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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) were a synth pop group from the Wirral, UK, who recorded 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 planned line up will feature the original 1980's members. Recently however, the planned Architecture & Morality tour for late 2006 was postponed until the beginning of next year.
Early history
As teenagers, Humphreys and McCluskey were involved in several unsigned Wirral 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.
By 1977, 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 & 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 valve from the diagram on the cover of Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity album), where they pursued 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 Revox tape-recorder they 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.
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. A tour followed, Winston the tape recorder being ditched for good, and replaced with live drums from Mal Holmes, and Dalek I Love You's Dave Hughes on synths.
The second album Organisation (perhaps a reference to the band which preceded Kraftwerk, founded by Krafwerk'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.
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 dropping out and being replaced by Mike Douglas, but this changed being 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 retitle 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 'difficult' Dazzle Ships albums, which mixed melancholy synth ballads and uptempo synth pop with musique concrete and short wave radio tape collages. It was recorded by the 4-piece Humpreys/Holmes/Cooper/Mcluskey line-up, and produced by Rhett Davies.
1984's Junk Culture saw a return to a more poppy 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. In 1985, the band released Crush, featuring Graham and Neil Weir (on guitar and brass) and produced by Stephen Hague. 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. 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.
Classic line-up split
In 1988 OMD broke in two. Humpreys, Cooper, and Holmes left to form The Listening Pool, while McCluskey recruited Liverpool musicians Lloyd Massett and Stuart Kershaw and continued under the OMD moniker. Initially successful with hits like "Sailing on the Seven Seas" and "Pandora's Box", the new line up would release three albums before splitting up in 1996, due to lack of public interest.
Though Humphreys left the band after The Best of OMD, he collaborated with McCluskey on the songwriting for Universal, the band's 1996 swan song. After another Greatest Hits album in 1998 and an EP of remixed material by such acts as Sash!, McCluskey decided to focus on management and songwriting for such Liverpool based acts as Atomic Kitten and Gypsy Queen.
Later projects
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.
An album of unreleased material by the band was scheduled for release in 2005.
On January 1st 2006, Andy McCluskey announced plans to reform OMD with the McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes and Cooper line up. Plans at present are to tour the album Architecture & Morality and other pre-1983 material, then record a new album set for release in 2007.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | 27 | - |
| 1980 | Organisation | 6 | - |
| 1981 | Architecture & Morality | 3 | 144 |
| 1983 | Dazzle Ships | 5 | 162 |
| 1984 | Junk Culture | 9 | 182 |
| 1985 | Crush | 13 | 38 |
| 1986 | The Pacific Age | 15 | 47 |
| 1991 | Sugar Tax | 3 | - |
| 1993 | Liberator | 14 | 169 |
| 1995 | Universal | 24 | - |
Compilation Albums
| Year | Album | UK | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | The Best of OMD | 2 | 46 |
| 1998 | The OMD Singles | 16 | - |
| 2000 | The Peel Sessions (compilation of tracks recorded for the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1) | - | - |
| 2001 | Navigation - The OMD B-Sides | - | - |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | US Hot 100 | US Modern Rock | |||
| 1979 | "Electricity" | #99 | - | - | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark |
| 1980 | "Red Frame/White Light" | #67 | - | - | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark |
| 1980 | "Messages" | #13 | - | - | Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark |
| 1980 | "Enola Gay" | #8 | - | - | Organisation |
| 1981 | "Souvenir" | #3 | - | - | Architecture & Morality |
| 1981 | "Joan of Arc" | #5 | - | - | Architecture & Morality |
| 1982 | "Maid of Orleans" | #4 | - | - | Architecture & Morality |
| 1983 | "Genetic Engineering" | #20 | - | - | Dazzle Ships |
| 1983 | "Telegraph" | #42 | - | - | Dazzle Ships |
| 1984 | "Locomotion" | #5 | - | - | Junk Culture |
| 1984 | "Talking Loud and Clear" | #11 | - | - | Junk Culture |
| 1984 | "Tesla Girls" | #21 | - | - | Junk Culture |
| 1984 | "Never Turn Away" | #70 | - | - | Junk Culture |
| 1985 | "So in Love" | #27 | #26 | - | Crush |
| 1985 | "Secret" | #34 | #63 | - | Crush |
| 1985 | "La Femme Accident" | #42 | - | - | Crush |
| 1986 | "If You Leave" | #48 | #4 | - | Pretty in Pink |
| 1986 | "(Forever) Live and Die" | #11 | #19 | - | The Pacific Age |
| 1986 | "We Love You" | #54 | - | - | The Pacific Age |
| 1987 | "Shame" | #52 | - | - | The Pacific Age |
| 1988 | "Dreaming" | #50 | #16 | - | The Best of OMD |
| 1991 | "Sailing on the Seven Seas" | #3 | - | - | Sugar Tax |
| 1991 | "Pandora's Box (It's a Long, Long Way)" | #7 | - | #19 | Sugar Tax |
| 1991 | "Then You Turn Away" | #50 | - | - | Sugar Tax |
| 1991 | "Call My Name" | #50 | - | - | Sugar Tax |
| 1993 | "Stand Above Me" | #21 | - | - | Liberator |
| 1993 | "Dream of Me (Based on Love's Theme)" | #24 | - | - | Liberator |
| 1993 | "Everyday" | #59 | - | - | Liberator |
| 1996 | "Walking on the Milky Way" | #17 | - | - | Universal |
| 1996 | "Universal" | #55 | - | - | Universal |
| 1998 | "The OMD Remixes" | #35 | - | - | - |
Video Releases
- Live at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane - 1982 (laserdisc & VHS) (laserdisc released only in Japan)
- Crush the Movie - 1985 (laserdisc & VHS) (laserdisc released only in Japan)
- The Best of OMD - 1988 (VHS)
In Print
- There were several fanzines about the band, including Winston and Telegraph, that were active during the post-split period. An official magazine called Messages is still running.
- 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.
External links
- Official OMD Website
- OMD - A Potted History
- Paul Humphreys interview about OneTwo at RememberTheEighties.com
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