Andy McCluskey Paul Humphreys Martin
Cooper Malcolm Holmes
Fatal
Charm: Sarah Simmonds Paul Arnall Kev Davies Dave Barker
Kev Gallagher
The webmaster, north Bucks:
"One of my all time
favourite gigs. I had really taken to OMD after the Numan gig in 1979 (and
the John Peel sessions) and started to buy all their stuff. I remember a
defining moment in my life was seeing, unexpectedly, OMD doing Messages on
TOTP and knowing this band were going to make it. This gig sold out
(surprising many people) and whilst I cannot recall Fatal Charm (possibly
a girl singer?), I do remember the awesome OMD set based round the
Organisation album. I still remember the genuine bonhomie between Andy and
Paul during the gig. Yes, this was a good one. As Andy says, it was a real
shame that this remained their only headlining appearance."
Andy McCluskey, writing
about this gig on the official OMD forum told the Friars Aylesbury website
in 2008:
"OK, how's this for an
anecdote.
When OMD were at the after premiere party in LA
for the movie Pretty in Pink, I met George Michael who told me that he and
Andrew Ridgely saw us at the Friars in 1980 and it was the best gig they
had ever been to!!!
The Friars was a lovely intimate venue and I wish
that we had played there more often."
Up until 1988 this line up kept on producing
the hit singles and albums before splitting. Andy McCluskey revived the
name in 1991 and continued to have success for another five years. With
the end of OMD, McCluskey turned his hand to writing for others, notably
scoring huge hits for Atomic Kitten. Humphreys teamed up with Propaganda's
Claudia Brucken and still performs as One-Two. However, this classic line
up reformed in 2007 to play Architecture and Morality and a lot more and
very successfully. This line up also toured the UK in 2008 (we saw both
2007/2008 gigs and they're still very very good) and will be
releasing a brand new album in 2010.
