The oppurtunity to write my feelings about OMD and the 1997 OMD Convention in Liverpool, England for Pat's world of OMD was a chance that I could never afford to miss. In the past I have shared many of my ideas with other OMD fans around the world and in particular I have shared some great 'email' conversations with Mr. Fetty himself - the OMD 'master' in my humble opinion. So, without further ado, here comes my feelings and thoughts with respect to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and the OMD Convention 1997:
I can't sing and I certainly can't play a single musical instrument, but I have always had a facination with 1980's bands and in particular electronic music. Being born in 1974 meant that my formative teenage years were in the 1980's and this was where I guess I developed my deep passion for 80's bands. When I first heard OMD way back in 1982 I didn't yet quite appreciate their genius, but my first 'OMD experience' of hearing the highly charged ENOLA GAY and then the South African smash hit, SOUVENIR got me very interested in this band. It was only ten years latter in 1992 that I really started to see the true genius that was and still to this day remains O.M.D. OMD has touched my life very deeply and this group will remain my favourite band of all time - ever! I have collected around 200 CD's of 1980's bands such as ICEHOUSE, PET SHOP BOYS, NEW ORDER, DEPECHE MODE, ERASURE, ROXY MUSIC, LEVEL 42, THOMPSON TWINS, SPANDAU BALLET, TEARS FOR FEARS, SIMPLY RED, DEF LEPPARD, QUEEN, VANGELIS, THE ART OF NOISE, CHINA CRISIS, ABC etc. and have yet to find a single band that can produce the shear diversity of music as OMD. 99% of bands all produce the same type & style of music. Also most bands catter either for the commercial market or remain discrete by being classified as 'alternative'. OMD has managed to remain all things to all fans in my opinion. They are alternative and commercial. Despite the fact that the band is classified as 'SYNTH-POP' show me any single band that can produce such a diversity of music and yet still remain so distinctive. What I love the most about OMD is the shear variety of songs they have managed to produce over the years. Each of their songs seems to have their trademark genius: BUNKER SOLDIERS & ALMOST - simple arrangements - yet despite all the years they can still be fully enjoyed. MESSAGES - Brilliant song from start to finish. ENOLA GAY - highly charged classic of the 80's. SOUVENIR - years ahead of its time. MAID OF ORLEAN - a most unlikely song to ever succeed, yet remains a classic to this day. LOCOMOTION - pure pop song. TESLA GIRLS - great dance track. IF YOU LEAVE - the best song ever written & recorded in 3 days! FOREVER LIVE & DIE - Awesome vocals. SAILING ON THE SEVEN SEAS - OMD meets Queen and makes a 'rock & synth' classic. WALKING ON THE MILKY WAY & UNIVERSAL - mature thoughts on the world. Then their are all the B-SIDES such as CONCRETE HANDS, FIREGUN, THIS TOWN, GARDEN CITY, SATELLITE and then comes the brilliant re-mixes such as FOREVER LIVE & DIE, IF YOU LEAVE, TELEGRAPH, SO IN LOVE, NEVER TURN AWAY & SECRET - it just never ends. What I also love about OMD is that this is one band that contains REAL & GENUINE people, just ask those fans who have had the fortune of meeting people like Andy McCluskey. OMD never wore stupid clothes, dyed their hair the colour of the rainbow, wore earings on every part of their anatomy, p articipated in drug taking & sex orgies etc. This band remained the 'clean bank clerks of music' and they made music not for the sake of making money, but for the sake of making music because this is what they loved.
My passion for the music of OMD is so great that even when I have the shittiest of shit days I can always count on my favourite song from any band of all time to lift my spirts - the 1986 smash hit (South Africa & USA among other countries) 'IF YOU LEAVE'. Out of my top 20 songs of all time, OMD features in about 7 of these positions - no other band has this influence on me.
Many non-OMD'ers may argue this point, but OMD must be the most under-rated band of all time and it therefore meant that when I first heard about a planned 'OMD' party to be held in England during 1997 that I lost several nights of sleep!
My real involvement with OMD only started after I used the 'YAHOO' search engine to look up 'OMD' on the Internet and stumbled across the very best site I could ever hope for - PAT'S WORLD OF OMD. It was here that I first 'met' the truly phenomenal Patrick Fetty & of course got to know about the forthcoming OMD 1997 convention in Liverpool, England. Before this however I spent many hours submitting eMail to Mr. Fetty discussing every aspect of OMD with him, sharing ideas with him and of course obtaining tons of Videos, Re-mixes & B-Sides covering OMD from 1979 to 1997. (For those of you reading this, I would like to tell you that Pat has the very BEST colletions of OMD re-mixes & B-Sides you could ever hope for - just eMAil him and find out what you are missing out on!) Anway, back to the convention '97: For the better two thirds of 1997, information was posted on Pat's & Neil's Web pages describing this event and then .... the date was finally set to September 27th 1997. For months leading up to this event I must have litteraly 'drooled' just thinking about the prospects of meeting all the other people out their who shared my passion for the music of OMD and finally attending a disco where they actually play more than just 'ENOLA GAY' or 'SAILING ON THE SEVEN SEAS'. Once I had the date I didn't spare any time in purchasing my ticket to the UK to make triple sure that I wasn't going to miss this event of a lifetime. As the months lead up to the event things got a little tight. I joined an OMD mailing list and soon afterward I become know by other fans as the 'FUCK MAN' - In fact take a close look at some of the convention Photo's posted on Pat's site and you might just find one with Yours Truly and Mr. Fetty which read 'Mr. Greenway - 'THE FUCK MAN'. (I don't wish to dissapoint any of my female admirers, but this has nothing to do with sex by the way!)
I got this distinction from my second passion (second to OMD of course) for using the word'FUCK' (Pat gave me full permission to use 'FUCK' for this nice little story by the way if any of you feel insulted!). During one of my on-line conversations on the OMD newsgroup, I posted some words about OMD and used the word 'FUCK' to describe my feelings. This eruputed into a major debate with people that supported the use of foul language on a newsgroup and those that protested. The only reason I have ever used the damm word is simply because it makes things soooooooooooooo much more descriptive - this is not however shared by everyone else in cyberspace and these days it seems that true freedome of expression is not tolerated without some form of resistance. I therefore departed from the OMD newsgroup and that is when I was labled as the imfamous 'FUCK MAN'. Many people thought that I was 'pissed off' and might not attend the '97 convention, but this was never the case. During this time I still remained in contact with Neil Taylor and Pat Fetty and also made friends with a hell of nice chap called 'DAMIANIO' (I hope this is spelled correctly) which I finally got to meet at the convention in September '97. I also eMailed 'SPENCER' who I would have loved to meet at the convention, but for reasons not know to me he decided not to come at the last moment.
By the time September '97 arrived I was very excited and on the 26th of September 1997 I phoned Neil Taylor's pad and got too speak with Neil for the first time. (What a nice down to earth guy this is!) I also spoke for the first time to the legendary Pat Fetty and we must have talked for at least an hour about OMD, the big day ahead the next day and of course the big 'IF' we would meet anyone from OMD!!! The night before the event I 'warmed' up by going out with my Uncle Paul (Lives in Leeds, England) to some of the local Yorkshire pubs and had around 6 pints that night to drink.
The next day arrived sooner than expected (that's what 6 pints of GUINESS do to you!) and we made our way down to Liverpool. We made it no problem to Liverpool, but struggled to locate Sefton Park despite the map that a certain Mr. Neil Taylor kindly supplied all the attending fans. A couple of times I kept my tradition as the 'FUCK MAN' by cursing poor Neil's 'FUCKING SHIT MAP', but we made it their despite being 1.5 hours late. (Better late than never as they say.) Upon arrival we were supplied our 'OMD survival pack' at the hotel reception and that is where I first got to meet Mr. Taylor himself. After arriving, we made our way to the Pub located inside the hotel to meet the rest of the gang. After ordering my first pint of GUINESS, I finally (after 2 years!!!!) met Patrick Fetty and he & I must have looked really good when we hugged each other with so much passion for all to see! (Don't worry - Pat is a happily married man with a child & I have a most devine girlfriend here in South Africa.)
After having my first (of many) drinks with Mr. Fetty, I got to mingle with the rest of the fans and I started to realize something else about OMD - the fans or 'anoraks' who are so friendly and have got to be some of the nicest people I have met in a long time. The whole trouble is that I met so many people and I just can't remember all the damm names - so if I don't mention you - please understand that I just don't remember your name.
From the bar we all made our way to another room in the hotel to watch the 'OMD LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA' video. Of course this was my first real highlight as I was the ONLY person attending the event from South Africa and of course I also went to see OMD when they performed in Johannesburg, South Africa in January 1994. The concert that was screened was the same one that I attended in the flesh and a lot of people were asking me questions about it. What made this such as great concert is that Andy himself admitted this was one of his very best concerts of all time and Andy was at his very best performance wise. Also, I think that this was probably one of the last concerts that OMD has done to date. From the questions people asked me I got to meet even more fans which was brilliant!
An interesting slide-show followed and that was where I saw Paul Browne & Kevin Pretlove for the first time. I also realized why Andy McCluskey himself called these guys the 'biggest OMD anoraks' - I thought I knew OMD, no chance! - these guys would 'fuck up' anyone when it comes to shear OMD knowledge and the slide show prooved this.
It was here that I also finally got to meet CHI himself. I remembered him well from seeing him on a 1992 TELEGRAPH TOUR video and he didn't dissapoint me one bit!
After the slide-show we all moved outside the hotel and waited outside for a 'mystery' event. Everyone was in high spirits and I was starting to get really excited since I knew in my heart that we were going to meet someone from OMD. By this time I had consumed my third pint as was feeling in a rather 'festive' mood. After some photo taking by some of the fans including myself and Pat Fetty we all started walking down around Sefton Park and in towards the Liverpool town centre. We eventually arrived at a building with a big steel door on the outside. When we entered I realised that this was the famous OMD 'PINK MUSEUM' and I knew this once more from the 1992 TELEGRAPH tour Video I obtained from Pat Fetty earlier in 1997. From the 1992 Video I remembered that Andy McCluskey met with the fans and that is when I knew that we would have to meet the MAN himself.
I was prooved right. When Andy came down those wrought iron steps in the Pink Museum for the first time everyone was shell-shocked at first. We all cheered for Andy and he was very modest and played down the applause. The Q&A session started and that was when almost every question was asked. This must be one of the most modest and down-to-earth POP-STARS that the world has!!!! Two highlights must be when Pat Fetty greeted Andy and told him that he was 'Pat Fetty from the USA' - Andy actually came down from the stairs and shook Pat's hand and mentioned that he knew all about 'PAT'S WORLD OF OMD'. Also, what I thought was simply brilliant was when KEVIN PRETLOVE (who doesn't have any HAIR by the way!!!) first spoke to Andy - he opened by saying 'Andy ... I don't know if you remember when I first met you in Southampton in 1980 ...' Andy immediately replied by saying 'You must have had more hair then ...' - the fans roared with laughter and to his credit, Mr. Pretlove was very quick to respond by saying 'So did you Andy!'.
After the interview with Mr. McCluskey himself, Andy took photo's with ALL the fans and that was something that I always hoped would happen to me. I got that illusive photo with Andy, but when I had it developed it turned out to be a very good picture of Andy, but a real crap picture of myself. FUCK!!! You can't win them all, so I hope that I will get to have one more with Andy in the near future - possible the 1998 OMD convention (Come now boys & girls - let's be optomistic for one more bash!)
After the meeting with OMD we all went back to the hotels to get ready for the disco, OMD stalls etc. Myself & Paul (Uncle) were fortunate enough to stay in the ADELPHI which I am told is where part of FOREVER LIVE & DIE was filmed back in 1986 and can only commend Neil & Co. for such a good hotel. (That makes up for the shitty Map Neil!!!).
After grabbing some food at McDonald's with some OMD fans we made our way via BUS to the hotel where the disco etc. was going to be held. Their we went down stairs to a large room where a buffet of food was waiting and the OMD merchandise stalls were located. To the left of this was the DISCO floor itself which looked incredibly inviting to say the very least!
Of course, the only problem was that the bloody toilets were back upstairs which was to proove a bit of a problem as the night passed by. (Drinking 13 pints does hit the bladder and those frequent step trips made sure that I got my nights excercise every ten minutes when I had to hit the toilets to stop my teeth from floating!).
The OMD stall prooved to be very popular indeed and this is where I got to meet Paul Humprhies older brother, MIKE & his wife, JAN HUMPRHIES. I bought some more goodies from the stalls and of course that bastard Patrick Fetty never gave me any discount for the T-Shirts & CD's I purchased from him despite all the business I have given the penny-pincher over the last 2 years. (Ok, I better stop before Pat censors this story from his Web site!)
After the stalls we all got to see CHI & CHRIS, AKA 'THE MESSERSCHMITT TWINS' who did some OMD covers. They were totally brilliant in my humble opinion and their renditions of 'BUNKER SOLDIERS' & 'ALMOST' were excellent to say the very least. They excelled themselves and they also managed to to re-create that 1980 OMD image of Paul (Black Tie & White Shirt) and Andy with the AFRO. hairstyle. Brilliant! I would of course loved to hear them do my favourite OMD track of all time which is 'IF YOU LEAVE' - but no luck. Pat Fetty has told me that he will be producing a CD featuring 'THE MESSERSCHMITT TWINS' and I intend myself to fully support this project by purchasing any CD's that may be released - that is how strongly I feel how CHI & CHRIS's covers!
After 'THE TWINS' did their brilliant OMD covers, the karokee hit full swing and then ...... the moment everyone was waiting for .... THE OMD 1997 DISCO!!!
The prospects of over 4 hours of non-stop OMD classics, B-SIDES, Re-mixes and lots of drinking was enough to me overwhelm me, but somehow I survived by buying Mr. Fetty (I bit pissed by now!) a Fosters and myself another GUINESS. By this time I had consumed around 7 pints and was feeling ready to hit that dance floor and do some serious OMD partying. As the disco fired up, the fans descended like vultures to a corpse and the fun started.
Pat Fetty and another chap (can't remember his name) started filming the going's on with their Video Camera's and hit after hit was played. The best songs of the night had to be the following:
TESLA GIRLS - A whole lot of us grouped together in a circle and sang 'YES YES YES' after Andy sang 'NO NO NO' - download the MPEG clip from Pat's site to see this. That was awesome to say the least!
TELEGRAPH - On the same Video clip (TESLA 6.5Mb Clip) you can see myself and some girls grouped together pointing at Pat's Video Camera making some very strange noises during the 'instrumental' section of telegraph near the end of the song.
IF YOU LEAVE - my favourite song from any band of all time - ever. Look out for Pat's 'interview' with me when he asked me what I thought about OMD and what my favourite OMD song was. CENSORED. CENSORED. ASK NO MORE!!!
MESSAGES - Pat's favourite OMD song and one of mine too. Pat was going crazy dancing during this song and that was a pleasure to watch.
FIREGUN - For some reason, only about 5 people stayed on the floor when this came on - hmmmmm - no-one obviously liked this song. Myself and another great OMD fan dressed in RED (can't remember his name) sang this one together and it went down a treat. I have some great photo's of myself and the man in RED singing this one. Loved it to death, especially the part of the song that goes 'SISTERS SLAY THEIR BROTHERS .... MOTHER'S SLAY THEIR SONS'
By the end of the disco I had polished off a total of 13 pints and was seriously pissed. I was now starting to understand where OMD thought up the B-SIDE 'SATELLITE' from - I was feeling like one at this stage:
'I'M JUST A SATELLITE ... WATCHING YOU ....'
For those of you that were not fortunate enough to attend the event, all I can say is that this disco was stunning to say the very least. For me, I could never imagine doing drugs to get high. Just put me back on that dance floor with the fans and the OMD music and that is a high that is second to none. (Ok, Ok - so I also was pissed as well which counts as using 'drugs' - but I do dance much better when pissed anyway and so was almost everyone else nicely pissed as well - no harm in that!)
On the subject of being pissed, I was hoping that the two 'OLD MEN', Fetty and Taylor would doing some drinking with me - since my friend Mr. Taylor was telling me in eMail a few months before the great event that he 'drink me under the table' - I'm sorry we couldn't sort this misconception out, but their is always one more OMD convention to look forward to - isn't their NEIL ?????
Most of the fans, including myself (no called PISS CATS!) took the 2AM trip down to see STANLOW in all its glory. Wow! What a sight to say the very least. What also impressed me was the underground tunnel that runs under the river Mersey in Liverpool on the way to STANLOW - I kept thinking about the movie 'DAYLIGHT' with Stallone and wondered what would actually happen if the tunnel did collapse during our tour. Of course if it did I for one would have at least died a VERY HAPPY MAN!
From STANLOW we were dropped off at our respective hotels and not a minute to soon since those 13 pints were catching up with me. I hit the sack and awoke the next morning at around 9:30AM with one hell of a hangover - described latter by myself as the Hangover from hell. Sadly, this is where my story ends with respect to the convention since I had to leave Liverpool at 10:30AM with Paul to travel up to Wales where he needed to attend to some business. I missed the OMD landmark tour which was shitty, but the previous day gave me memories that will last my entire lifetime. (Driving to Wales with a Hangover from hell was another experience that I could write a few pages on - but I will save that one for a rainy day!)
On conclusion I would like to round off by saying that the OMD convention 1997 was the VERY BEST party that I have ever attended in my life - nothing even comes remotely close it was that brilliant for me. This will go down in my life as one of the greatest moments ever and certainly the only event that will better this will be a final convention in 1998 honouring OMD for the final time.
I would like to extend my warmest regards towards Neil Taylor, Pat Fetty, Kevin Pretlove, Ian, Chi, Chris, Mike Humprhies, Jan Humprhies and everyone who was directly or in-directly involved in the events 'ORGANIZATION'. I would like to wish everyone of the fans that I met & that attended OMD CONVENTION 1997 my very deepest gratitude for making this a day / night to remember for the rest of my life. (OH, WHAT I NIGHT - THE FOUR SEASONS).
I sincerely hope that one final event may be held in 1998 to celebrate the final OMD release which will be the 'DEFINITIVE OMD COMPILATION' and that we may all get to see OMD perform one final gig.
For OMD and in particular, Andy McCluskey & Paul Humprhies I sincerely hope that the final OMD release will sell by the container load - you guys deserve this and all the profits for making the best music this planet has ever heard. Even if the final album bombs, I will always keep a special place in my heart for OMD and those great friends I have made from OMD over the years for the rest of my life. As sad as it will be to wave goodbye to everyones favourite band in 1998, I will continue get great joy from my extensive OMD collection and the fact that I can listen to the CD's whenever I want means that OMD will stay with me for the rest of my life.
As a final wish I hope that OMD will re-unite with the original 4 piece line-up and do one final world-tour. (Please don't forget South Africa guys!!!) That's not asking too much now is it ?????
Finally, I would like to thank Patrick Fetty for his continued friendship and for posting my rather long story on his web site for all to read. I look forward to meeting Pat again to share some more phenomenal OMD times as well as the rest of you. For Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark I sign off with these words:
'IF YOU LEAVE ... DON'T LEAVE NOW' MATTHEW 'THE FUCK MAN' GREENWAY - JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 1997