Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - or OMD to give them the more popular abbreviated version of their name - embraced the synthesizer era of keyboard-driven pop perhaps more enthusiastically than any other band and came to symbolise that 1980s era of British music. Childhood schoolfriends Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys formed various groups together in their teens in the 1970s before deciding to merge melodic pop with the denser, electronic mood music experiments being pursued by artists like Brian Eno and German band Kraftwerk. They had local success separately with The Id and Dalek I Love You, but it was when they united in Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, initially performing as a duo in Liverpool clubs, that their careers really began to take off. Their first single Electricity was released in 1978 and a support tour with Gary Numan the following year raised their profile, resulting in their breakthrough hit Enola Gay - named after the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Their 1981 album Architecture & Morality defined their highly original sound as they augmented synths with Mellotron and had further hits with Joan Of Arc and Maid Of Orleans