There’s an urban myth that OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) were “discovered” by Lindsay Reade, the wife of Factory Records founder, Tony Wilson.
As a local Manchester celebrity and TV presenter, Wilson was often inundated with cassette tapes from bands wanting to get on one of his shows. He kept them all in a shopping bag in his car and would often throw the rejections away, allegedly.
As the story goes, Lindsay reached into the bag one day and played a tape by a “bunch of hairy shits from Liverpool.” Wilson said it was crap, Reade said it was a hit. It was Electricity by OMD.
Founded in 1978, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, have sold over 40 million records, and are considered “one of synth-pop’s most influential bands.” Its original members, Andy McCluskey, and Paul Humphreys, continue to perform at sold-out shows worldwide and write critically acclaimed songs to this day.
One of their biggest hits, If You Leave, was written in a day for John Hughes’s big 80s hit film, Pretty in Pink. It helped the band “break” America and also break into the hearts and minds of every teenage misfit and outcast.
“All the music in John’s movies was the soundtrack of his characters. They're not the jocks and the cheerleaders. They are the outsiders. And what do they listen to? They listen to English imports. And off the top of our heads, we wrote, If You Leave, in a day, and it was massive.” (Andy McCluskey)
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