OMD Tickets

Setting out to resemble the meeting point of ABBA and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark became their own phenomenon as pioneers of synth-pop, and led the line of the famed Second British Invasion in the 80s.

OMD formed in the late 1970s, though Andy McCLuskey and Paul Humphreys had been collaborators and friends most of their lives, having formed the precursor band, The Id, a couple of years previous. As their new iteration, the band made their live debut in 1978 at Eric’s Club in Liverpool and released their debut single ‘Electricity’, which remains one of their biggest hits and considered a crucial contribution to the burgeoning synth-pop wave. OMD began turning heads as they started playing alongside artists such as Gary Numan and Joy Division, across the country.

The band built their own recording studio, Gramophone Suite, to create their eponymous debut. Released in 1980, the album included 'Electricity’ and 'Messages’, their first commercial hit. The album has said to be a huge on influence on everyone from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy to the TV physicist Brian Cox.

Clearly finding their creative flow, that same year OMD released their second album, Organisation, which included their anti-war mega-hit ‘Enola Gay’. Alongside Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper, Humphreys and McCluskey were gaining a name for themselves not just as hitmakers but as a live band too, placing highly in magazines’ end-of-year polls.

‘Souvenir’, ‘Maid of Orleans’ and ‘Joan of Arc’ lead Architecture and And Morality, the band‘s third album in 1981 which explored new sonic territory, and "found a lot of influence in the emotional power of religious music."

The 80s saw a consistent stream of album releases for the group, including Dazzle Ships (1983), Junk Culture (1984), and Crush (1985). OMD enjoyed especial success in the US as part of the Second British Invasion; alongside the release of The Best Of OMD in 1988, the companion single ‘Dreaming’ was a US chart hit.

The 90s saw McCLuskey help Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark alone, still managing to chart with tracks including ‘Sailing on the Seven Seas‘ and ‘Pandora’s Box’. The original formation reunited in 2005 for a German TV show performance, and the following years saw several re-releases and remasters of their original albums – as well as a cover of Atomic Kitten‘s ‘Whole Again‘.

In 2010, they released their 11th studio album, History of Modern, followed by English Electric three years later, which saw them take to the stage at Coachella festival. Their album,The Punishment of Luxury, was released in 2017 before they celebrated their 40th anniversary with a UK and European tour.

The band announced that their 14th album, Bauhaus Staircase, would be released in October 2023 – and would likely be their last – and followed with a UK tour throughout February and March 2024.