Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark tribute

Spending a day with OMD!

A five hour journey across the country from Cornwall to Essex was the start to our day, a very special day where we were going to meet none other than the guys from OMD themselves! After an enjoyable trip which consisted mainly of listening to all of our favourite OMD tracks (and there are a heck of a lot of them..!) we arrived at the venue in Southend-on-Sea very excited and armed with an array of items for them to sign.


We were ushered into the auditorium and were greeted by a gentle wave, smile and ‘hello’ from Paul which was lovely. Andy was also on stage and he came over to say ‘hi’ and tell us that he wouldn’t be dancing around as much as usual because he had damaged his knee walking down some stairs at the previous gig! omd-tributeWe settled in to watch the soundcheck which was going great until an official from the venue came running up shouting to stop the music. What was happening we asked? We looked around and saw the aftermath of a major incident – a £4.99 10 watt ceiling downlighter had popped out of its hole at the back of the venue! The official cordoned off the area for fear that another catastrophe may be about to happen and was considering calling for a buildings inspector to investigate this and to make sure other lights were not going to pop out too and cause major a hazard to life… Phew… after much deliberation it was decided that the concert could go ahead after major repair work was carried out. Well, I say major work, in fact all that happened was that the offending light was popped back into its hole…! omd-tributeFollowing the completion of the shortened but successful soundcheck we gathered in an adjoining room where we had a chat with the guys and they then happily signed the items we had brought with us. Sarah’s original early electronic drum that she asked them to sign caused the most excitement and they said it was up there as one of the most unusual items they have ever signed! After saying our goodbyes, we made our way to the bar to wait a short while for the evenings concert to start. As usual, their performance was stunningly brilliant and the sell out audience was kept fully entranced throughout (and anyone who’s ever been to one of their concerts will know what I mean).


The five hour journey home was again filled with the sounds of OMD emanating from the speakers and we arrived home with big grins on our faces after spending a day in the company of the wonderful Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.