New Theatre Oxford, 6th May 2013
Support: John Foxx and The Maths
After a warm and sunny May Day bank holiday the icing on the cake was still to come.
OMD had chosen this date to bring their electronic bag of tricks to Oxford’s New Theatre to promote their latest album,
English Electric, with support from
John Foxx and the Maths. I was eagerly anticipating my first ever
OMD show having been a hardened electronic fan since the early eighties and the days of
Souvenir, when I played that track over and over with tracks from the likes of Gary Newman, Human League, Blancmange and the mighty Depeche Mode. I’ve been a sucker for electro bands ever since, and to my astonishment I discovered that in that time
OMD have released 12 albums.
John Foxx and the Maths (who are John Foxx and Benge) quietly took to the stage, playing a selection of tracks that took advantage of the addition of multi-instrumentalist Hannah Peel to the line up (who, I was interested to read, has previously worked with Blood Red Shoes, amongst others). Foxx was the original lead singer of Ultravox before Midge Ure took over, and has worked with many of the electronic scene’s legends. The waiting audience seemed to really enjoy their no nonsense performance. Foxx kept audience interaction to a minimum, adding to the mystery and moodiness of the set. The highlight of the set was a track called
The Running Man from the band’s critically acclaimed album,
Interplay, which drew a very enthusiastic response from the crowd.
After a short wait
OMD appeared for the first track of their set to cheers from the crowd, some of whom immediately leapt to their feet ready for a dance marathon. From the very start, lead singer Andy McCluskey did a flawless job of embracing and including the audience in the gig, sharing playful banter throughout the performance with both the rest of the band and the punters. He declared that the cure for too much barbeque food and sunburn was to have a good dance, and he joked with 15 audience members that they needed to dance harder to ensure a collapse of the “condemned” balcony onto the audience in the circle (cheekily adding that the theatre was insured for such an event). The other band members joined in, with fellow bandmate, Paul Humphreys, jesting that he’d “set the right sound up” for McCluskey when the pair swapped roles (with Humphreys on lead vocals and McCluskey on synth) for old favourite,
(Forever) Live and Die.
They played a great mix of older 80s and 90s material with more recent tracks, airing crowd pleasers such as
Tesla Girls,
Souvenir,
Maid Of Orleans,
Locomotion,
Joan Of Arc and
Sailing On The Seven Seas alongside releases from their latest album, such as
Dresden (which has just been added to the Radio 2 playlist) and
Metroland. Throughout the gig the audience clapped, danced, sang and waved their arms with gusto (at times it felt a little like being on a cruise ship due to the mesmerising dancing and waving), with the biggest cheers saved for the final track of the set before the encore (the
OMD classic,
Enola Gay), with every member of the audience on their feet and jigging about.
Coming back on for the encore, McCluskey was having a bit of shirt trouble – between going off the stage and coming back for the encore he was missing a button. Playing a roaring encore consisting of
Walking On The Milky Way (for which the audience obliged with singing duties) and
Electricity, McCluskey absent-mindedly fiddled with the phantom button while he danced about the stage. The band eventually retired triumphantly from the stage, the crowd cheering, clapping, whooping and whistling for all they were worth.
OMD certainly raised the roof in Oxford!
My review score: 8/10
