One of the highlights of the 1997 Convention for me was the chance to sit down and have a couple of pints with Malcolm Holmes of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Myself, Neil Taylor, Paul Browne and Damiano Geraci had the chance to meet with Malcolm on the Sunday evening after the convention in a pub out near his house.
We arrived shortly after 7:00pm and Malcolm greeted us with a handshake and a warm smile. He was in good spirits and appeared to be happy to meet us. We ordered up a few drinks from the bar and just began chatting about all sorts of things. Malcolm was very interested in how the party went the previous night and we went on to tell him how brilliant it was. He was very pleased to hear that things went over so well, and was very appreciative that Paul and Neil have gone to so much work to keep the OMD name alive and to keep the fans in touch with what is happening. We went on to tell him about the nights events, starting with the trip to the Pink Museum to chat with Andy, the slide show, the tribute band (who were EXCELLENT by the way), and the actual "party" that followed with 4 hours of non-stop OMD music. He was very impressed that so many fans had turned up from all parts of the world just to celebrate OMD. He told us he would like to see the OMD name live on for many years to come, even though he is really no longer taking part in OMD music.
Which brings us to what is happening with Malcolm and his other projects.
As many of you know, Telegraph Records is no longer. There were a handful of issues that arose that forced the Label to go out of business. I cannot divulge what exactly they were as Malcolm asked to keep it "under our hats". I can tell you that he was disappointed that Telegraph did not work out as he and the others poured a lot of time, effort and money into the label, and things were really starting to take off for them.
Since Telegraph is no longer, the founding members have each gone on to separate projects. Most of you know that Paul has been writing with Andy some for Andy's new band. Martin's painting "career" has really taken off and he has made quite a name for himself with it. He is spending all of his time painting and doing shows these days, and he and Malcolm keep in touch constantly.
Malcolm is working on putting together his new record label, Fin. The finishing touches are being put on the Web site right now, and he should be online very soon. He has also been writing some stuff with a friend of his that he will be promoting via the Fin site as well. The stuff he has written is dance oriented, club type of music. He will have some sound clips on the Web site when he goes live.
Malcolm also has purchased the remaining stock of Listening Pool merchandise which will be for sale via the Fin site as well. He is working on a solution to allow fans to order the music directly from the site with a credit card!
He is very excited about the new label he is putting together. It will be solely Web based in the beginning as he thinks that is the best way to go these days. I agreed and we discussed different ways he can get the word out effectively using the Internet and the technologies that are available today.
The big question that came up is what is happening with the Listening Pool. As it is, there are a few tracks that have been written and recorded for what was to be the second album. There is also some stuff that was scrapped from the first album that could possibly be used as well. The problem with this, as Malcolm told us, is finding the time for all 3 of them to get together to work on the material. Everyone is busy with separate projects at the moment, and time is hard to come by. Both Malcolm and Martin would like to see an album done, but only time will tell if that will happen. When we asked about the tracks that had been laid so far, he said that they are different from the stuff on Still Life in that they have a bit of a harder edge. Malcolm told us that they purposely did that to give the "new" album a different sound from Still Life.
The Still Life album sold approximately 15,000 copies World wide, which is very good for what little marketing budget they had. Basically, the album sold on word of mouth advertising alone.
All in all, our conversation was very pleasant as Malcolm was very kind to us. There's one thing that you always hear about the guys in OMD is that they are real people, down to Earth, and not your typical pop stars, and Malcolm epitomizes that 100%. The entire time we were there it was never like we were talking to some big celebrity, it was more like talking to an old friend. He asked how things were going with me, what I like to listen to besides OMD, and what my hobbies are. There are very few bands, or band members, with the status that OMD have who would ever sit down and have a chat like we did. There were times that I would have to remind myself "hey, you're sitting here talking to Malcolm Holmes" just to remind me how fortunate I am.
After about an hour and half, it was time for us to take off. I gave Malcolm some software that he needed for his Macintosh, and in return he gave me an autographed copy of the Still Life album from Japan, an autographed copy of the Telegraph 7", and an autographed copy of the Genetic Engineering 7". He also signed his photo in my Pacific Age CD cover, and the Best of CD cover. As we were leaving the pub, Damiano and I took a couple of photos with Malcolm in front of the pub, before we shook hands and said thank you.
I plan to stay in touch with Malcolm via e-mail (he is quite good with a computer!!), and we will be getting him up and running on IRC (he needed Mac software and didn't know where to get it), so hopefully, he will do us the honor and chat with us all online sometime in the near future.
It was a tremendous thrill and honor to sit and chat with Malcolm. That alone made the trip half way around the World more than worthwhile.
Favorite OMD song:
The Messerschmitt Twins
Most difficult song to perform:
'Women II. It had a very awkward timing to it'
Favorite OMD song to perform:
Maid of Orleans 'great drum work in that song'
Least favorite OMD song:
Genetic Engineering (I joked and said "maybe it's because of the silly flags and all on stage". Mal's reply, "Yeah, that's probably got something to do with it!!")
How was the song "Southern" recorded
'We laid the track first, and liked it very much, adn were going to leave it as an instrumental. It was me who suggested we lay something over the top, that's where the Martin Luther King speeches came in. Those were difficult to get permision to use.'
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