Electronic Manoeuvres

School friends Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys didn’t start with a clear plan – they simply decided to play a one-off gig at Eric’s Club in Liverpool. To their surprise, what they thought of as just a bit of fun went down a storm. When producers asked whether they wanted to be more like Stockhausen or ABBA, they immediately chose both. The success of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark during the first half of the 1980s confirmed that they were right. However, their experimental approach eventually fell on flat ears; the enforced turn towards synthpop caused a rift, with the band splitting up in 1996. In 2006, the British musicians took up touring again, later returning to the recording studio. On 3 February, they celebrate their 40th anniversary at Studio. (Bartosz Suchecki, “Karnet”)