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GenrePop, Electronic
Rank8,571 (new)
Albums22
Songs188
AboutOrchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) is a synth pop group whose founder members come from the Wirral Peninsula, UK. OMD records 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.
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.
By 1980, 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 to 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.
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.
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.
By 1980, 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 to 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.
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