OMD + WALT DISCO – WINTER GARDEN, EASTBOURNE 27.3.24
Synth pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) have closed their 22 date UK & Ireland tour with two Sussex concerts. Last night they played here in town at Brighton Dome and tonight they opened up their Eastbourne account with a solid performance at the Winter Garden. With two concerts organised within close proximity, it was relatively easy for us to decide to review the latter of the two concerts, however there are always clashes of gigs and thus for myself personally I had to tonight forgo the delights of rising stars Chalk at the Green Door Store, and last night we dipped out of OMD in favour of Welsh singing indie trio Adwaith who were playing at The Hope & Ruin (Review HERE). This has proved to be the correct decision as last night’s Brighton show was halted after their third track ‘Tesla Girls’ due to a medical emergency. OMD posted on social media that it was “Such a wonderful evening. Thanks everyone who came to the show and showed lots of love to us and Walt Disco. And thank you for your patience when we had to stop for a medical emergency in the audience. See you all again soon X”.
Despite having originally formed way back in 1978, this current tour signified another first for the band as they played their biggest ever London headline show at London’s O2 Arena a few days ago on 24th March. Clearly they are a band who are still in demand, but I guess it’s to be expected as they have thus far shifted an astonishing 25 million singles and 15 million albums, which has established them as electronic synthesiser pioneers and one of Britain’s best-loved pop groups. Their 14 albums thus far have been ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’ (1980), ‘Organisation’ (1980), ‘Architecture & Morality’ (1981), ‘Dazzle Ships’ (1983), ‘Junk Culture’ (1984), ‘Crush’ (1985), ‘The Pacific Age’ (1986), ‘Sugar Tax’ (1991), ‘Liberator’ (1993), ‘Universal’ (1996), ‘History Of Modern’ (2010), ‘English Electric’ (2013), ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ (2017) and the latest and highest album chart placing ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ (2023) which burst in at No.2. This new album sees the band’s most explicitly political record and the crowning achievement of their desire to be both Stockhausen and Abba – born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown. A broad, electronic, sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future, it was predominantly written, recorded, and mixed by both McCluskey & Paul Humphreys.
Over the past ten months Eastbourne’s Winter Garden has centrally placed itself as THE venue with the most surprises. From absolutely nothing of interest for many years, they have now since last May hosted sold out concerts from Blur (Review HERE), Peaches, and Suede (Review HERE). Will this evening’s 93 minute 24 track concert be just as good as the Blur and Suede one’s I attended? Well let’s see shall we……
The house lights go out at 9:02pm and the backing intro film for ‘Evolution Of Species’ from 2023’s ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album plays out as the quartet of Andy McCluskey (vocals, Fender Jazz bass guitar, keyboards), Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), Martin Cooper (keyboards, saxophone) and Stuart Kershaw (drums), who are all dressed in black, take to the expansive stage to huge cheers from the full capacity crowd. After the intro tune’s conclusion they launch into ‘Anthropocene’ also from ‘Bauhaus Staircase’, and Andy says “Hello, welcome to the last night of our tour. You may notice we don’t give a f*ck tonight”. He then straps on his cordless Fender Jazz bass and they fly into ‘Messages’ which is quite possibly their best ever tune. The dad dancing begins from him and it’s a decent delivery from them. Obviously Andy makes maximum use of the width of the stage throughout the performance and smiles and engages with eye contact and points to members of the crowd for that one-to-one closeness factor. Stage right (our left) is Martin who is seated behind his laptop and keyboard, centre rear of the stage on the high-rise is Stuart behind his drumkit, and stage left (our right) is Paul who is standing and as ever on keys and laptop, he notably is wearing specs, but these get removed when he eventually comes to the front to sing his tune.
Every song has a backing film which adds to the enjoyment of the performance, some more alluring than others. The lighting is good and the sound is crisp and relatively loud but thankfully not as loud as the ear ringing Blur and Suede gigs here. There’s always friendly banter between Andy and Paul on stage although they did go their separate ways from 1989 to 1996 when Paul left the band and Andy carried on, but thankfully that’s all water under the bridge and they have been on the case since reconvening back in 2006. Next up is ‘Tesla Girls’ which Andy introduces as “testicles”, it’s not a load of balls either, it’s a great delivery! After this we learn that ‘Kleptocracy’ from the latest platter is about politicians. Andy then says that “you’re going to dance up and down to a song about the end of the Universe”, cue ‘History Of Modern (Part 1)’ from 2010’s ‘History Of Modern’ album.
Paul then says “it’s not this hot in Hollywood!” and Andy says “we had better find a link to Hollywood” and then namedrops Molly Ringwald which can only mean one thing, it’s time for their contribution to ‘Pretty In Pink (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)’ in the form of ‘If You Leave’, which for me is a very middle of the road tune and a weak inclusion in this tour set. Sadly for me, there are to be several others of these during the set, where these were released from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s, which was very music for the masses radio safe American market pushing no boundaries material. OMD before that were unique and out there and experimental and exciting, but this dwindled away after ‘Dazzle Ships’ and only really returned with the release of 2013’s ‘English Electric’ and 2017’s ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’. Shamefully there are no cuts from these last two albums tonight and I understand they may have been dropped due to the arrival of ‘Bauhaus Staircase’, which although is along the same lines, isn’t quite as good, but the lads could have dropped a fair few older mediocre numbers for this tour. Oh if only I could select their touring tracks!
Moving on…or maybe not, next up is the bland ‘(Forever) Live And Die’ from 1986’s ‘The Pacific Age’ album, which sees Paul come out front (minus specs) and Andy replacing him on keys for this slower middle of the road tune. Normality was resumed with the arrival of the title tune from ‘Bauhaus Staircase’, followed by a trio of 1981/2 hits in the form of ‘Souvenir’, ‘Joan Of Arc’ and ‘Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)’ from their ‘Architecture & Morality’ album. For ‘Souvenir’ Paul was back on vocals but not out front, but still stationed behind his keys and so as not to detract from his singing, Andy and his bass were positioned to the rear of the stage on the drumkit rise. Andy was back out front for the two ‘Joan Of Arc’s with handclaps and plenty and accompanying Ian Curtis dancing. Their reward at the end of the trio was the loudest applause yet.
There’s a gap in the live music with the arrival of ‘The Rock Drill’ (on tape) (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ deluxe edition album). This is played whilst the roadies move about the equipment so that the quartet and stand front of stage in a line Kraftwerk style, so they can deliver two more cuts from the ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album, these being ‘Veruschka’ and ‘Healing’. Sadly for the first of these Martin’s keyboard (out front) doesn’t appear to be working and so a swift retreat back to base is required. The techie moves the wires at the back and for ‘Healing’ all is well and Martin joins the fold. Stuart’s drumpads out front look cool as he bashes away like electronic pioneers hard CORPS used to. ‘Veruschka’ is an atmospheric electronic number that’s a decent tune and well worthy of its inclusion for the tour, as is the Kraftwerk-esque ‘Healing’. They returned back to their positions for the standalone sharp electronic sounding and bouncy ‘Don’t Go’ single from 2019, which is worthy of its inclusion.
Having delivered some decent sounding electronic compositions, it was back to Radio2 land for a quartet of crowd pleasing tunes, that I personally could do without on the next tour, these being ‘So In Love’ from 1985’s ‘Crush’ album with its saxophone break courtesy of Martin; the USA radio safe 1988 ‘Dreaming’ single from ‘The Best Of OMD’ compilation album; 1984’s ‘Locomotion’ (from ‘Junk Culture’); and finally ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’ (from 1991’s ‘Sugar Tax’). The final number from the main set saw them leave to tremendous cheers, this being arguably their most well known tune, the timeless classic that is ‘Enola Gay’, during which Andy’s milking of the crowd hits a performance high and the band are clearly very pleased with the response, so not so old Eastbourne then guys!
There was an encore of three songs, the first two were strange choices, the first being ‘Look At You Now’ which is from ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ and possibly the least immediate track on the LP, although throughout this time there was copious amounts of (led) arm waving. The second selection was the toe tapping ‘Pandora’s Box’ (from 1991’s ‘Sugar Tax’ album, which certainly isn’t an encore tune, whereas closing number ‘Electricity’ is immense!!!!!! As Andy said “it’s the oldest and fastest song we’ve got!”. This was a great delivery to finish off the UK tour and Andy said that they would return and “play to you’ll and see us all again”. Hopefully not to the detriment of a Brighton concert methinks.
So in conclusion, OMD are a fab band and always enjoyable to see, but Andy and Paul, let me choose your setlist next time around. Was the excitement as big as seeing Blur and Suede at the Winter Gardens, strangely not quite, despite OMD being my fave of the three bands. Roll on the next tour, don’t leave it too long!
OMD:
Andy McCluskey – vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, guitar (1978–1996; 2006–present)
Paul Humphreys – keyboards, vocals (1978–1989; 2006–present)
Martin Cooper – keyboards, saxophone (1980–1989; 2006–present)
Stuart Kershaw – drums (1993; 2015–present)
OMD setlist:
Into tape: ‘Evolution Of Species’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Anthropocene’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Messages’ (from 1980 ‘Messages’ single)
‘Tesla Girls’ (from 1984 ‘Junk Culture’ album)
‘Kleptocracy’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘History Of Modern (Part 1)’ (from 2010 ‘History Of Modern’ album)
‘If You Leave’ (from 1986 ‘Pretty In Pink (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)’ album)
‘(Forever) Live And Die’ (from 1986 ‘The Pacific Age’ album)
‘Bauhaus Staircase’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Souvenir’ (from 1981 ‘Architecture & Morality’ album)
‘Joan Of Arc’ (from 1981 ‘Architecture & Morality’ album)
‘Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans)’ (from 1981 ‘Architecture & Morality’ album)
‘The Rock Drill’ (on tape) (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ deluxe edition album)
‘Veruschka’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Healing’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Don’t Go’ (from 2019 ‘Don’t Go’ single)
‘So In Love’ (from 1985 ‘Crush’ album)
‘Dreaming’ (a 1988 single from ‘The Best Of OMD’ compilation album)
‘Locomotion’ (from 1984 ‘Junk Culture’ album)
‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’ (from 1991 ‘Sugar Tax’ album)
‘Enola Gay’ (from 1980 ‘Organisation’ album)
(encore)
‘Look At You Now’ (from 2023 ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ album)
‘Pandora’s Box’ (from 1991 ‘Sugar Tax’ album)
‘Electricity’ (from 1980 ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’ album)
Tour support has come from Glaswegian glam-pop, pomp-rock, queer New Romantic collective Walt Disco who we have previously witnessed performing live at the Concorde 2 when supporting the wonderful Nation Of Language on 28th September 2023 and also at the ‘Mutations’ festival on 3rd November 2023 when they played at the Dust venue in East Street, Brighton.
Walt Disco have been ploughing their own unique furrow and developing their musical style and career paths for at least six years and it now appears that the world is getting ready and adjusting their mindset in order to lap up everything that this outfit has to offer. It seems that their previous eleven singles and debut album ‘Unlearning’, which dropped on 1st April 2022, are water under the bridge and that moving forward their forthcoming ‘The Warping’ album which is scheduled to be released on 14th June (via Lucky Number), will quite possibly have a similar impact and excitement of when the likes of Queen unleashed their ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’, ‘Killer Queen’ and ‘Now I’m Here’ early singles. It’s a breath of fresh air when you come across a band that are doing their own thing and are quite difficult to pigeonhole and certainly Walt Disco falls into this category. To me they are an amalgam of a whole host of acts and artists that have come before and all mixed up into a new sound. I hear the sounds of Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) in 1972’s ‘Cabaret’ film; there’s the operatic vocal delivery akin to Dundee’s Billy Mackenzie (RIP) of The Associates which ranges freely from a rich baritone to soaring falsetto; there’s the 1972-74 period Roxy Music; there’s Berlin Trilogy Bowie; there’s Classix Nouveaux and New Romantic; there’s 1970’s Sparks in there; there’s Martin Fry’s ABC; there’s even toes dipping into Gary Numan and Nine Inch Nails – it’s all in there! No wonder Andy McCluskey was gushing about Walt Disco this evening, who will also be joining OMD on their forthcoming tour of America.
The above mix of styles are evident tonight for Walt Disco’s 31 minute 9 tune set which runs from 8pm to 8:31pm. The venue welcomes Jocelyn Si (fka James Potter) on lead vocals, Charlie Lock (Squier Precision bass, backing vocals), Finlay McCarthy (guitar, Roland keys and another keyboard plus backing vocals), Lewis Carmichael (guitars) and Jack Martin (drums and drumpads) to stand in a straight line near the edge of the stage in front of the large green curtains which remain closed in order to keep OMD’s stage set a secret to those who haven’t already attended any of the previous tour dates. Walt Disco kick off with a trio from the forthcoming LP, starting with their sub one minute warm up track ‘Seed’ which morphs into ‘Gnomes’ which is laden with ‘Party Fears Two’ (The Associates) cabaret vibes, and then into ‘Come Undone’ which reminded me of a chugging beat style version of David Bowie’s 1979 ‘DJ’ single from the ‘Lodger’ album.
The first of three tracks from their debut ‘Unlearning’ album was next in the form of ‘How Cool Are You?’ which is a slower track that also oozes Bowie but mixed in with Sparks. Another trio from the soon to be released record are the next selections, starting with ‘You Make Me Feel So Dumb’ which reminds me of ABC’s ‘When Smokey Sings’. Finlay then trades in his keyboards for a guitar for ‘Pearl’ which is a less immediate number, and after which he gets back behind the keys for ‘Black Chocolate’, which benefits from his deep bass synth notes throughout. Your eyes can’t help by being drawn to Jocelyn who cuts a captivating figure, especially on this number, with more Billy Mackenzie style vocals. This tune went down an absolute storm with the punters, which isn’t surprising and most people love black chocolate anyway!
Finlay switches to guitar, to join Lewis on the other for the jaunty sounding slow chugging ‘Macilent’, which saw Walt Disco offering their heavier sound and thus wandering into Nine Inch Nails territory and Jocelyn briefly stands atop the drumkit and encourages the crowd to clap. They signed off with ‘Weightless’ which was another heavy sounding dance epic, which witnessed Finlay juggling between synths and guitar. If he heard it, I’m sure Gary Numan would be a fan of this track. Interestingly the house lights were raised prior to the end of the set as in to tell the guys they have just overrun, but although not initially appreciated by the band, it did actually do them a favour as they could now see just how much the punters loved them.
Walt Disco:
Jocelyn Si (James Potter) – vocals
Charlie Lock – bass, backing vocals
Finlay McCarthy – guitar, keys and backing vocals
Lewis Carmichael – guitars
Jack Martin – drums
Walt Disco setlist:
‘Seed’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘Gnomes’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘Come Undone’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘How Cool Are You?’ (from 2022 ‘Unlearning’ album)
‘You Make Me Feel So Dumb’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘Pearl’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘Black Chocolate’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘The Warping’ album)
‘Macilent’ (from 2022 ‘Unlearning’ album)
‘Weightless’ (from 2022 ‘Unlearning’ album)
Thankyou Nick 🙂