ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK
‘No, that’s just a bit too weird for us.’ At the time, Virgin
joked through gritted teeth that Dazzle Ships shipped
gold and returned platinum.” Paul notes wryly: “I can
see why it wasn’t a hit. We’re incredibly proud of
Dazzle Ships, but when we listened back to the
individual parts when we reformed to play live again,
I did think, ‘Wow! What were we on?’”
After its multi-platinum predecessor, Dazzle Ships
sold just 200,000 copies. The reaction was 1984’s
Junk Culture, whose title signifi ed, in Paul’s words, “We
got scared and thought, ‘Let’s abandon Stockhausen
and become ABBA for a bit.’” Locomotion is an
incredible earworm, but it marked OMD starting to
play safe – with America fi nally catching on to the
group at their artistic nadir when If You Leave was
featured on the Pretty In Pink soundtrack.
OMD’s scandalous record contract gave them no
respite. Andy details how the band were on a 6%
royalty rate, or just 4% in Europe. Producer Mike
Howlett was on 3% royalties – which came from
OMD’s share. From the remaining 1-3%, OMD had to
pay back recording costs, advances, tour support, the
rest of the band’s wages... “For every £1 Virgin gave
us, they took back £3,” says a remarkably calm Andy.
Paul adds: “It wasn’t like we went stupid and bought
yachts. We just wanted mortgages – we were still
living at home after Architecture & Morality, asking
Virgin, ‘How come we
can’t afford to move out
when we’ve sold all
these records?’”
OMD’s American
management didn’t help,
cajoling the band into
countless US tours where they lost more money until If
You Leave fi nally succeeded. It included support on
two of the most notoriously debauched tours of all time:
The Power Station’s in 1986 and, two years later,
playing before Depeche Mode to 95,000 fans at
Pasadena Rose Bowl, captured on Anton Corbijn’s
groundbreaking documentary 101. “Playing stadiums
was as frightening as it was fun,” admits Paul. “You
settle in after two songs, but at fi rst it’s terrifying. I still
had good eyesight then, so I could see those 95,000
faces all the way to the back.”
Asked which of the tours was more crazed, Paul
plumps for The Power Station. “The drugs were insane
in the 80s and it was particularly insane in 80s
America,” says Paul. “There was just an enormous
amount of drugs on The Power Station tour. Everybody
was on drugs. You’d go backstage and people you’d
never seen before in your life would be there with a
giant mirror, racking out huge lines of coke, shouting
over, ‘Want one?’ Quite how we managed to get
through those times, I don’t know.”
Paul and Andy indulged, but it wasn’t especially
hedonistic. “We were on a never-ending treadmill,”
says Paul. “We did more drugs than we should
because we were compensating for the fact that we
were just exhausted. Because of our shitty deal, we’dWhile Andy McCluskey kept the OMD name, Paul
recruited the band’s drummer Malcolm Holmes and
keyboardist Martin Cooper for The Listening Pool. With
Malcolm and Martin wanting to write as well, before
OMD split Andy and Paul briefl y toyed with trying to
make an album where Andy wrote one side and Paul,
Malcolm and Martin the other. The Listening Pool
eventually released one album, 1994’s patchy Still Life.
Paul also had his own spell as a label boss, forming Telegraph
Records to release Liverpool musicians including Lotus Eaters singer
Peter Coyle and China Crisis. “Telegraph was a fun time,” he says. “But
then my divorce hit and I lost the plot for a little while before moving
back to the UK.”
Once back home, Paul formed Onetwo with his then-
partner, Propaganda singer Claudia Brücken. Their only
album Instead emerged in 2007, by which time OMD had
reformed. Claudia and Paul have since split and Humphreys
is now happily remarried, but he remains proud of Onetwo’s
album, saying: “Instead is a really nice record. Claudia is the
most amazing singer who can carry any tune and it was a lot
of fun touring the world supporting Depeche Mode and Erasure
before OMD reformed. Writing the Onetwo single Cloud Nine
with Martin Gore was a treat.”
ONETWO FREE