Good news regarding the planned OMD B-Sides album. Sales of the Peel Sessions album have been healthy and appear to have convinced Virgin about the viability of the B-Sides album. Although we are still in the early stages, positive talks are underway and we'll post up more news as we get it.

Andy has also re-emphasised his desire to include unreleased OMD songs on the B-sides album.

Talks are also underway regarding a US release for the Peel Sessions album.

The OMD Website upgrade is well under way and we're getting very close to relaunching the website. At the moment, the main area of work is the Discography which is undergoing not only some extensive revision work on the existing entries, but also the addition of two new sections to the Discography itself.

The work on the website will mean that there may well be some disruption to the usual service. We'll try and post details of these during the relaunch period, but please be patient while the work is in progress.

Synthpop music magazine Lexicon are planning an OMD tribute album featuring contributions from amateur bands and musicians.

Lexicon are asking for bands to record their own versions of OMD songs for consideration. As an incentive, Lexicon are planning to tie this project in with the Nordoff Robbins charity who specialise in music therapy for autistic and troubled children.

Keeping their aims high, Lexicon have also propositioned Atomic Kitten to record their own version of an OMD song ;-)

The planned album is due to be issued jointly by Synthpony/Ninthwave Records this Autumn.

Interested parties should send their contributions on CDR to:

Dave
Lexicon
PO Box 1734
Wheaton MD 20915

More dates have been added to the schedule for Paul Humphreys' US Tour:

More details on the tour are available from the Bonaire Website.

The Anaheim concert at the Sun Theatre will also be the focus of an OMD fan gathering organised by Pat Fetty. Pat is responsible for the large US fansite The World Of OMD. More details as we get them.

We have now exhausted our original supplies of the signed Peel Sessions album. Although we had originally planned to phase out signed copies, Andy has generously agreed to sign the sleeves for the next batch. If you are planning on ordering the album, or if you've placed an order already, please note that the next batch will be signed by Andy McCluskey only.

The OMD Website is about to undergo some major changes. As well as some new features, many of the existing areas of the site will be upgraded and expanded. Stay tuned for more details..

Many thanks to those people who have emailed us with details on Paul Humphreys' forthcoming US Tour. We are aware that some outlets are still promoting this as an OMD Tour, but Paul's management has assured us that they are doing their best to rectify the situation.

The confirmed tour dates and venues for Paul Humphrey's performances are as follows:

Fin Music, Mal Holmes' internet-based music label, sent us an update on their current activities. Mally has been in the US securing deals to licence various material for downloads and mail order. Among the artists is Delcimore featuring the vocal talents of Cyndi Lauper) and the first solo album from Bush guitarist Nigel Pulsford.

Fin are also promoting the release of Dean Johnson's Loser Friendly album. Samples are available for download and Fin comment that the album has been described in the music press as a "little gem" , "cracking stuff" and "a fascinating album". Mal has also gone back to his roots to play drums on the album.

Mal adds that Fin will shortly be involved with Rolling Rock whom Mal descibes as "the most exiting full-on brain crushing rock band to emerge in years". More info from the Fin website: www.finmusic.com

There has been a lot of speculation and rumour concerning Paul Humphreys' plans to tour the US later this year. Unfortunately, despite our statement on the News page on 26.06.00, we seem to have been cast as the 'bad guys' in this whole scenario.

To recap and update on the situation: Paul Humphreys had originally planned to feature some OMD songs in a set that Claudia Brücken and himself would be performing. The songs chosen were ones Paul had written and sung whilst in OMD, namely Souvenir, Secret and (Forever) Live & Die. The promoters of this tour were, obviously, not so confident in promoting a live concert that would only be partially an OMD set. There was a risk that Paul's fees would be reduced as a result unless the shows could guarantee a larger percentage of OMD material. Because of this, the setlist was increased to include more OMD songs.

Andy McCluskey legally owns the name OMD and Paul Humphreys had, obviously, asked Andy if he had any objections to the original idea. Andy was happy with the plan in principle as long as the tour was promoted as 'Paul Humphreys From OMD' and not as 'OMD'. The addition of the extra songs and the subsequent fradulent promotion of the tour went far beyond the original agreement. On top of this, Paul's manager attempted to bypass ourselves and post messages on the OMD Guestbook which we felt was unprofessional. This was the reason why the Guestbook was temporarily closed while we could assess the situation and prepare a statement.

Paul Humphreys was very enthusiastic to do this tour and as a result Andy has relented on his objections to the live performances.

We still cannot give OMD fans any solid information on what these concerts will feature as we don't know for sure ourselves. From what we do know, the set will feature 8 OMD songs which will be sung by both Paul and also Claudia Brücken in rearranged cover version styles.

Paul's management's website, which will feature more details, is available by clicking here: www.maytrees.clara.net/index.htm

The July edition of Record Collector features a websites article entitled Liverpool Post Punk. The feature includes a look at the Official OMD Website and the reviewer comments:

"Official websites are supposed to be cheap, crappy promotional tools, but this is the third good one in a row"

Pat Fetty's World Of OMD website also gets a mention, but strangely no mention of the Telegraph website or the LiveArc project.

The article also covers websites that feature Julian Cope,Echo & The Bunnymen and Frankie Goes To Hollywood and is an interesting read.