The title actually dates back to the mid to late 70's when Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys were first experimenting under their VCLXI guise. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was one of these early compositions and, according to Andy, featured "three radios and war noises recorded off the telly".

Both Andy and Paul played in bands formed by schoolfriends including Pegasus and Equinox. They later played together in 1977 for a one-off performance by Hitlerz Underpantz which was an ensemble band made up of various musicians for semi-regular concerts. After this, Andy and Paul helped form The Id where a lot of early OMD material was written and performed. Outside of this, Andy and Paul were writing together as VCLXI (the name taken from the back of Kraftwerk's album Radioactivity) and this project was later to transform into OMD.

Outside of some demos recorded by The Id there are no recordings of pre-OMD bands. After a suggestion by Eric's Club proprietor Roger Eagle, The Id went into the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool to record some demos. The band recorded three songs: Electricity, The Misunderstanding and Julia's Song. Julia's Song was later featured on the 1979 compilation album Street To Street Vol. I which featured a range of early material by Liverpool bands including Echo & The Bunnymen and Big In Japan.

An EP featuring The Id songs was released via the Official OMD Website in December 2002.

You can buy copies of The Id EP via the Merchandise Pages.

OMD's debut concert was at Eric's Club in Liverpool on 12th October 1978.

Both Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys never learnt to read music and used their own system of symbols that referred to individual instruments when writing music. This system was more of a visual guide than a serious alternative to standard music notation.

OMD have now reformed and will embark on a series of live performances in Spring 2007.

OMD have written music specifically for films and have also had some songs featured in some film soundtracks:

• Weird Science (1985) featured Tesla Girls.
• Pretty In Pink (1985) featured If You Leave which had been written specially for the film. OMD had originally written Goddess Of Love but the plot of the film had been changed forcing the band to write a new song.
• Static (1985) featured Sealand.
• Playing For Keeps (1986) featured We Love You written specially for the film.
• Arthur 2: Arthur On The Rocks (1988) featured Secret.

OMD split around 1988/89 and followed on from both Andy and Paul beginning to pull in separate musical directions. Paul, Malcolm and Martin were developing their own ideas at the time which they wanted to do outside of OMD. As a result, they formed a new band called The Listening Pool while Andy continued under the name of OMD.

Eric's Club was one of Liverpool's most famous venues frequented by many of the people who would form bands such as Echo And The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. OMD played their debut gig here in October 1978. Due to police pressure during a period of clamp-downs, Eric's Club was closed in March 1980.

When OMD split, Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Mal Holmes decided to form their own band which they called The Listening Pool. The band released a single Oil For The Lamps Of China in 1993 On their own Telegraph label and followed this up with an album Still Life in 1994. The band recorded a series of songs intended for a follow-up album but finally decided to disband The Listening Pool around 1996.

OneTwo is the band formed by Paul Humphreys and Claudia Bruücken (ex-Propaganda).

OneTwo have released an EP and an album is due in 2007.

OMD's initial advance from DinDisc was used to finance and build their own studio in the centre of Liverpool. Named The Gramophone Suite, the studio was based down the road from Eric's Club and was used to record OMD's first album. The studio was closed and put into storage in 1983.

Dalek I Love You were a pioneering Liverpool band formed by Dave Balfe and Alan Gill in 1977. Andy McCluskey was briefly recruited as lead singer in the summer of 1978 and also cited Dalek I Love You as a big influence on OMD, notably their use of backing tracks on stage.

OMD often borrowed equipment from Dalek I Love You and the band supported OMD at the Farewell To Winston tribute concert at Eric's Club in December 1979. OMD also used to do a cover version of a Dalek's song called Two Chameleons at early live performances - a song Andy had considered recording during the initial songwriting period for Sugar Tax. After Paul Collister left managing OMD he managed Dalek I Love You for a brief time in the early 1980's. Dalek I Love You (who were also known as simply Dalek I at one point) released a series of singles and two albums: Compass kum'pas in 1980 And Dalek I Love You in 1983. The band broke up shortly after the last album. In 1985 Alan Gill formed his own Bopadub label and began releasing cassette compilations, one of which was the Dalek I Love You album Naïve.