SYNTH-POP icons Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are celebrating their 40th anniversary this autumn and will begin a year of major events with a pair of special concerts at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

The band will be joined by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for the shows on October 6 and 7. OMD and the orchestra previously performed together at the hall in June 2009, a collaboration singer Andy McCluskey described as a ‘voyage of discovery’.

Richard Balcombe will conduct the concerts, which coincide with the anniversary of OMD’s first gig which took place at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s in October 1978.

OMD was formed in 1978 by teenage friends Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, who had previously played together in short-lived Wirral band The Id.

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