THEN & NOW: OMD – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

It’s about time we featured OMD on this site! They’ve been going since 1978 and with a few lineup changes along the way, the core members have always been Andy McClusky, Martin Cooper and Paul Humphreys. The band scored a number of chart hits throughout the 80’s and 90’s before putting things on hold only to come back 10 years later in 2006.

Since then, there have been three more studio albums and the promise of a fourth ‘very soon’. In 2019 they released their ultimate best of, “Souvenir – The Singles 1979–2019”, a celebration of 40 years of chart hit singles, taking its title from their 1983 UK top three smash.

Back in 1980, they hit the big time with the single “Enola Gay”, an anti-war song about the US airforce plane Enola Gay that bombed Hiroshima in 1945. “Enola Gay” became their first top ten hit around the world and arguably their signature tune. OMD have spent 2022 touring the world and making regular appearances at 80’s festivals up and down the UK, where “Enola Gay” is always centre-piece.

“Enola Gay” 1980