York BarbicanOutrageous moves and a set of ‘old ones, new ones, weird ones and dancey ones’ sees the new wave pioneers in fine fettle
When Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark emerged from the Wirral in 1979, they were never quite cool enough for the left-field synthesiser-music vanguard. Yes, they were signed to Factory Records and had a prerequisite arty name (chosen over Margaret Thatcher’s Afterbirth). But OMD dressed like suburban bank clerks and singer-bassist Andy McCluskey danced like someone at an office party who’d had one too many shandies. Even their more experimental tracks had pretty melodies. All this was enough for Factory boss Tony Wilson to tell McCluskey that his band were “the future of pop music”.
Which indeed they were. After signing to Richard Branson’s label Virgin in the early 80s, the group racked up 13 Top 40 hits and sold 40m records. They are now celebrating what McCluskey calls their 40th birthday with a tour, despite splitting for a decade in 1996.