Phil Marsh (co-editor of the OMD Magazine Telegraph) has set up an OMD club page on Yahoo. This is a combined chat/message board system that allows fans to get in touch or leave comments and messages. For more info, go to: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/omd

Pauley Huerta writes to tell us that another new OMD fansite has gone up at http://omd10.homestead.com/ http://omd10.homestead.com/although Pauley adds that the site is still under construction.

Finally, Birthday Greetings to Paul Humphreys who turned 40 today. That's a lot of candles for a cake..;-)

 4th February 2000

More on the Peel Sessions ­ this time from Andy McCluskey himself :

Hi Everyone, I thought I'd write a personal note...

I've been too busy for the last 2 months to even visit the site (been making an Atomic Kitten album) ­ do I hear some people groaning? The guestbook continues to entertain, but all this nonsense about the Kittens... Am I not allowed to have some fun writing pop songs? I did my bit for the "cultural revolution", but if you want to hear the greatest OMD song never recorded by us, wait 'till you hear a song called 'Strangers' on the girls' album.

Now to the important bit: Some info and explanations about Peel Sessions, B Sides and the OMD Singles album. The Peel Sessions release was not an idea of mine. Strange Fruit Records, who specialise in releasing BBC recordings, asked me if I would sanction it and I agreed (I wanted to hear them myself). Virgin, when asked for permission, decided that they could make money themselves so they stole the idea. At least it is coming out ­ some of the versions are quite different, more simple, more raw - and there will be a small bonus. Since we never recorded Electricity for John Peel's show I have been searching for an alternative version ­ there are two possibilities: The original demo version recorded on 'Winston' in our manager's garage in Spring 1979 and released as the Factory Records 'A' Side. Or ­ the one you will all really want ­ The Id in Greasby Library in 1978 rehearsing Electricity with (I think) John Floyd singing with me, not Paul. Now this was recorded on cassette 22 years ago and we are working to clean it up, but we will use it if we can. I have also found the original demo of Almost from the same garage session as Electricity ­ Nobody has ever heard this version as it was Martin Zero's mix that went on the Factory single. I will put this on the B Sides album.

Which brings me to the B Sides album: as some of you recall, this was our plan to fulfil many requests we had through this site. Virgin would not go for it as a double CD along with the Singles album, so we thought we'd do it ourselves. It was going to be a gamble because Virgin wouldn't license it ­ they insisted on manufacturing themselves and selling it to us. We would have to guess how many to order and pay for them up front. We have now decided to wait on this project to see how Virgin do with the Peel Sessions ­ hopefully this will give us an idea of how many of the B-Sides might sell.

Finally - the OMD Singles album. I wanted to do this album for three reasons: Firstly, to remaster all the old songs so that they sound better. Secondly, to make a definitive compilation to prevent Virgin from repackaging the tracks in various sleeves and alternative orders in years to come. And, lastly, so that in the years to come anyone who discovers the band has a ready made source of all the hits, old and new, in one place. Yes, I know one or two may be missing ­ I couldn't get them all on to the single CD that Virgin planned to do. However, I hope that you can see that my reasons were sound and we can stop all the moaning ­ please.

So bye for now, thanks for visiting the site and thanks to Paul Browne for the continued excellent running of omd.uk.com.

Andy

A few points for some fans who might not be aware of OMD's history:

1. The Peel Sessions are a series of songs recorded by OMD during the years 1979-83 for the BBC Radio 1 show presented by John Peel.
2. The Id were the band that Andy and Paul Humphreys were in prior to OMD.
3. John Floyd was co-vocalist with Andy in The Id and was also responsible for co-writing the lyrics to Radio Waves
4. Winston was the name given to OMD's reel to reel tape recorder (owned by OMD's then manager Paul Collister)
5. The late, great Martin 'Zero' Hannett was a producer for the Factory label.

Following the news that the Peel Sessions would now not have any enhanced features in the form of video footage, interesting things have been developing. ..

One thing that was odd about the Peel Sessions was the fact that OMD never recorded a version of Electricity. This was due to the fact that the band wanted to showcase new material, rather than just perform what was, at the time, an available single.

Andy has dug out a copy of a recording session by The Id. This includes an early version of Electricity featuring Andy sharing the vocals with John Floyd. The tape also features Julia's Song with Julia Kneale on lead vocals as well as some other compositions by The Id including Berlin, Yugoslavia and some songs that have never been previously mentioned. Both Electricity and Julia's Song are somewhat different from the later OMD versions as they feature different intros and some changes to the song arrangements.

The plan, at this point, is to assess if the sound quality of the recording is good enough to include the version of Electricty on the Peel Sessions CD as a bonus track. If the recording isn't up to scratch then Andy and Virgin are looking at including the Factory version of Electricity.

Aside from the tape of The Id, Andy discovered a flight case containing tapes featuring some rare OMD material. Andy has unearthed the original demos of Electricity and Almost, recorded in Paul Collister's garage. This version of Electricity was used on OMD's single debut, but the original version of Almost has never been released. Tapes of the Cargo Studios sessions were also found which featured Red Frame/White Light and two mixes of Electricity.

There were also some intriguing demos, including a 1983 song with the working title of Square Dance, the backing tapes used for the Dazzle Ships tour and the original recordings of the speaking clocks featured on Time Zones. Andy also discovered one of the old Mellotrons stored away in a flightcase.

Perhaps we have the start of an OMD museum here ;-)