Welcome to This Month in Liverpool Music History. In these articles we’ll be going back through the lengthy annals of our city’s music history to dig up everything from the culturally defining moments to curious tidbits. This month, February, is the shortest of the year, but trust Scousers to not let that keep them from making history.
This week we’re taking a look at the debut self titled album from the hugely influential electronic duo, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Formed in Melos on the Wirral, OMD were made up of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, who had been friends since primary school. The pair began writing their first songs together when they were sixteen, drifting in and out of various bands throughout the mid-to-late 70s, finding notable local success with projects like The ID. One thing they shared was a sense of alienation regarding the boisterous, guitar-driven, macho rock that dominated the popular music landscape of this time. That was when a revelation came from across the channel in the form of the German electronic band, Kraftwerk. Their hypnotic and minimal compositions were unlike anything McCluskey and Humphreys had ever heard, and proved to be exactly the sound they were looking for. They would catch Kraftwerk on their 1975 tour at the Empire Theatre on the 11th September, a night which McCluskey would later state; ‘changed my life forever.’
A couple years later, The ID had disbanded due to musical differences, McCluskey and Humphreys were left with little sense of direction. They had taken to building and playing around with crude synthesisers and sampling machines. Then, in 1978, sitting in Eric’s, they heard something they didn't expect come through on the speakers, a track called ‘Warm Leatherette’ by The Normal, its abstract electronic sound proved to them that they weren’t the only people in the country listening to bands like Kraftwerk, and that it was even possible to get this kind of music produced as a commercial record. Emboldened by their discovery, they approached the venue’s owners and asked for a gig, which they got. As this one gig was the only one they ever intended to play, a name was hastily taken from among the various scrawlings on McCluskey’s bedroom walls, which he had been using as a notebook. They needed something that would differentiate them, make it clear they weren’t punk or rock, and an unused song title; ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’ was selected. Things could’ve been quite different though, written right under that was ‘Margaret Thatcher’s Afterbirth’. The gig would take place in October 1978, but they soon had a second lined up for a ‘Factory’ night in Manchester where they’d be supporting Joy Division. It was here they came into contact with presenter Tony Wilson. A week later OMD would go out on a limb and send him over a demo tape with two of their songs, bidding for a chance to appear on Granada Reports, a show where Wilson was known to bring the occasional band on to perform. Having just come to the end of a season, Wilson made them a counter offer, he was starting his own label, and asked if they instead wanted to make a record.
In just two gigs, they’d bagged the chance to have one of their songs professionally recorded as an independent single. 5,000 copies of their song ‘Electricity’ were produced and Wilson had them sent to all the major record labels and radio DJs. The only break they got came from where you’d expect it at this time, John Peele, a monumental figure when it came to championing independent British musicians during this period. Peele had the song played on his show every night for the first week of its release, and very quickly those 5,000 copies sold out. One of them had ended up on the desk of Carol Wilson who had recently set up Dindisc, a semi-independent label operating as an offshoot of Virgin records. Not having any gigs to offer the duo to gauge their potential in a live setting, she instead came up to Liverpool, staying in Humphreys’ mother’s back room, where all of their songs up to that point had been written, and where they would all be performed to her. Three weeks later she approached them as they were loading their gear from another gig supporting Joy Division in Blackpool, with her was a seven album record deal. Eight months after their ‘one-off gig’ they were signed.
On the 2nd of February, 1980, their first official single ‘Red Frame/White Light’ entered the charts, peaking at no.67 the week later. A couple bands up to this point had tried bringing electronic music to the pop world such as The Human League and Ultravox, but it seemed OMD were the first to actually breakthrough. Later in the month, their self-titled debut LP would begin its twenty-eight week stint in the top 100 album charts. Though the influence of electronic bands from Europe were evident to those few who were already familiar, it’s safe to say that many who picked up this album had heard nothing like it before. Their strict minimalist approach gave way for an atmospheric and distant sound, with lyrics that steered clear away from popular music cliches that delicately handled complex themes. What differentiated them from other minimal electronic songwriters of the time, such as Gary Newman and John Foxx, was their ‘melodic immediacy’, as put by critic Adrian Thrills. The vocal deliveries were tender and human, the brutalist sonic soundscapes accentuating the warmth of a genuine human presence, like a rose growing through cracks in the concrete.
The list of artists who would appear later in the decade that regarded OMD as major influences are endless; Duran Duran, The Pet Shop Boys, Tears for Fears, Liverpool’s own China Crisis and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Depeche Mode co-founder Vince Clarke outright stated their band would have never existed without OMD. This influence has diminished little in the 21st century, affecting artists like MGMT, Deftones, LCD Soundsystem, even finding themselves sampled by hip hop acts such as Kid Cudi. Not bad going for (as Tony Wilson described them) ‘two scouse scallywags pretending to be Kraftwerk.’
There you have it. In February 1980 two self-confessed ‘uncool’ outsiders from the Wirral took their first steps in defining the sound of the decade to come. If you’re looking for a horoscope from all this, it looks like it’s going to be a good month for staying utterly committed to the kind of music you truly want to make, and to not be afraid to ask for opportunities! Ask for that gig, send off that demo. OMD’s enduring success is a testament to the fact that, if you’re offering what no one else can, something is bound to give.
Be sure to join us for the next This Month in Liverpool Music History where we’ll be taking a look at the twelve hour recording session that birthed The Beatles’ ‘Please, Please Me.’
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