Dementia (1983-85)

This punk act originated in late 1983 when Jimmy McVeigh (vocals, former Reiner Chaos) and Tudor (guitar, vocals, former Public Disgrace, later Gone to Earth, Mr. Toad & the Naught Majorcans, Suicide Stars) − both from Das Reiner − were joined by Pete Hurst (drums, former Dance Ritual, Green Cube, Patterns, later Mr. Toad & the Naught Majorcans) and Mike Poole (bass, later Suicide Stars).

Here is how Breakthrough Magazine described the band:

‘Whilst all four members of the band share the standard punk philosophy, they are by no means the standard band playing 1-2-3-4 Thrash, thrash, thrash. […]. In late ’83 Dementia (named after the 50’s slasher movie DEMENTIA VIII) experimented with two drummers to achieve that wonderful, full heavy drum sound made famous by Gary Glitter but they soon found that Hursty could provide the required sound on his own. As well as Gary Glitter, Dementia are influenced by the New York Dolls, and even pay homage with their own version of ‘Mystery Girls’. […] Dementia hope to be a force to be reckoned with in their own area of music − not just punk, but rock as well. In fact, punk-rock.’

‘Live Dementia provide a visual good show […] The songs are meaty and played well by all the band members.’ (March 1985)

In March 1985 the band released their first and only official record, an eponymous Mini-Lp on Skysaw.

Dementia (1985)

Side A.

- Easy Way Out - Fear - I’m Gonna

Side B.

- Written in Blood - Embarkation - Basic Feelings - Back in the States

Later the same year Skysaw released a tape (also called Dementia) containing all the tracks of the Mini-Lp plus three extra tracks. By early 1986, Dementia were no more: after having sessioned for the folk-punk act Gone to Earth in 1985, Tudor joined them for good; Poole (and later Tudor) joined Suicide Star; Hurst spent some time (again with Tudor ) in Mr. Toad & The Naughy Majorcans.

Dementia

(Major thanks to Pete Hurst himself, who made this post possible!)

(see also http://uk82.150m.com/bands/dementia.html )

Das Reiner - Demo (1982)

Das Reiner came about when Tudor (guitar, vocals) left Public Disgrace, the first Liverpool hardocre punk act (see relevant post), to join Reiner Chaos. This was a punk band (originally called Great British Mistake Part 2) formed in 1982 and consisting of Chris Dollar (vocals), Chris McGuire (guitar), Dave Hughes (guitar, vocals, later Danse Macabre), Jimmy McVeigh (bass, also later Danse Macabre), Oz (aka Ozzy, guitar), and Dave Bellamy (drums). As to their beginnings the band recalls: ‘The first gig we’ve ever done was at the Everyman Bistro and we were known as the Great British Mistake Part 2, and we were asked to leave after 3 minutes. It was a fun gig and it was our start in life’. As to their recorded material Oz concedes: ‘‘The best thing we ever had was a cassette recording made in my living room in early 1982, I think, which was accidentally recorded over late one night by an out of brain Dave H and was never heard again. Shame coz it was really rather good.’ Towards the end of the year Hughes quit and was replaced by Tudor (later Dementia, Gone To Earth, Mr Toad & The Naughty Majorcans), this line-up changed their name to Das Reiner and released their demo in late 1982.

Demo (1982)

- Funny Farm
- Problem in My Head
- Love for Sale

demo

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”

leigh79

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.

peel79

(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

The Id (1977-79)

The Id formed in September 1977 and were active between 1977 and the summer 1978 as an eight-piece band, featuring young musicians coming from Wirral-based prog or hard rock and heavy metal acts such as Equinox and Pegasus. The Id consisted of three singers (Andy McCluskey, Julia Kneale (McCluskey's girlfriend), John Floyd), two guitarists (Neill Shenton and Gary Hodgson), bass (Steve Hollas), keyboard player (Paul Humphreys) and drummer (Malcolm Holmes) − a second drummer (Simon Bateman) was asked to join but declined the offer.

Before the Id, McCluskey was in Pegasus and Humphreys in Equinox, then they were together in Hitlerz Underpantz (with Clived Gee, later Afraid of Mice). When HU dissolved, McCluskey was at Wallasey Art College where he met Julia Kneale. Humphreys was instead at Riversdale College studying electronics and communications with Hodgson and Hollas. Humphreys invited Hogson and Hollas to team up with himself and McCluskey, who, in his turn, asked John Floyd, an old school friend, to join this new band. Holmes was also an acquaintance of McCluskey, and had worked with Dalek I Love You and Margox (with Margi Clark).

Once the line-up was established the Id started to gig around the Merseyside (in church halls rather than pubs!) also making it at Eric’s. At this stage they have started writing their own material (many of these numbers would become OMD classics, such as Radio Waves, Red Frame / White Light, and, most noticeably Electricity.

In 1978 things started to change. First, the line-up shrank down to a solid five-piece, after Shenton (who quit to join The Man From UNCLE, for which also Holmes did some drumming). The group began to gig regularly in the Merseyside area, performing original material mostly written by McCluskey and Humphreys, and developing quite a following on the scene. Second, following Roger Eagle’s suggestion the Id – McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes, Hodgson and Hollas − decided to record some of their material, and produced a three-track demo at Open Eye (containing the McCluskey-Humphreys penned numbers Electricity and the acoustic Misunderstanding, plus a number with Kneale’s lyrics to it, hence the title Julia’s Song).

Despite having quite a following in the North, in August 1978, as the band was going to pieces, McCluskey quit to (briefly) join Dalek I Love You, whose use of baking tapes would be inspiring to him and influential for OMD musical style. In this period Humphreys was also experimenting with sounds and radio noises (he had been since his time in college), which were now the basic ingredients for the VCLXI, the first, provisional, name (from a detail on the cover of Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity) for a new project that consisted mainly of Humphreys, McCluskey, and ‘Winston’, a synth operated by Paul Collister. The duo continued as such until December 1979, when Holmes rejoined his bandmates and Dave Hughes (former Dalek I Love You) was added to the line-up especially for live performances.

At about the same time when OMD released their first single (a reworked version of the Id Electricity, whose original demo version appeared also on the Unearthed, Liverpool Cult Classics, Volume 3), another Id number (Julia’s Song) appeared on the compilation record Street to Street: A Liverpool Album (August 1979).

The Open Eye demo has been digitalized and made available in 2002.

(see also: http://www.omd-messages.co.uk/omd/?page_id=17 http://www.answers.com/topic/the-id-1 http://www.myspace.com/orchestralmanoeuvresdark )