OMD announce 'History of Modern' 2010 tour and album - Tickets on sale Friday 21st May

OMD

How catchy were OMD back in the day, eh? "Electricity", the song that bubbled its way out of Factory and onto John Peel's show: "Messages", their first big hit: "Enola Gay", their first European success: "Maid of Orleans", their first International hit, the list goes on. After four inch-perfect studio albums in the early to mid 80s, they turned their sights to 'pop' and stacked up another heap of hits such as "Sailing on the Seven Seas", "Tesla Girls", "So In Love" and "Locomotion".

There isn't much that OMD haven't achieved and now McCluskey, Humphries, Cooper and Holmes are back together for a new album and a tour. This is the same line-up that recorded the albums "Organization", "Architecture and Morality", "Dazzle Ships" and "Junk Culture" and other material up until the 90s-era.

A fresh new tour will begin in Brighton on 29th October and continue to Bristol (31st), Nottingham (1st Nov), Glasgow (2nd), Liverpool (4th), Ipswich (5th), Hammersmith (7th) and finally Birmingham (8th). Tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am and are sure to fly out - OMD are adored the world over, not just the UK (they hop over to the rest of Europe after this leg).

The new album "The History Of Modern" is now due for release in September and is their first since the 1996 opus, "Universal". You can download a brand new track from the 2010 sessions, entitled "Sister Marie Says", from the band's website and, to these ears, sounds like classic OMD pop with the gothic imagery and pin-sharp melody - a bit like "Pandora's Box" or "So In Love". The band have remarked that this 'is their best album since "Architecture and Morality"' - no, no, no lads, that was "Dazzle Ships", but if it's as good or even half as good, then we're in for a treat.

In addition to the tour, the quartet will play at the Liverpool Wondrous Place event at the city's Philharmonic Hall on 2nd Oct, a celebratory concert that also stars The Scaffold and the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra showing off Liverpool's musical heritage and their sole UK inclusion at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. Tickets for the concert start at £11 and will go on sale on 14th June. This is NOT part of OMD's new tour, moreover a 'best-of' set.

Paul Pledger