Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the band behind hit songs such as “Enola Gay” and “If You Leave”, were permanently in debt despite their success.
The electronic pop band was formed in Merseyside in 1978 by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – their first gig was “a dare”, but today they are regarded as pioneers in their field.
Yet, the duo say, any money made at the height of their fame went back to their label as they were “always in debt”.
“Believe me, we weren’t buying yachts and castles,” McCluskey told The Times in an interview this week. “We sold millions of records and we were skint. We had signed a deal aged 19, so it was a case of sign here and regret it for the rest of your life.”
OMD signed a seven-album deal with Dindisc, an imprint of Virgin Records. “Any money we were making was feeding back into the band to keep it alive and we kept having to take advances to make new records so we were always in debt,” Humphreys said.
The band’s co-founder and keyboard player, 66, said the situation became particularly bad after they returned from a US tour with Depeche Mode in 1988, apparently owing £1m to Virgin Records.
“It was soul-destroying,” McCluskey said. “We made a best-of album to clear the debt but by then we were exhausted… That’s why we were jealous of Depeche Mode. When they sold millions of records, they made millions. When we sold millions of records, Virgin made millions.”
The pair first met aged seven in Merseyside, where they discovered their mutual love of electronic pop music, Kraftwerk in particular. “As the melody to ‘Airwaves’ started, I grabbed Paul by the lapels and we were jumping”, McCluskey recalled in a 2013 interview with The Independent.
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“[1975 album] Radio-Activity was our Bible. To two kids from a working class background who had almost nothing, here was a record that we loved, and we were like, ‘They’ve made a record using Geiger counters, chopped-up vocals and interference from radios. WE can do that!’”
Humphreys left OMD in 1989, feeling burnt out and disillusioned by the disappointing commercial response to their experimental album Dazzle Ships. He and McCluskey reunited in 2009 for a series of live shows and are still active today.
Their latest album, Bauhaus Staircase, was released in 2023 to positive reviews. They are on tour now.
