OMD: S&D

I am super bummed. I bought a ticket to see these guys and was so excited but then booked a trip to see my parents and my return flight doesn't land until nearly 11 the night of the show. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Aw, that sucks :(

Giving this another listen after a break away from it... it's still holding up very well!

Aug. 5:

I have finally arrived home after I collapsed and my heart stopped due to a Cardiac Arrest at the recent OMD Toronto gig. I owe my life to quick thinking members of our crew & band and the Toronto Fire Dept Paramedics who performed CRP and Defibrillation to bring me back to life.

It has been a deeply traumatic time not only for me but the band, crew, management, family, friends and loved ones. I have been overwhelmed with the kind messages of love and support from so many people. I am deeply touched and cannot thank all of you enough.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have helped with my recovery and getting me back home safely …. Toronto Fire Dept Paramedics, Nurses & Dr's in ICU & CCU at Toronto Eastern General Hospital, Dr Lashevsky and his team at Sunnybrook Hospital Toronto, escort Dr Mike Priestnall, Merv and all the OMD crew, the Band, Remi, Simon our tour manager and our awesome manager Mirelle Davis. Lastly … Sabine (my angel) who has held my hand constantly through the darkest of hours.

It's good to be home. Thank you everyone.

Mal x

Yeah, I heard all about that :/ They understandably ended up cancelling the rest of their tour dates as a result. It seemed like they were planning on taking a break from touring after this tour anyway, but it looks like health problems have kinda forced their hand. If the "classic" OMD line-up tours again after this I'll be very surprised, but I hope they at least make one more album at least. It'd be a shame to just leave it here just as they've got things going again.

Unexpectedly strong return to form. Apart from the interstitial bits, this could have come out during their middle peak period and noone would bat an eye.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiUmi1ukaX0

Is this song about losing you virginity? I thought that the first verse described the pov of a young man who has had his first sexual experience with a girl and is filled with feelings of guilt, self hatred and fear that they have created a child together- 'this is the goal, the aim of my life; this is the feeling that brought me about; oh my god, what have I done this time?'

The 'oh my god, what have we done this time' in the second verse described a new stone age created by a nuclear war- humanity's feelings of horror at having created such terrible weapons, at a general level.

'Georgia', later on the same album 'well- look at what we've done; three- three rolled into one' was about the creation of a child again, in that the child is three rolled into one in that it is the combination of its mother, its father and also a third, separate person.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-65-razzle-dazzle/

That's awesome. Honestly, had no idea about that stuff!

I've never actually noticed that before, but I think I know what you mean! It's with the Japanese part isn't it?

"ichi, ni, san, shi..." and then what sounds like "un, dau, tri".

That's actually Russian/Ukrainian after the Japanese: Odin, dva, tri (with a trill on the r)

I'm still listening to English Electric on a regular basis!

Slept on for sure insofar as new releases from "heritage" acts go. Very solid record.

I've gotten very much into Junk Culture lately, particularly the last three songs there, which are fantastic. It's strange to hear them sound so oddly "normal" but the songs are more infectuous and fun than their first four albums, and as such I've been reaching for it an awful lot, even knowing it's probably not the band as their best...

My question is - are the albums past this worth a look? I've heard some not-very-encouraging things about the direction they went in afterwards.

I love Crush. Really don't like anything after though the most recent is OK.

Crush is better than Junk Culture imo, the sound is fairly similar to it's predecessor, but probably even more of a straightforward 'normal' pop album. The quality control goes a bit awry after this, though I think all the albums have some worthwhile tracks on them, I'm particularly fond of 'Walk Tall' from Sugar Tax

Listening to Crush right now and it is sounding pretty great.

I rate Junk Culture quite highly, this thread may be of some interest to you frogbs!

Crush is better than Junk Culture imo, the sound is fairly similar to it's predecessor, but probably even more of a straightforward 'normal' pop album.

Hmm. I disagree about Crush sounding fairly similar to Junk Culture. Crush certainly doesn't have the kind of tropical vibe that Junk Culture has, it's much more of a smoother record IMO. I do like Stephen Hague's production on Crush (his production work on The Pacific Age much less so), and I like a lot of tracks on the record... '88 Seconds In Greensboro' and 'The Native Daughters Of The Golden West' in particular.

My two favourite post-Junk Culture albums are Sugar Tax and English Electric, fwiw.

"Bloc Bloc Bloc" has been on repeat all day, I really like this side of OMD

Okay, so OMD played a special gig last night at the Museum of Liverpool... since Malcolm Holmes is still resting and recuperating from his recent health problems, the trio of McCluskey, Humphreys and Cooper got out and dusted off Winston, their tape machine from their early days for the performance.

Here is the setlist:

Dazzle Ships
ABC Auto-Industry (performed near-enough how they did it in 1983, with the flags)
Sealand
Messages
Radio Waves
Genetic Engineering
History of Modern (Part 1)
Julia's Song
She's Leaving
Souvenir
Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)
4 Neu (Dazzle Ships era B-side, performed live for the first time)
"Radio/Helena Intros"
International (Performed live for the first time)
Metroland
Sister Marie Says
Sailing On The Seven Seas
Enola Gay
Electricity
The Romance Of The Telescope

So, mostly a set made up of tracks from their first four albums, a couple of selections from History of Modern and one each from Sugar Tax and English Electric (surprised they didn't play more from English Electric, actually).

Surprisingly nothing from Junk Culture which has been remastered and is due for release next year, with additional outtakes including the original version of 'Heaven Is' (which later surfaced on Liberator), the original non-reggae sounding version of 'White Trash' and a Paul-sung song which didn't make the final cut and didn't surface as a B-side, which I can't remember the name of. Although, they probably may throw in more tracks from that album when they next get around to touring.

Love to have heard that!

oh wow that sounds amazing

ABC Auto-Industry (performed near-enough how they did it in 1983, with the flags)

siiick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyL1QDXdU8w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOdeFgK7tCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHtLMeAlvTQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ymcMnHzTSQ

Andy and Paul did a Q&A over the weekend where they revealed the state of Mal Holmes' health. Apparently he's well, but he's not able to play drums for the foreseeable future. However, they did reveal that they (Andy & Paul) are working on a new album, with one song revealed to be sounding in the vein of 'Sealand'/'Stanlow', and they're planning a tour for next year.

Because Malcolm Holmes is no longer able to play, they've enlisted the services of Andy's longtime friend (and co-writer on the non-Paul OMD albums) Stuart Kershaw to play drums for OMD for the forseeable future. I have mixed feelings about this: on one hand, he's a guy that's known to OMD fans as part of the extended "OMD family" so to speak, and I'm sure it won't affect the studio work so much (studio-wise, OMD albums tend to be mostly Andy & Paul deals, even the likes of Crush and The Pacific Age, the others contributing where necessary), but I hope he doesn't get involved with the songwriting. They've made such great progress with English Electric that I'd hate to see a return to shite like Liberator. I'm sure that they'll be conscious of that, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psaI9UPVKhI

I thought the first nights performance of 'International' was great enough, but he totally managed to outdo that on the second night. I'm actually still amazed that he pulled it off!

aargh, they are so good live, I hope they swing through Texas again. that set list looks awesome.

Yeah, I'm hoping that next time they tour they'll throw in tracks like 'International' a lot more, especially given the positive reaction from the audience.

Man, I love Organisation so much too, everything about it it is perfect, even the wobbly bits.

I learned some very hilarious news about this band today.

more hilarious than watching Paul dance?

this is what I was talking about http://www.omd.uk.com/story/usa_shows_supporting_barenaked_ladies

Barenaked Manoeuvres in the Dark

omg

Maybe the booker mistook them for OMC

how bizarre

I like both of these bands, so it's not inconceivable to me that there other people who feel the same way (would much rather see Barenaked Ladies opening for OMD than vice versa though)

Aw man, kinda disappointed that this wasn't news of new material - they're apparently working on an album due to come out this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyYaWD3DWIU

This is great, don't be put off by the beginning.

Is that the doc where McCluskey gets out the masters for 'Messages', 'Electricity', 'Enola Gay', 'Souvenir' etc. and breaks them down track-by-track? If so, yeah, that's a good doc... it's impressive how crude some of those melodies actually sound when played dry like that, and it's impressive how they got so much out of the primitive technology of the time.

Sadly, there still doesn't seem to be very much in terms of new news about the forthcoming OMD record which is meant to appear this year... apparently, they've been doing quite a lot of writing, but McCluskey hasn't revealed anything about what they're working on this time around. Hopefully, it'll be a step further in the direction that English Electric took.

So there is a live album from that Museum of Liverpool show.

How's their drummer doing?

Mal Holmes? From what I can gather, he's okay but he's retired from playing live with OMD permanently because of the health risks involved. He still might do studio stuff with OMD, though.

So, according to the information that McCluskey has let slip so far, the next OMD has the working title of Punishment of Luxury and is pencilled in for a March 2017 release. Apparently, Mal Holmes won't feature at all on it, although this all of course may change. Humphreys and McCluskey have been working on quite a fair bit of material, although it's clear they're taking their time with this one and it's hard to say at this stage whether anything they're working on now, or how much of it, will make it to the actual album.

So, they played a gig at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of days ago where they played both Dazzle Ships and Architecture & Morality in their entirety, so further to 'International' getting its debut live airing a couple of years back, they've now aired 'This Is Helena' and 'Silent Running' live for the first time, and they've played 'Telegraph' for the first time since they reformed. I've heard they played some other songs, just as '4 Neu' and 'Almost', but I don't know what else. There was no support act, so quite a long set.