Judging from feedback, Paul Humphrey's US tour appears to be getting a positive feedback from those fans who have attended the concerts. As well as performing some new songs he's composed with Claudia Brücken, Paul has been playing many classic OMD songs including (Forever) Live And Die, Secret, If You Leave and Messages.

Paul and Claudia's next concert is scheduled for 28th September at the Cajun House, Scotsdale, Arizona. More details are availible on the Events page or directly from Paul's site at www.mystereality.net.

Atomic Kitten have won the Best New Band at the Disney Channel Awards. The girls are also currently doing very well in Asia, clocking up sales of 100,000 records as well as making a big impact in both China and Japan. Their new single Follow Me is now scheduled for release on October 9th (and is already getting more radio play than previous singles!) with the album put back to October 23rd.

Andy and Stuart are also already starting work writing material for Atomic Kitten's next album.

A final note: If anyone is thinking of sending emails with attachments such as graphic files, can they please check with us in advance. We recently had our mail server clobbered with a series of *very* large emails which, in the end, had to be deleted as they were holding up regular mail getting through. Thanks!

Another update on that internet radio broadcast scheduled for September 27th from Bob Hanley who writes:

"Just thought that I would send you the link for the internet radio broadcast. The "tune in" link will become active 1/2 hour before the broadcast to allow people time to get connected. There will be some kind of sound during this time before the show so that I can trouble shoot any problems with the stream"

Atomic Kitten are currently touring in Asia but the girls have a new single scheduled for release on the 2nd October. Their debut album will follow on the 16th October. More details and current tour pics are available from the Official Atomic Kitten website at www.atomickitten.com.

The Messerschmitt Twins now have their own domain name. Anyone interested in all the news and gossip on the band can now go to www.mtwins.co.uk to visit their website.

We've recently had a few emails recently from people inquiring about OMD tour dates with some fans apparently still being confused with Paul Humphreys' current tour.

OMD are not touring at this point in time and there are no plans to do live perfomances in the near future. However, Paul Humphreys (along with Claudia Brücken) will be playing a few concerts in the US performing many OMD songs. Paul's next concert is scheduled for tomorrow in Anaheim, California. More details are availible on the Events page.

Pat Fetty is also organising an after-show party at a hotel (The Hawthorn Suites) near the venue.

Bob Hanley points out a correction on the forthcoming Peel Sessions broadcast: The show actually starts at 9.00pm UK time rather than 9.00am as previously reported.

Bob also sheds some light on the activities of his band Invisible College: Some time ago, the band were working on a CD of OMD songs which was going to be made available free to OMD fans featuring songs such as Maid of Orleans, 2nd Thought and Gravity Never Failed.

"I had begun working on The Romance of the Telescope for that CD when I heard about the Lexicon album. After a lot of thought messing around on the keyboards, we had it narrowed down to Red Frame/White Light and The Romance of the Telescope (Messages was briefly considered)"

Unfortunately, a computer crash trashed most of the songs the band had been working on. Luckily, The Romance Of The Telescope survived the crash and this is the song they're contributing to the Lexicon album.

The planned mini-CD (which has the working title of Orchestral Manipulations) is still in development, although the track listing is being revised with Messages replacing Maid Of Orleans. A preview of Invisible College's Club Mix of Messages is available here: http://root0.intervu.net/smirror/ubl/mp3/448/8/81/28788/Invisible_Co-Mixed_Messa.mp3

Discussions regarding the B-Sides Album are still in progress. While we have no definite information to pass on at this stage, we will post up details as soon as we get them.

An internet radio service are planning a live broadcast of the Peel Sessions. This event is scheduled for September 27th at 9.00am (UK time) and as well as the Peel Session songs, there will also be B-Side songs played and requests are welcome. Following this broadcast, there are plans to feature an OMD album every week. More details on the broadcast, and the software needed to hear it, are available from www.shoutcast.com.

This info came (indirectly) from Bob Hanley who is part of a band called Invisible College. Bob and the band are contributing to the Lexicon OMD Covers album (as mentioned previously on the News page) and although his website www.invisible.8m.com is currently undergoing redevelopment, there is a brief MP3 of their version of The Romance Of The Telescope which is pretty good.

Many thanks to all those people who have commented on the new design of the Official OMD Website. Some of the changes were influenced by people's suggestions so please let us know if there's anything you'd like to see on the site.

Synthpop music magazine Lexicon are still working on their OMD cover versions album. As previously reported, this album will feature contributions from amateur bands and musicians covering classic OMD songs.

Lexicon are still in the process of sifting through possible inclusions over the next 2 weeks and have told us that anyone still wanting to be included should try and get their contributions (on CDR) to them within that period. Visit the Lexicon website for more details : http://www.lexiconmagazine.com

The Messerschmitt Twins, who are scheduled to play at the forthcoming One Mad Day event in november, have contacted us with a query: Does anyone out there have the sheet music to that classic Boyzone song No Matter What ? Apparently, the band have expressed an interest in doing a cover version with "a Joan Of Arc Twist"(!). Anyone who can help should contact the Messerschmitt Twins via their website: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/members/cj.potts/mtwins.htm

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL OMD WEBSITE

We hope you like the new design of the OMD Website and hope the interruption in service wasn't too inconvenient.

A number of issues pushed our launch date back, mostly a concern with the design and structure of the website which went through quite a few changes. One of these issues included problems with the OMD email address which may have resulted in some emails not reaching us in the past 2 weeks. If you've sent mail in that period then please re-send it.

There are still some sections and features on the website being developed so please bear with us while the work is underway and watch out for a few surprises ;-)

WHAT'S NEW:

OMD Survey: Vote on your favourite OMD album.

Competition: Test your OMD knowledge - and win prizes!

OMD Forum: Take part in threaded debates and discussion on OMD.

Q+A: A new page of Q+A's has been added (and more are on the way).

FAQ: Updated and expanded.

Guestbook: The design has been tidied up and postings now reflect paragraph breaks (no more unsightly big blocks of text!).

Events: A new section listing performances or events that might be of interest to OMD fans.

Photo Gallery/Promo Gallery: Following on from feedback, we've made the pictures and photos in these sections a lot larger.

News Section: The older news items have now been filed away in a separate News Archive.

Discography: Upgraded, updated and expanded. More details soon.

Songwords: Lyrics to some classic OMD songs along with interactive graphic interpretations.

Andy has been talking to Virgin regarding the B-Sides album and things are looking very positive. As previously mentioned, the album will not only feature the best of the OMD b-sides, but will also feature previously unreleased OMD songs.

Although details have still to be worked out we're looking at a possible release early next year. More details as we get them.

Andy and Stuart are looking forward to writing new songs for Atomic Kitten following the release of their debut album (scheduled for an October release). Outside of this, they're also working with some new local bands including Trilby and Kling Klang. Kling Klang have been working in the Motor Museum studio on their material which involves a lot of drum machine/analogue synths but which Andy points out is "not 80's and it's not dance music - it's their own thing" and describes their sound as being very "rythmn based".

Pat Fetty (responsible for The World Of OMD website) is organising an after-show party following Paul Humphrey's concert in Anaheim on the 20th September.

Pat is hiring a function room so that fans can meet and continue partying after the show. Cost is $20 per person and more details are available by emailing Pat directly.

Please note that stocks of the signed edition of the OMD Peel Sessions are now exhausted.