synthpop with musique concrete and short wave radio tape collages. It was recorded by the 4-piece Humphreys/Holmes/Cooper/McCluskey line-up, and produced by Rhett Davies.
American chart success
1984's Junk Culture was a return to a poppier sound and saw the band using digital sampling keyboards such as the Fairlight CMI and the E-mu Emulator. The album was a success, reassuring the group about their new direction. The "Locomotion" single returned the group to the top five in the UK and was a good indicator of the group's new found sound, notably the adoption of a classic verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, which is something the group had often previously avoided. In 1985 the band expanded to a sextet, featuring new band members Graham and Neil Weir (on guitar and brass, respectively), and released Crush, produced by Stephen Hague. The success of the single "So in Love" in the US Hot 100 also led to some success for the LP which entered the American Top 40, establishing the group in the US as well as making Stephen Hague a sought-after producer.
Later in 1985, the band wrote the song "If You Leave" for the John Hughes movie Pretty in Pink. The song was featured on the soundtrack and was a large hit, notably in the US and Canada where it reached the Top 5. The same six piece line-up also released The Pacific Age in 1986, but the band began to see their critical and public popularity wane in the UK while they struggled to break into the US market.
The Pacific Age contained the UK #11 hit single, (Forever) Live & Die and the noteworthy single releases, "Shame" and "We Love You". However despite these songs arriving alongside other satisfactory tracks owing to crisp production from Stephen Hague, OMD had become too commercially dependent by 1986, with many of their die-hard following from the Architecture & Morality era, dissatisfied with the group's direction.
Classic line-up split - OMD in the 90s
During 1988 the band appeared poised to consolidate their US success. But despite a support slot at Pasadena Rose Bowl with Depeche Mode, a top 20 US hit with "Dreaming" and a successful "Best of" album, OMD broke in two. Co-member Paul Humphreys was the first to depart the group in 1989 because of OMD's new-found US commercial popularity sacrificing their musical delivery. The Weirs were downgraded to auxiliary members and soon left the fold, and Humphreys, Cooper, and Holmes left OMD to form The Listening Pool.
This left only McCluskey to carry on, essentially becoming a solo artist working under the OMD banner. McCluskey's first album from the new OMD was the critically acclaimed Sugar Tax LP in 1991, which charted admirably at #3 in the UK. McCluskey recruited Liverpool musicians Lloyd Massett and Stuart Kershaw as collaborators on Sugar Tax, though not as full-fledged group members -- writing credits carefully distinguished between songs written by OMD (i.e. McCluskey) and songs written by OMD/Kershaw/Massett. This iteration of the group was initially successful with hits like "Sailing on the Seven Seas" and "Pandora's Box", with lesser success on fellow chart entries, "Call My Name" and "Then You Turn Away".
McCluskey would then work with keyboardists Nigel Ippinson and Phil Coxon for the album Liberator (1993). Liberator's 5th track "Dream Of Me" was built around a sample from "Love's Theme" by Love Unlimited Orchestra, a track which was written and produced by Barry White. In order to release the "Dream of Me" track as an OMD single, however, McCluskey had to agree that the single release of the track would remove the actual "Love's Theme" sample, but still be officially titled "Dream of Me (Based on Love's Theme)", and furthermore would still give sole writing credit to White.
McCluskey returned with a rotating cast of musicians for the 1996 album Universal. For this last album, Humphreys returned as a co-writer of a few songs, though not as a performer or group member.
Though both Liberator and Universal produced minor hits, McCluskey retired the OMD name in 1996, due to waning public interest in an 80's synth band at the height of the guitar-based Britpop era. A second singles album was released in 1998, and an EP of remixed material by such acts as Sash! and Moby.
Post-1996, McCluskey decided to focus on management and songwriting for such Liverpool based acts as Atomic Kitten and The Genie Queen. With McCluskey focusing his talents elsewhere, Humphreys decided to play many revival shows using the OMD banner, whilst also recording with Claudia Brücken, of the ZTT bands Propaganda and Act, as Onetwo.
Reformation
On 1 January 1 2006, Andy McCluskey announced plans to reform OMD with the McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes and Cooper line up. The original plan was to tour the album Architecture & Morality and other pre-1983 material, then record a new album set for release in 2007.
In May 2007, the Architecture & Morality remastered CD was re-released together with a DVD featuring the Drury Lane concert from 1981 that had previously been available on VHS.
Through May and June, the band toured with the "classic" line up of McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes and Cooper. They began their set with a re-ordered but otherwise complete restaging of the Architecture & Morality album. The second half of each concert featured a selection of their best known hits, and audience reaction was sometimes so positive (Bristol's Colston Hall, an all-seated venue, saw the crowd on its feet for the entire show) that the band seemed surprised and delighted by their applause.
Spring 2008 saw the release of a live CD and DVD of the summer 2007 tour, recorded at the London Apollo Hammersmith, along with a 25th anniversary re-release of Dazzle Ships, including six bonus tracks. At the same time, a brief October 2008 tour was announced, partly to tie-in with the Dazzle Ships album's 25th anniversary. China Crisis will be supporting OMD on this tour
Discography
Albums
Print
- There were several fanzines about the band, including Winston and the successful Telegraph, (which McCluskey was heavily involved in) that were active during the post-split period. Telegraph designed by Phillip Marsh and Paul Browne folded in 1994 after 5 issues. Marsh recently started to run the bands Myspace whilst Browne went on to run the bands website and an official magazine called Messages which is still running.
- The book Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, an unauthorised biography by Mike West, published in 1982.
- The book Messages, written by Johnny Waller and Paul Humphreys' brother Mike Humphreys, details the career of the band up to the time of The Best of OMD.
See also
External links
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