OMD - Live at Leigh Open Air Pop Festival (1979)

On August 27^th 1979, around the same time of their first Peel session, OMITD played at the infamous Leigh Open Air Pop Festival. To an audience of less than a hundred people Paul Humphreys, Andy McCluskey and the drum machine Winston performed songs that appeared on the band first single (Electricity, Almost) and would later be included in the band first LP.

Live at Leigh Open Air Pop Festival (1979):

- Messages

- Bunker Soldiers

- Julia's Song

- VCBXL

- Almost

- Red Frame White Light

- Mystery Reality

- Electricity

A journalsit said: “Musically they were fine but the sight of two keyboards isn’t exactly the perfect formula for a succesful festival set. But nevertheless, the bouncing, dancing, vibrating sound ofd OMITD stands leagues above the sickly nopise of Numan”

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OMD - Peel Session 1979

On August 20^th 1979 OMD recorded their first Radio One Peel Session. For the recording Paul Humphreys played keyboards and provided some vocals while Andy McCluskey was on vocals, bass, and drum machine programming. The track list consisted of four numbers:

Peel Session (August 1979)

- Julia'S Song

- Messages

- Red Frame/White Light

- Bunker Soldiers

The session, produced by Tony Wilson and engineered by Dave Dade, was then aired on September 3^rd 1979.

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(see also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/sessions/1970s/1979/Aug20orchestralmanoeu/ )

OMD - Free Artifacts: The Unreleased ’78 Tapes

Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey decided on a clear muscial direction to give to their new band, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (from the title of on of their earliest compositions), very much inspired by the German elechtonic group Kraftwerk. The duo started collecting electronic instruments and affordable synthesizers (Korg MS20, Elgam Symphony, Korg Micro-Preset, Selmer Pianotron and a Roland CR-78 drum machine), and experimenting with the sounds coming from those machines and from McCluskey’s bass. The songs combined radio waves, noises, excerpts from radio and TV broadcasts, rhythm sections and melodic parts. In october 1978 Orchestral Manouvers in the Dark (at the time acronym-ed ad OMITD) played at Eric’s. Part of the playlist for the gig was the following:

- Introducing Radios

- Distance Fades Between Us

- Progress

- Once When I Was Six

(A bonus 7" EP titled ‘Free Artefact - The Unreleased '78 Tapes’ came with the first 10,000 copies of the band’s second LP, Organisation, released in 1980.) The performance captured Tony Wilson’s attention, who signed the band to his Factory for their fist sngle.

omd 78

A Shallow Madness (Re-Up)

On May 5th 1977, after a gig by The Clash at the legendary Eric’s Club, Julian Cope (later Teardrop Explodes), Ian McCulloch (later Echo & the Bunnymen) and Pete Wylie (later Wah!) met and decided to form a band, Arthur Hostile & The Crucial Three, immediately shortened in The Crucial Three. The group rehearsed only once, wrote only a single – according to McCulloch, very bad – song (possibly titled Salomine Shuffle or Bloody Sure You're On Dope), and disbanded.

After the Crucial Three, Julian Cope and Pete Wylie formed The Nova Mob, recruiting punk friend Griff and future Banshees's drummer Budgie. A short-lived act (just the time for a disastrous performance at Eric's) that folded when Budgie left to join Big in Japan. Julian Cope briefly formed an experimental group called The Hungry Types, and then formed Uh? with Ian McCulloch and McCulloch's school friend Dave Pickett. McCulloch left after the band's first and only gig. Cope and McCulloch formed their last band together, A Shallow Madness in early 1978, along with Paul Simpson on keyboards, Dave Pickett on drums, and occasionally Mick Finkler on guitar. Of the activity of the band only a couple of original rehearsal recordings survived:

- Books (with McCulloch on vocals, then to appear in a different version as a Bunnymen’s and Teardrop’s number)
- Straight Rain (without McCulloch)

At this point A Shallow Madness featured the original Teardrop Explodes line-up of Cope (bass), Paul Simpson (keyboards), Mick Finkler (guitar), plus Ian McCulloch. The latter's non-attendance at rehearsals led to Cope taking over vocals and thus The Teardrop Explodes was born. Simpson will leave the Teardrops in 1979 to form his own band The Wild Swans in 1980.

a shallow madness