Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

Four decades has seen – give or take a decade break – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark sell an astonishing 25 million singles and 15 million albums, establishing them as electronic synthesiser pioneers and one of Britain’s best-loved pop groups. Their 13 long players include benchmark-raising classics Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (1980), Organisation (1980), Architecture & Morality (1981) and Dazzle Ships (1983). Three more since their reactivation 12 years ago have culminated in 2017’s The Punishment Of Luxury, which was hailed by fans and critics alike as a return to the shimmering brilliance of classic early singles such as nuclear lament Enola Gay and the plangent Souvenir. Their incredible career and 40th anniversary was celebrated in 2019 with the release of a momentous anniversary box-set and critically-acclaimed world tour.

OMD always had a sense of semi-classical grandeur, and the nuances of their music demonstrate how, for all their hits, they have simultaneously remained uncompromising and innovative over successive decades. Once upon a time, Factory boss Wilson told the two teenage Kraftwerk fans, “You are the future of pop music”, and indeed sounds and production techniques which OMD were using way back in 1980 have become part of the fabric of how today’s pop is made.

But while OMD can rightly take their place in the lineage of electronic pop pioneers that stretches from Kraftwerk to Gary Numan, from the Human League to, much later Underworld and Orbital – and a key influence on current acts from the xx to Chvrches – there was always a warmth and wistful emotional quality to their songs that has consistently made them different.

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*Show re-scheduled to 16th October 2021, following the guidance relating to the COVID-19 situation in the UK. All original tickets remain valid for the re-scheduled date. Ticket refunds will be processed by Seetickets. Any refunded tickets will be allocated to the Seetickets waiting list via automated email.*

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The first Wirral show from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark since 1979 will be one of the first full capacity shows at the new Future Yard venue in Birkenhead. “This new venue from Future Yard offers an opportunity for the creative kids on Wirral to test their dreams out in reality, like OMD did 41 years ago,” said OMD’s Andy McCluskey.

The electronic pioneers – who were labelled “Wirral’s Kraftwerk” by The Guardian in a review of their York Barbican show as part of their 40th anniversary tour – will take the opportunity to revisit the material they performed at their last show on the peninsula; at West Kirby Youth Club in August 1979.

The 16th October performance will feature a selection of tracks from the band’s debut album, songs that McCluskey and co-founder Paul Humphreys showcased on that night in 1979. The show will also be a two-man performance, mirroring the original show.

Andy McCluskey: “We would like to celebrate as much as we can about the fact that the last time we played on Wirral, we were still a two-piece and we hadn’t even made our first album. We’d just been made an offer, we were about to go on tour with Gary Numan. Our world was about to change, but this was the closing of chapter one. So it will be nice now to reflect upon that moment again… ‘who would have known, 41 years later?’”

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Support on the night comes from an exciting emerging Wirral artist. MiG-15‘s electric waves of feel-good indie-pop are the hallmarks of the quartet’s groovy enigma.

This show is now SOLD-OUT.