Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark aren’t bitter, not a bit of it. They have missed out on millions, seen marriages collapse and, at one point, lost most of their audience. The legendary electro-pop duo even lost each other for a decade.
But OMD are upbeat about their 40-year career. The ‘two lads from The Wirral’ sold 15 million albums and 25 million singles. They inspired Depeche Mode to make music and their distinctive influence can still be heard in artists from Lady Gaga to Radiohead.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, the ‘two lads from The Wirral’, sold 15 million albums and 25 million singles
OMD’s unforgettable songs, including Enola Gay and Joan Of Arc, continue to win them fans. But brows furrow at the mention of former label boss Richard Branson. Having signed to Virgin records as naive youngsters in 1979, OMD reckon Branson owes them big time. ‘He made a s***load of money out of us,’ says singer-bassist Andy McCluskey. ‘The contract we signed when we were 19 years old was just this side of criminal.’
But OMD won’t allow such bad memories to spoil their 40th anniversary party. There is a greatest hits album, Souvenir, a collectable box set and an extensive UK tour to celebrate.
McCluskey, 60, and keyboard player Paul Humphreys, 59, cheerily accept their title as ‘kings of the one-fingered melody’, insisting that their uncomplicated approach to music is their secret weapon. ‘The choruses on a lot of our singles were just keyboard lines, they weren’t sung,’ McCluskey divulges.
‘Simplicity was our thing,’ nods Humphreys. ‘Partly because we couldn’t really play very well.’
Throughout the Eighties, OMD were having hits for fun, with 13 Top 40 singles. Then they took conceptual exploration to disastrous extremes with their challenging 1983 album Dazzle Ships. ‘Each record we’d done had got bigger,’ McCluskey recollects. ‘Inevitably, we thought, “We can do whatever we like and people buy it.” ’
Dazzle Ships dazzled neither critics nor public. OMD’s previous album sold three million copies; Dazzle Ships sold 300,000. Its commercial failure and mounting financial pressures were soon tearing OMD apart. ‘We were fed up and tired of working ourselves to death with no money,’ sighs McCluskey. ‘All the millions of records we sold, and by the time we got to the end of the Eighties, we owed Virgin a million quid.’
‘Seven million,’ Humphreys corrects.
The dispirited boyhood friends disbanded in 1996 and barely spoke for ten years. Their relationships also suffered, with both men splitting from their partners.
McCluskey went into mentor-management, founding the girl group Atomic Kitten in the late Nineties and co-writing their No 1 hit Whole Again. He made Kerry Katona a star. ‘She was not a good singer,’ he admits. ‘But Kerry was the driving force of the band.’
Then, after two years of success, McCluskey was ‘binned’. ‘It was an interesting learning curve,’ he muses. ‘I had no idea just how sordid and dirty the manufactured pop end of the industry was.’
OMD reconvened in 2005, partly at the behest of a TV show, but also because McCluskey’s kids wanted to see what their father did for a living. So far they’ve been impressed, even with his ‘geography teacher at a sixth-form disco’ dad-dancing.
One thing still rankles, though. By 1985, having overcome the Dazzle Ships disaster, OMD were a force to be reckoned with live. Yet when Bob Geldof came to select the acts for Live Aid that summer, he didn’t contact them.
Throughout the Eighties, OMD were having hits for fun, with 13 Top 40 singles. Then they took conceptual exploration to disastrous extremes with their challenging 1983 album Dazzle Ships
‘Indeed, he didn’t,’ sniffs Humphreys. ‘The day of Live Aid we played a concert in Toronto. We probably could have changed the date if we’d been invited.’
‘But we weren’t,’ McCluskey interjects. ‘Not that we’re in any way envious, angry or jealous.’
He roars with laughter. ‘Oh no, not in the least.’
OMD’s 40th anniversary box set ‘Souvenir’ and greatest hits collection are out now. Their UK tour ends this week. omd.uk.com