Show 207 - OMD - Live At Imperial Hotel Blackpool - 27 July 1979

 

 A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it, cut out the intro and outro and take the credit. Thanks.

The Show
An audience recording - the earliest known of OMD, or Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark as they were more commonly referred to at the time. It was fairly clear but distant. I guess someone had at least applied some noise and hiss reduction. But it was quite "middly" soundwise with no bottom end at all, and not particularly easy to hear most of the sounds.

What Was Done
There were a few dropouts to fix, and VCL XI unfortunately is incomplete - it cuts off abruptly in the first 2 minutes and there was a big gap before the recording cuts back in before the next song starts, so that was faded out and back in so the sound flows better. Volume was a bit up and down in places - fixed that. Once that was done, I got to work with EQ and the usual studio toys to bring some clarity to the sound mix, smooth out the rough edges, make everything more audible, and then mastered to make it clearer and more powerful overall, and a little wider (remember this is a mono recording from the audience). The sound is now far better though, and I think makes the gig all the more listenable. 

The All Important Download Link

You can now download or stream this repaired, restored and remastered version of this show as one 320kbps MP3 file exclusively for FREE by clicking right HERE.

Setlist
Messages
Bunker Soldiers
Julia's Song
VCL XI
Almost
Red Frame/White Light
Mystereality
Electricity
Waiting For The Man

Be sure to check out the other gigs from OMD (as they're more commonly known nowadays) I've restored HERE - all similarly downloadable for free.


Supporting The Site

If you want to support the work I do on these recordings, and the site, and (if you wish to) obtain separate, fully tagged 320kbps MP3s of this restoration for less than the price of a coffee in return, or lossless FLACs or even a lossless copy on CDR, head on over to the Rewards For Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs. There is no obligation to do so of course - you can take the file on this page absolutely for free - but every single donation does go towards this site and helps me do more shows and update some of the software I use as time goes by. Either way, enjoy the show.

Subscribe And Share

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER (spam free) so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox. And your email address won't be sold on by me as a result.

And if you like this recording, please spread the news and share the page link to anyone you think might be interested - Facebook fan groups, web forums, Mastodon, Twitter, Instagram are a great way of spreading the word - that way, I always find out which bands are popular and can do more shows by them in the future. So please tell ya mates about the site and this page! Many thanks.

Show 185 - OMD - Live At Milton Keynes Bowl - 24 Aug 1991

 

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks.

 

The Show

An interesting show from OMD this time, dating back to when OMD was basically Andy McCluskey after he and the other members of the band had parted ways a couple of years earlier. This was their full live set supporting The Stranglers and Simple Minds - to what sounds like a rapturous reception, it has to be said. Broadcast live on FM radio at the time, this recording was supplied to me by a listener to Live and Loud! Shows. Being live it includes the moment when the power cuts out, bringing 1 song to a very quick close! However, kudos is definitely due in the way the band dealt with that and straight away went into something else.

What Was Done

There were a huge number of tiny gaps in the audio, especially in the first half of the gig - tape dropouts perhaps, which took a long long time to smooth out and I've fixed as many of them as possible - there are some left I couldn't fix - mainly in the first song or 2. 

Every song on the source faded out during the applause after and the joins back in to the next song were often disjointed - I fixed all those so the songs fade out and back in much more smoothly. After that, I lowered the pitch and speed a little as it all ran a bit fast and breathless (and a little high pitched). Then the nitty gritty parts - EQ, compression, the usual studio toys to improve the sound mix and create space for the bass, drums, vocals and synth parts. There wasn't a lot of bass end, so I fattened that a bit, so the kick drums and bass are far more solid now, and the original recording had quite a lot of top end, so I rounded that off so it doesn't hurt the ears. So yes, this one took a while.

The All Important Download Link

You can now now stream this repaired, restored and remastered version of this show - or download as one 320kbps MP3 file - exclusively for FREE by clicking right HERE. 

If you're new to the site, please have a look at the list of artists covered and grab what you like! You can find all the OMD shows I've done HERE.

Setlist

Enola Gay
Messages
Call My Name
So In Love (aborted)
Electricity
So In Love
Walk Tall
Joan Of Arc
Dreaming
Maid Of Orleans
Talking Loud And Clear
Locomotion
Pandora's Box
Sailing On The Seven Seas

Supporting The Site

If you want to support the work I do, and this site, and obtain separate, fully tagged 320kbps MP3s or lossless FLACs of this restoration in return, head on over to the Rewards For Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs. There is no obligation to do so of course - you can take the file on this page absolutely for free - but every single donation does go towards this site and domain/storage costs, and helps the site stay open, and helps me do more shows. Either way, enjoy the show.

Subscribe And Share

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox.

And if you like this recording, please spread the news and share the page link to anyone you think might be interested - facebook fan groups, web forums, Mastodon, Twitter, Instagram are a great way of spreading the word - that way, I always find out which bands are popular and can do more shows by them in the future. Many thanks.

Show 171 - OMD - Live At North Stage Theatre Glen Cove - 3 March 1982

 

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks.

So, another show from OMD - this time from their Architecture and Morality tour of 1981/82. This was a gig labeled as Washington DC 13 February 1982. The only trouble with that is they played Washington on 1 Marsh 1982. And they were in Belgium on 13 February. But as it turns out - this gig was neither of those. I am indebted to the rather excellent OMD Live site for providing the correct venue and date.

This was originally a rather muffled FM recording in mono and has needed a few things - pitch correction, fixing FM noise in places, distortion, some parts that were just overly loud...other parts that just had a very different sound quality to earlier parts... and that was all before I could try and make the recording sound clearer - there's a clip from the original recording in the intro to this one. Anyway, once all those things were fixed, out came the studio toys to make it clearer (that alone took several hours over several days and several listens). But it's a really good performance from Andy in particular - his voice is rather out of control at times on this one, and it makes a great listen.The last few tracks get a little distorted - mostly at the end of The New Stone Age - but I've minimised that as much as possible.

The recording is not quite complete, missing the Architecture and Morality track gig intro, and the last 3 encore songs: She's Leaving, Julia's Song and Stanlow. But it's still a great recording for your collections.

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking right HERE.

Or, if you would like to have separate, fully tagged MP3s or lossless FLACs, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs. Absolutely no obligation to do so of course but every single one does go towards this site and the restorations.

Either way, enjoy the show!

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
The Romance of the Telescope
Sealand
Pretending to See the Future
Messages
Almost
Mystereality
Joan of Arc
Motion and Heart
Maid of Orleans
Statues
Souvenir
The New Stone Age
Enola Gay
Bunker Soldiers
Electricity

Show 156 - OMD - Live At YMCA, London - 14 March 1980

 

 A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks. 

This audience recording was originally sent to me by a regular listener to these shows, along with a request..."can you do something with this?".

Well, you can hear a clip of what he sent me in the intro in the file below but basically...I didn't think I could! It sounded like it was recorded outside the venue, through a door. The recording had deteriorated quite a bit, it was running at the wrong speed, there were several bits of distortion...there was a lot to do. But I honestly didn't think there was enough of the gig itself there to do much with.

But I had a go, and I was wrong! It was never going to end up as a crystal clear recording worthy of an official release but after spending quite a few hours on it - it has turned out very listenable! And at least now sounds like it was recorded INSIDE the venue...and Andy no longer sounds like he's been castrated...

So download it, have a listen to the intro, the original recording...and then the restoration and hear the difference! An interesting set, featuring a very early live airing for the as yet unreleased Enola Gay, and a cover of Dalek I Love You's Two Chameleons and The Velvet Underground's Waiting For The Man.

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM


All the shows on the site including this one are also available as separate, properly tagged MP3s or lossless files in FLAC format; head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can support the site and donate towards storage and web costs for less than the price of a coffee - and get something back in return.

Absolutely no obligation to do so though; the free files will always remain free. Enjoy the show!

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
Intro tape - I Betray My Friends
Bunker Soldiers
Pretending To See The Future
Almost
Mystereality
Julia's Song
Two Chameleons
Red Frame/White Light
Dancing
Messages
Enola Gay
Waiting For The Man
Electricity

Encore
Bunker Soldiers
Julia's Song

Show 110 - OMD - Live In Toronto - 24 April 1981

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks.

Another show from OMD, this time from their tour of North America and Canada in early 1981 - this gig from the Masonic Temple in Toronto (thanks to a listener for the location!) makes an interesting contrast to the gig from Germany just 4 months earlier (you can grab that here).

This was an FM recording which wasn't in the best shape. A few of the edits between songs are quite severe (not much I can do there) but more seriously there were quite a few tape dropouts - these have been repaired/reduced and most are gone altogether. And whoever recorded it had problems with some of the synth bass overloading and distorting occasionally, so I ended up using different EQ settings on 1 or 2 songs while I was improving the sound quality so I didn't make things worse! It came together pretty well in the end. It's a great show; the band are full of energy and despite the odd few bum notes that appear, it's a great gig (or at least, excerpts from a gig!).
As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Setlist
Stanlow
Pretending To See The Future
Messages
Almost
She's Leaving
Mystereality
Motion and Heart
Promise
The Misunderstanding
Electricity
Bunker Soldiers
Julia's Song
Waiting For The Man
Enola Gay

 And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time. 

Show 96 - Fatal Charm - Paris Theatre London - 1981

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit. Thanks.

 

Fatal Charm were formed in 1978 in Nottingham and made a name for themselves in support slots for both OMD and Ultravox in 1980. They continued to write and record in various lineups through the 1980s.

I was lent a cassette with this recording on it, along with the 2 tracks from the flexi disc they used to give out at gigs. Those 2 tracks are included on the compilation album "Plastic", which can still be bought from the shop on the band's website, so I've taken them off the recording here. What you have left is this recording of an FM broadcast of excerpts from their 1981 live set recorded at the BBC's Paris Theatre, in Lower Regent Street, London.

Anyway, the recording was good quality and hadn't really degraded with age, so no major repairs were needed other than some noise reduction and volume balancing. Then it was out with the trusty 30 band EQ to improve clarity and space between the instruments and improve the bottom end somewhat of what was a rather flat recording; hopefully its a far clearer mix now than it ever was.

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

Setlist
Western Laughter
Le Boulevard
Christine
Dark Eyes
The Dark
Paris

Special thanks to Dave Barker (Fatal Charm's keyboard player) for clarifying one of the song titles (and the positive feedback!).

 

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

 

Show 77: OMD - Live at The Electric Ballroom London - 7 December 1979

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit - as someone has already happened with this show and then tried to deny it (you know who you are). Thanks.
 

It's been a while since I did an OMD gig - but only because I hadn't found any recordings to do! I had a donation of quite a large number of recordings of various bands recently and I was really pleased to find this one among them.

The original recording is from the soundboard but had tape hiss and was quite tinny with virtually no bass - most of what you could hear was vocals and synths that were too bright. Gentle noise reduction and EQ helped with that. There were also a few defects that needed fixing which took a while, including correcting the pitch and repairing some dropouts. Considering the age of the recording and the bad mix on the night - Andy's voice is often far too loud - its very very listenable now; I hope you enjoy the result. At the start of Messages listen out for Andy imploring the sound engineer "can you turn the organ down?"!

At the time of this recording, OMD were more well known as Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and they'd already signed a major record deal with DinDisc, a subsidiary of Virgin records. A new version of Electricity had been released as a single to coincide with them coming to national attention as the support act on Gary Numan’s debut UK tour which ran through September and October 1979.

Their debut album was a couple of months away at the time of this gig - the first of 2 nights, supporting Talking Heads at The Electric Ballroom. This is a rare chance to enjoy a very early version of OMD, when they were a 3 piece consisting of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys...and a TEAC reel to reel tape recorder called Winston.

2019 Update
While preparing this older show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. 

As of 2026, you now have the choice to not only download this repaired, restored and remastered show as one 320kbps MP3 file but also to stream it - exclusively for FREE by clicking below.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD OR STREAM

If you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format of the new version, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
Messages
Bunker Soldiers
Mystereality
Julia's Song
Red Frame/White Light
Almost
Electricity
Waiting For The Man

  

Show 28: OMD - Kant Kino, Berlin, Germany - 8 December 1980

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks.

 

A short tour of the UK and Europe followed the release of their 2nd album "Organisation" in the Autumn of 1980 and this soundboard recording is taken from that tour. The crowd were so enthusiastic that night the band were forced to come back on for a second encore - and as Andy McCluskey had to admit, had run out of material, so several songs were played twice! Its a great performance; a great gig by a band still in the early stages of their career.

The soundboard recording needed a bit of work - being over 30 years old - but has polished up well and responded to some remastering. I hope you agree; this one certainly proved popular with many OMD fans.

While preparing this old show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the sound quality further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. You can now download this new version (as of 2018) HERE as 1 new 320kbps MP3 file.

If you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format of the new version, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

 

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
I Betray My Friends
Stanlow
Pretending To See The Future
Almost
Messages
Annex
Mystereality
Julia's Song
Motion and Heart
The More I See You
Promise
Statues
Dancing
Red Frame/White Light
Electricity
Bunker Soldiers
Enola Gay

Waiting For The Man
Electricity

Julia's Song
Enola Gay

Show 2: OMD - Glasgow Apollo, UK, April 1983

A quick request. If you plan on downloading this and putting it on your YouTube channel or your own bootleg page - I don't mind. But a credit to this website where you found it, and a link back to this page would be really appreciated. It helps me gauge which artists are popular - ie more chance of other restorations coming. Don't just steal it and take the credit (you know who you are). Thanks.

 

This was just under 1 hour taken from an FM radio broadcast of tracks from a gig from the Dazzle Ships tour. I've seen 2 dates for this gig - 22 and 28 April. Thanks to those of you who contributed below - I think we can safely say its now from the 28 April 1983 (you can see a scan of a ticket below). Incidentally, I've been reliably informed that the support that night was provided by The Cocteau Twins.

This recording originally had some gentle noise reduction applied and then 30 band EQ and sounded much better than it did!

2019 UPDATE: While preparing this old show as separate files for a donator to the site, I found I could now improve the show further, over what I’d originally done to the recording several years ago. I worked out it was actually running slightly too slow, so I've corrected that. Paul now doesn't sound like he's taken tranquilisers while singing on Souvenir...! Some extra EQ tweaks and it was done.

You can now download this new version (as of 2019) HERE as 1 new 320kbps MP3 file.

If you would like to have separate tagged MP3s, or even lossless files in FLAC format of the new version, head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can obtain these for a very small donation towards the site costs.

And finally... don't forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEW FREE NEWSLETTER so you never miss news on which new gigs are going to be restored and uploaded here; any news will be delivered to your inbox and I guarantee you no spam - and of course you unsubscribe at any time.

Setlist
Genetic Engineering
Messages
She's Leaving
Georgia
Julia's Song
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)
The Romance Of The Telescope
Souvenir
Telegraph
Radio Waves
Bunker Soldiers
Enola Gay
Silent Running