OMG! Exclusive - British band OMD to perform in Manila
What do bands The Killers, The XX, The LCD Sound System and Glasvegas have in common?
OMD, or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, that’s what. The British new wave/synth pop band’s brooding vocals and heavy synths have helped shape these modern musicians’ style and sounds.
And now, OMD is bringing its hits – “If You Leave,” “Secret,” “Enola Gay,” “So In Love” and “Dreaming” – to Manila for the first time.
The band has mixed feelings about the Philippine leg of its “History of Modern” concert tour, set Monday, March 12, 8 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We are excited and a little nervous as we have never played to a Philippine audience before. But we know we will put on a great show and hope the crowd will respond. We will be playing all the songs people know!” original frontman AndyMcCluskey said in an email interview.
With McCluskey in the show are fellow band members Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes.
McCluskey concedes they’ve grown older since they churned out their hits 30 years ago, but hopes they’ve grown wiser as well.
Complete control
Years of making music and performing worldwide have earned the band the right to have complete control of its craft.
“We are now able to play and write without the pressure to please any record label, but just be true to our own feelings, whilst making that we are not self-indulgent and boring! We are lucky to have a back catalogue of songs that seem to be considered “timeless” or “classic” and we make sure that we play them well on stage. The new technology helps on stage, too,” McCluskey explains.
New technology or not, OMD doesn’t see the need to reinvent itself just to keep up with the new bands.
“We did not so much need to reinvent ourselves as wait for people to recognize what we do and stay true to our own sound and style. We don’t feel the need to ‘keep up,’ but just keep doing what we do best,” the band frontman adds.
As strong as ever
“Intelligent and emotional,” that, says McCluskey, is the kind of music the band makes. And people still hear them on the radio because “perhaps the melodies remain strong and the emotions never date.”
The neon colors, shoulder pads, hair gels and hairsprays that characterized the `80s – the time OMD topped radio charts – are gone. But the band is still there with its album tours and plans to write songs for a new CD.
In fact, OMD’s Philippine show is an offshoot of the band’s successful US tour last year. The tour was a hit, so an Asian leg was in order.
If all goes well, the band wants to return to Manila after their Big Dome show.
“Hopefully this is the first of many more (concerts) in the future,” McCluskey crosses his fingers.
This, we’ll find out a few days from now.
