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| The Plot Against Rock | The Plot Against Rock |
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| Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys have devoted much of their artistic lives to a war on rock nostalgia, but when you’re showing a first-time visitor around Liverpool, what can you do? You’re obliged to end up at the Cavern Club, a not-completely-uncharming replica of the vaulted, subterranean bar where the pre-Fab Four honed their fabulousness. | Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys have devoted much of their artistic lives to a war on rock nostalgia, but when you’re showing a first-time visitor around Liverpool, what can you do? You’re obliged to end up at the Cavern Club, a not-completely-uncharming replica of the vaulted, subterranean bar where the pre-Fab Four honed their fabulousness. |
| The attraction on this early Friday evening was a man in a tank top, who stood on the small stage murdering “Here Comes the Sun” with a piercingly loud acoustic guitar. “This,” said McCluskey, as we took our pints of Guinness and sought shelter inside an archway, “is what we were trying to save the world from.” | The attraction on this early Friday evening was a man in a tank top, who stood on the small stage murdering “Here Comes the Sun” with a piercingly loud acoustic guitar. “This,” said McCluskey, as we took our pints of Guinness and sought shelter inside an archway, “is what we were trying to save the world from.” |
| Just across the road is another bar with a claim to musical history, a dismal spot called Eric’s, where McCluskey and Humphreys performed for the first time, in 1978, as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The headliner was an unknown group from nearby Manchester called Joy Division. McCluskey played bass; Humphreys was on synthesizer. The third member of the band was a tape player loaded with backing tracks, whom they called Winston. | Just across the road is another bar with a claim to musical history, a dismal spot called Eric’s, where McCluskey and Humphreys performed for the first time, in 1978, as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The headliner was an unknown group from nearby Manchester called Joy Division. McCluskey played bass; Humphreys was on synthesizer. The third member of the band was a tape player loaded with backing tracks, whom they called Winston. |
| Though Liverpool of that era had many bands that became legends — Echo and the Bunnymen, the Teardrop Explodes — there wasn’t another one remotely like O.M.D. Inspired by the German group Kraftwerk, they played electronic music. They were oddballs, freaks. | Though Liverpool of that era had many bands that became legends — Echo and the Bunnymen, the Teardrop Explodes — there wasn’t another one remotely like O.M.D. Inspired by the German group Kraftwerk, they played electronic music. They were oddballs, freaks. |
| Thirty-five years later, O.M.D. still doesn’t quite fit in. The genre they helped invent — file under “synth pop” — proved hugely popular through the 1980s but tended to be dismissed unfairly as a hollow, MTV-era fad. Making a comeback at this stage of their lives is about correcting that perception. But there’s something else, too. The day after our outing in Liverpool, McCluskey showed me around his large, elegant house, pausing outside the bedrooms of his two children, empty since the year before last, when his estranged wife moved with them to her native San Diego. Getting back to O.M.D., and the easy compatibility he once shared with Humphreys, is part of another, more personal reclamation project. | Thirty-five years later, O.M.D. still doesn’t quite fit in. The genre they helped invent — file under “synth pop” — proved hugely popular through the 1980s but tended to be dismissed unfairly as a hollow, MTV-era fad. Making a comeback at this stage of their lives is about correcting that perception. But there’s something else, too. The day after our outing in Liverpool, McCluskey showed me around his large, elegant house, pausing outside the bedrooms of his two children, empty since the year before last, when his estranged wife moved with them to her native San Diego. Getting back to O.M.D., and the easy compatibility he once shared with Humphreys, is part of another, more personal reclamation project. |
| Growing up in a suburban village on the Wirral Peninsula, McCluskey and Humphreys, who are both 53, bonded over their shared revulsion of the ’70s-era macho guitar rock their friends adored. They conducted sound experiments in Humphreys’s mother’s small house, using homemade instruments like the “tuba phone,” a five-foot-long cardboard cylinder with a microphone on one end. McCluskey owned a bass but barely knew how to play it. He was right-handed, but it was a left-handed model, because that one had been cheaper, so he played it upside down. Humphreys had electronic devices that he took apart and reassembled into things that made noise. Eventually he saved up enough to buy a synthesizer from a catalog his mother received in the mail. | Growing up in a suburban village on the Wirral Peninsula, McCluskey and Humphreys, who are both 53, bonded over their shared revulsion of the ’70s-era macho guitar rock their friends adored. They conducted sound experiments in Humphreys’s mother’s small house, using homemade instruments like the “tuba phone,” a five-foot-long cardboard cylinder with a microphone on one end. McCluskey owned a bass but barely knew how to play it. He was right-handed, but it was a left-handed model, because that one had been cheaper, so he played it upside down. Humphreys had electronic devices that he took apart and reassembled into things that made noise. Eventually he saved up enough to buy a synthesizer from a catalog his mother received in the mail. |
| Everything they did was improvised, unplanned, jerry-built, including the band’s name, which was taken from a list of song ideas and lyrics McCluskey had scrawled on his bedroom wall. “If we had known we were going to be stuck with this stupid name for 35 years,” he said, “we’d probably have given it more thought.” | Everything they did was improvised, unplanned, jerry-built, including the band’s name, which was taken from a list of song ideas and lyrics McCluskey had scrawled on his bedroom wall. “If we had known we were going to be stuck with this stupid name for 35 years,” he said, “we’d probably have given it more thought.” |
| Little is remembered about the first O.M.D. gig other than that turnout was low, maybe 30 people, and McCluskey was amazed to discover that Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis, had an awkward dancing style similar to his own. From that inauspicious start, however, O.M.D. was emboldened to send a demo to Tony Wilson, the impresario of Manchester’s Factory Records, of a song called “Electricity,” which McCluskey describes modestly (and accurately) as “really just a faster version of ‘Radio-Activity,’ ” one of Kraftwerk’s best-known compositions. | Little is remembered about the first O.M.D. gig other than that turnout was low, maybe 30 people, and McCluskey was amazed to discover that Joy Division’s singer, Ian Curtis, had an awkward dancing style similar to his own. From that inauspicious start, however, O.M.D. was emboldened to send a demo to Tony Wilson, the impresario of Manchester’s Factory Records, of a song called “Electricity,” which McCluskey describes modestly (and accurately) as “really just a faster version of ‘Radio-Activity,’ ” one of Kraftwerk’s best-known compositions. |
| Wilson, they heard, did not personally like the song, but his wife loved it, and so he agreed to put it out as a single. O.M.D. became instantly hot. After a gig in Blackpool, a major-label rep gave them an envelope, which McCluskey tore open in the van as they drove back and read by flashlight. “It’s a seven-album deal,” he announced. “It adds up to over a quarter of a million pounds.” | Wilson, they heard, did not personally like the song, but his wife loved it, and so he agreed to put it out as a single. O.M.D. became instantly hot. After a gig in Blackpool, a major-label rep gave them an envelope, which McCluskey tore open in the van as they drove back and read by flashlight. “It’s a seven-album deal,” he announced. “It adds up to over a quarter of a million pounds.” |
| If it sounds like a young, unknown band ought to be wary of rushing into a seven-album deal, well, that would turn out to be right. | If it sounds like a young, unknown band ought to be wary of rushing into a seven-album deal, well, that would turn out to be right. |
| Two years later, McCluskey and Humphreys had churned out three of those seven albums. They had set up a studio in Liverpool down the block from Eric’s and added a drummer and another keyboardist to the lineup. Their third album, “Architecture & Morality,” scored three Top 5 singles in Britain and sold three million copies worldwide. | Two years later, McCluskey and Humphreys had churned out three of those seven albums. They had set up a studio in Liverpool down the block from Eric’s and added a drummer and another keyboardist to the lineup. Their third album, “Architecture & Morality,” scored three Top 5 singles in Britain and sold three million copies worldwide. |
| McCluskey and Humphreys, however, were broke and still living at home. McCluskey slept in the tiny 6-by-6-foot bedroom he grew up in. His gold albums hung on his mother’s living-room wall. | McCluskey and Humphreys, however, were broke and still living at home. McCluskey slept in the tiny 6-by-6-foot bedroom he grew up in. His gold albums hung on his mother’s living-room wall. |
| Then a record executive came to talk to them about their next album. “He sat us down and said, ‘All you’ve got to do is “Architecture & Morality No. 2,” and you’re going to be the next Genesis,’ ” Humphreys said. “It was completely the wrong thing to say to us.” | Then a record executive came to talk to them about their next album. “He sat us down and said, ‘All you’ve got to do is “Architecture & Morality No. 2,” and you’re going to be the next Genesis,’ ” Humphreys said. “It was completely the wrong thing to say to us.” |
| They spent more than a year agonizing over an experimental opus they called “Dazzle Ships,” doing everything they could to make it sound nothing at all like “Architecture & Morality.” The first single, “Genetic Engineering,” starts with a clattering typewriter and a toy piano and uses synthesized voices recorded from a Speak & Spell. The rest of the record follows abstrusely from there. | They spent more than a year agonizing over an experimental opus they called “Dazzle Ships,” doing everything they could to make it sound nothing at all like “Architecture & Morality.” The first single, “Genetic Engineering,” starts with a clattering typewriter and a toy piano and uses synthesized voices recorded from a Speak & Spell. The rest of the record follows abstrusely from there. |
| Like most declarations of artistic freedom, it was commercial suicide. Sales plummeted to 300,000. “We lost 90 percent of our audience,” Humphreys said. | Like most declarations of artistic freedom, it was commercial suicide. Sales plummeted to 300,000. “We lost 90 percent of our audience,” Humphreys said. |
| But that would be the pivot. With defiance out of their system, O.M.D. forced a renegotiation of their record deal and set their sights on breaking America. Their big shot came when the filmmaker John Hughes asked the band to write a song for the final scene of “Pretty in Pink.” They had a track called “Goddess of Love” all ready to go, but when a new ending had to be shot for the movie — test audiences had flatly rejected Hughes’s original scene, which had Molly Ringwald picking Jon Cryer over Andrew McCarthy — O.M.D. was left with 24 hours to compose the song everyone in America ended up knowing them for. | But that would be the pivot. With defiance out of their system, O.M.D. forced a renegotiation of their record deal and set their sights on breaking America. Their big shot came when the filmmaker John Hughes asked the band to write a song for the final scene of “Pretty in Pink.” They had a track called “Goddess of Love” all ready to go, but when a new ending had to be shot for the movie — test audiences had flatly rejected Hughes’s original scene, which had Molly Ringwald picking Jon Cryer over Andrew McCarthy — O.M.D. was left with 24 hours to compose the song everyone in America ended up knowing them for. |
| It was called “If You Leave.” Hughes loved it, and so did American radio. It went to No. 4 on the U.S. charts and established O.M.D. as stars. But along with the album that preceded it, 1985’s “Crush,” “If You Leave” obscured O.M.D.’s legacy as musical innovators. | It was called “If You Leave.” Hughes loved it, and so did American radio. It went to No. 4 on the U.S. charts and established O.M.D. as stars. But along with the album that preceded it, 1985’s “Crush,” “If You Leave” obscured O.M.D.’s legacy as musical innovators. |
| All these years later, the “If You Leave” aftermath feels a little radioactive for McCluskey and Humphreys. This was when making music to satisfy their own youthful curiosities finally and irrevocably gave way to making music for whoever signed the checks. Not coincidentally, their partnership crumbled, and even now they are reluctant to get into the details. “There really were musical differences,” said Humphreys, opening up a sensitive area that McCluskey quickly tried to close. It was “other people,” he said, “sticking their oar in and pulling us apart.” | All these years later, the “If You Leave” aftermath feels a little radioactive for McCluskey and Humphreys. This was when making music to satisfy their own youthful curiosities finally and irrevocably gave way to making music for whoever signed the checks. Not coincidentally, their partnership crumbled, and even now they are reluctant to get into the details. “There really were musical differences,” said Humphreys, opening up a sensitive area that McCluskey quickly tried to close. It was “other people,” he said, “sticking their oar in and pulling us apart.” |
| Humphreys left the group, while McCluskey soldiered on with the O.M.D. name, making a forgettable series of albums for an increasingly indifferent pop audience. When he despaired of that, he formed Liverpool’s answer to the Spice Girls, a group called Atomic Kitten, and co-wrote a song called “Whole Again,” which went to No. 1 in Britain. But the business got messy again, and he ended up cut out of the deal. “I thought that after 18 years, I knew the music industry,” he said. “I had no idea at all.” | Humphreys left the group, while McCluskey soldiered on with the O.M.D. name, making a forgettable series of albums for an increasingly indifferent pop audience. When he despaired of that, he formed Liverpool’s answer to the Spice Girls, a group called Atomic Kitten, and co-wrote a song called “Whole Again,” which went to No. 1 in Britain. But the business got messy again, and he ended up cut out of the deal. “I thought that after 18 years, I knew the music industry,” he said. “I had no idea at all.” |
| In 2005, a German television show called out of the blue to book O.M.D., and McCluskey and Humphreys, who had barely seen each other for more than a decade, started performing together again. But it was the dissolution of McCluskey’s marriage that inspired him and Humphreys to collaborate almost as they had when they were teenagers, playing with weird noises and mining the Kraftwerk catalog for inspiration. | In 2005, a German television show called out of the blue to book O.M.D., and McCluskey and Humphreys, who had barely seen each other for more than a decade, started performing together again. But it was the dissolution of McCluskey’s marriage that inspired him and Humphreys to collaborate almost as they had when they were teenagers, playing with weird noises and mining the Kraftwerk catalog for inspiration. |
| “We just did what we felt like doing,” Humphreys said. | “We just did what we felt like doing,” Humphreys said. |
| “It was my escape from the misery of the disappointment of the collapse of my marriage,” McCluskey added. “What am I going to do, sit in my house on my own all day long? I had to do something creative.” | “It was my escape from the misery of the disappointment of the collapse of my marriage,” McCluskey added. “What am I going to do, sit in my house on my own all day long? I had to do something creative.” |
| The album “English Electric” has received good reviews, and McCluskey seems to have found a way to unembarrassingly recapture his youth on stage. Playing at the Coachella festival last month with a lineup filled with bands half their age, O.M.D. put on shows that Rolling Stone praised as “shamelessly exuberant.” McCluskey was described, approvingly, as “a walking encyclopedia of New Wave dance moves.” | |
| Not everybody, though, is welcoming them back. Though electronic music owns the charts now, synth pop still carries a stigma. When their first single, “Metroland,” was rejected for a radio playlist in England, McCluskey bristled, remembering what it was like to be a teenager with a taste in music that others considered odd. “I’m angry, but it makes me feel good about us,” he said. “I feel like a kid again.” | Not everybody, though, is welcoming them back. Though electronic music owns the charts now, synth pop still carries a stigma. When their first single, “Metroland,” was rejected for a radio playlist in England, McCluskey bristled, remembering what it was like to be a teenager with a taste in music that others considered odd. “I’m angry, but it makes me feel good about us,” he said. “I feel like a kid again.” |
Hugo Lindgren is the editor of the magazine. He last wrote a Lives column about the East Village in the late ’90s. | Hugo Lindgren is the editor of the magazine. He last wrote a Lives column about the East Village in the late ’90s. |
| Editor: Joel Lovell | Editor: Joel Lovell |
| This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: | |
| Correction: May 10, 2013 | |
An earlier version of this article misstated the title of the band’s latest album. It is “English Electric,” not “English Electro.” |