OMD- A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BAND

It all started when two grade school friends named Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphries got together about 18 years ago at Paul's house in Merseyside, England to listen to some "experimental" German music. This music featured the use of some very "strange" electronic devices that produced sounds that couldn't be duplicated by standard guitars and drums. Paul was attending electronics college and Andy was enrolled in an art school, but they both had a passion for music and its synergistic relationship with the technology of the time.

According to Mike Humphries, Paul's brother, the Humphries household was filled with various electronic "gadgets" and instruments that Paul had brought home from college. Paul's interest was mainly in the actual electronics and technologies involved with this "new" form of music they were discovering, whereas Andy's attention was focused on the musical potential of these early versions of modern synthesizers and drum machines. At this time, synthesizers and drum machines were still in their infantile stage and had yet to become mainstream.

Little did Andy and Paul know that their interest in this "experimental" brand of music would lead them to form one of the most succesful pop bands to come out of Liverpool since the Beatles.

With their newly discovered German musical influences, Andy and Paul started playing in some local bands with some very strange names like "Hitler's Underpants," "VCLXI," and "The Id." As it turns out, "The Id" were the first band that really had any impact or influence on the Paul and Andy's future. "The Id" was an eight-piece group that was formed by Andy and some friends from art college, with Paul handling the technical work of programming keyboards, wiring the instruments for gigs etc., and not really taking part in the actual playing of music at this point.

After some time, "The Id" had fizzled and broken up, but for Andy and Paul, it was the beginning of bigger and better things. Andy, who actually was the only member of "The Id" to really take the music seriously, got together with Paul, who by this time had learned to play keyboards, along with his many other talents, and they resurfaced as a two-piece and called themselves Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

In the beginning, most of OMD's music consisted of the same tracks that they wrote and performed with "The Id." In fact, their first album, "Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark" consists of tracks that were performed by "The Id." Going from writing and performing in an eight-piece band, to a two-piece was quite a challenging transmission. OMD's first few gigs featured Andy, Paul and "Winston," their trusty tape machine, supplying drum patterns and backing synth rifs.

Andy and Paul's first big break came in the form of Factory Record's representative Tony Wilson, who had happened to hear a garage demo of a track Paul and Andy had done (a song called "Electricity"). Upon hearing the demo, he immediately contacted the band to do a record. That record, "Electricity", would be the first of a long list of OMD hit singles.

After the success of "Electricity" the band signed a recording contract with Dindisc, a subsidiary of Virgin records, and began producing their first album. Fortunately, the Dindisc contract supplied Paul and Andy with enough money to buy all new equipment and their own studio in Liverpool, putting their trusty tape player "Winston" into retirement.

Andy and Paul went on to produce hit after hit for the next ten years becoming one of England's most consistently successful bands until their breakup in 1989 just prior to the release of their chart-topping CD, "The Best of OMD."

Since then, Andy has gone on making music under the name of OMD, picking up two more keyboard players and a drummer to form the "new" OMD. In 1991, the "new" OMD recorded thier first album together titled "Sugar Tax" that turned out to be a tremendous success both in the U.K. and the U.S., and reassured the OMD faithful that Andy would go on making great music that appeals to audiences the world over.

Three of the original members of OMD, Paul, Malcolm Holmes, and Martin Cooper, went on to form their own group, The Listening Pool, with Paul taking on the role of lead singer and song writer. They released their first album with a limited release in the U.K., titled "Still Life" and it was met with mixed reviews.

In comparing the two new found bands, it is easy to see how different Andy and Paul's musical styles are, which is one of the reasons for OMD's breakup in 1989. The strengths of the original OMD are very evident in different ways when you compare the two resulting bands, The Listening Pool and the "new" OMD. Paul, Martin and Malcolm's musical talent are showcased more as members of The Listening Pool. Their debut album, "Still Life," shows their strengths with beautiful blends of sax, synths, and drums behind Pauls soothing, often melancholic, lyrics.

As for the "new" OMD, it is obvious why their first release since the breakup, Sugar Tax, did so well. The songs are packed with energy and catchy melodies, which is what made OMD popular the world over. Andy attributes the success of "Sugar Tax" to the two years he took off after the the breakup of OMD, to write the songs, and to the energy of the new band members, most of whom happen to be quite younger than he.

After the success of Sugar Tax, and the tour that followed, Andy was confident that OMD could still go on making great music and pleasing their fans across the globe. With the release of "Liberator," the "new" band's second effort, they did just that. When asked where the title of the new album came from, Andy was qouted as saying that it came from a certain sense of liberation he felt after the success of "Sugar Tax," that people still enjoyed the music of OMD.

Since "Liberator" in 1994, things have been relatively quiet for OMD. Andy has been working on the forthcoming release of OMD's next album, "Universal." As it turns out, Paul Humphries co-wrote some of the tracks for the album with Andy. Universal promises, according to Andy, to have a new sort of sound for OMD, but he refuses to give many details.

For those of us who have followed the band over the years and enjoyed their music, the arrival of "Universal" in early 1996 is eagerly awaited and hopes to be yet another one of OMD's many successes.

There are few bands that have produced the number of hit singles that OMD has, and we as fans can only hope that there are many more to come!!