I keep getting Emails from people asking me to re-upload the links and music etc. I think people are just getting to those particular pages so are not reading the reason for the dead links.
So I am putting this in place so hopefully people will read it and stop Emailing me about it.
The reason the links are dead is that my account with Media Fire has been closed with all 11,000 files lost. That is why you can not download the things and No I can not re-upload them.
Eventually I will start doing that again when I have found something suitable. In the meantime this blog will be information only blog.
Thank you all
Michaael
New Blog Forum
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OMD released their second album 'Organisation' in 1980.
A 7 inch bonus EP entitled ‘Free Artefact - The Unreleased '78 Tapes’ were given away with the first 10,000 copies of the album.
The album came in a grey sleeve with a sticker stating 'Free Artefact - The Unreleased '78 Tapes'.
As well as a merchandising insert the bonus 7 inch EP - omd dep 2 - featured some previously unreleased tracks.
The tracks were actually recorded during a gig at Eric's Club, Liverpool and feature a spoken introduction by Dave Fairbairn.
These tracks reflected OMD's early collage approach in which excerpts taken from radio and TV broadcasts would be cut and edited into songs. Once When I Was Six features dialogue taken from the TV drama series The Pallisers (1974) based on the the novels of Anthony Trollope.
Click the link below to download the following: 01 - Introducing Radios 02 - Distance Fades Between Us 03 - Progress 04 - Once When I Was Six
'Joan of Arc' is a song by British band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released as the second single from their third studio album Architecture & Morality.
Released as the 7th single overall the single made it to number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and continued the bands success.
Click the link below to download the following: Video Single Version The Romance Of The Telescope Unfinished - B-Side
'Souvenir' is a song written by Paul Humphreys and Martin Cooper of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and released as the first single from their 1981 album Architecture & Morality.
Along with 1991's, 'Sailing on the Seven Seas', it is the band's highest-charting UK hit to date, reaching number 3.
The song's promo video was filmed in Blenheim Park and close to Stowes School in England. It was an early MTV favorite and is among OMD's more well-known videos.
Andy McCluskey spends the entire video driving around in a classic red, convertible Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, while Paul Humphreys is standing on a bridge while singing and leaning against the pillars of the bridge.
Click the link below to download the following: Video Single Version Extended Version Motion And Heart - Amazon Version - B-Side Sacread Heart - B-Side
'Electricity' is the debut single of the New Wave and synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
It is notable for having been recorded numerous times. The earliest versions are live recordings by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys' previous group The Id.
The song is one of the OMD's most popular and recognisable songs even though it never became a hit.
The three attempts at scoring a hit only achieved the lowly (but significant for the group at the time) number 99 in 1979.
'Electricity' would later appear on OMD's debut album and is regularly featured on OMD compilations.
All incarnations of the 'Electricity' single were backed by the B-side and fellow debut album track 'Almost.'
This song was inspired by The Teardrop Explodes' song 'Camera, Camera' and the Kraftwerk song 'Radioactivity.'
Click the link below to download the following: Video Single Version John Peel Session Version Almost - B-Side
Synth Britannia is BBC4 documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
Originally Transmitted on 16th October 2009 on BBC4
Architecture & Morality is the third album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1981. It is the group's most commercially and critically successful album, selling over 3 million copies.
Released just eighteen months after their debut album, it demonstrated both OMD's continuing musical maturity and advancement of their style. According to the album's credits, the album title was suggested to the band by Martha Ladly, formerly of Martha and the Muffins, after the 1977 book Morality and Architecture by David Watkin.
Musically, the album was notable for making liberal use of the mellotron, a mechanical tape-replay keyboard more commonly associated in Britain with progressive rock bands of the early 1970s than with the synthpop of the 1980s.
The artwork was produced by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens. Architecture & Morality was released several times with varying artwork, most notably in yellow, blue and grey but even green versions are available. The original cover from 1981 is light yellow/orange in a die-cut sleeve.
The tenth through sixteenth tracks of the remastered album are bonus tracks and were B-sides from the album's three singles, except 'Gravity Never Failed' which was out-take from the album sessions, originally intended to have been a single A-side, but not released until 1988, as the B-side of 'Dreaming'.
Remixes of 'The Romance Of The Telescope' and 'Of All The Things We've Made' appeared on OMD's next album, Dazzle Ships, which was released in 1983. 'Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)' is often simply referred as 'Maid of Orleans', released as a single with the title 'Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)'.
Tracklisting: 01 - The New Stone Age 02 - She's Leaving 03 - Souvenir 04 - Sealand 05 - Joan of Arc 06 - Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) 07 - Architecture and Morality 08 - Georgia 09 - The Beginning and the End
Bonus Tracks: 10 - Extended Souvenir 11 - Motion and Heart (Amazon version) 12 - Sacred Heart 13 - The Romance of the Telescope (Unfinished) 14 - Navigation 15 - Of All the Things We've Made 16 - Gravity Never Failed
'Red Frame/White Light' is the second single of the synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The song is about the red telephone box in Meols that was used by the band to make calls to organise their gigs
The telephone box that inspired 'Red Frame/White Light' is located at the crossing of Birkenhead Road and Greenwood Road in Meols. In the nearby pub "The Railway Inn" the band would meet and used the telephone box to organise their gigs and transportation.
In the songs lyrics the phone number is mentioned: 6323003. Fans would ring the number expecting to get one of the band members, but got a confused home owner in their own area code. Over the years it has become a kind of sacred place for OMD fans. In 2004 OMD fan Stephen Cork started a successful campaign to get the telephone box repainted in time for a fan tour on April 10, 2005.
Click the link below to download the following: Video Single Version I Betray My Friends - B-Side
Organisation is an album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1980. As with all OMD's early sleeve art, it was created by Peter Saville Associates and features a stock photograph of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco in the Red Cuillin hills overlooking Glen Sligachan on the Isle of Skye with Allt Dearg Mòr in the foreground. The album was remastered and re-released in 2003, with several bonus tracks.
The album is notable for its melancholy tone. The band said that at the time they had been heavily influenced by Joy Division; this can be traced through Organisation’s use of jarring drum sounds and moody songs. 'VCL XI' is a good example of this sound. Also notable is OMD's move away from pure Gary Numan-Kraftwerk-ian pop, embracing a grander sound, an increasing use of acoustic instruments, and sound collages. The group would continue to expand their sound this way on the next two albums Architecture & Morality and Dazzle Ships. The advances of Organisation and Architecture & Morality are made all the more impressive by the fact they were recorded and released within eighteen months of each other.
'Enola Gay' was the only single released from the album. It could be perhaps perceived as deceiving, as it had little in common with the style of the rest of the album, even though its subject matter is poetically grim. It bears much in common with the sound of the group's debut album. Andy McCluskey is noted as saying it was written at the time of most of the debut was written.
'Motion and Heart' was also considered for a single release, but was dropped. A new recording was made which was released as a B-Side to Architecture & Morality’s 'Souvenir' and can be found on the remastered edition of that album.
'VCL XI' was the name of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys' short lived group, which itself was named after a valve on the back of Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity album (although the name of the valve is actually written 'VCL 11' on the Kraftwerk album).
Malcolm Holmes had played drums with Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys before, notably on 'Julia's Song' which was featured on the band's debut, and for Organisation he was recruited as a full-time member replacing the Revox tape recorder affectionately named 'Winston'.
Traclisting: 01 - Enola Gay 02 - 2nd Thought 03 - VCL XI 04 - Motion and Heart 05 - Statues 06 - The Misunderstanding 07 - The More I See You 08 - Promise 09 - Stanlow
'Messages' is the third single of the synthpop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
The single has a re-recorded version of the song found on their debut album Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A further, and earlier, version appears on the group's Peel Sessions 1979-1983 album, showing that the song originally had a slower tempo than either the single or album versions.
The single provided OMD with their first top 40 hit in the UK, reaching number 13. The song was featured in the second series of Ashes to Ashes.
Click the link below to download the following: Video Single Version Extended Version Taking Sides Again - B-Side
'Enola Gay' is a song by British synthpop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (normally abbreviated to OMD). It was written by frontman Andy McCluskey, and appears on the band's second album, Organisation (DinDisc/Virgin, 1980). It was released as a 7" single on 26 September 1980, and reached number 8 in the UK chart, also topping the charts in several European countries. An early version with a slightly different arrangement appears on the group's Peel Sessions 1979-1983 album.
In 1998 David Guetta & Joachim Garraud and Sash! made remixed versions of the song for the intended second disc of The OMD Singles. The second disc was dropped, and eventually only the Sash! remix appeared on The OMD Remixes EPs. In 2003 the double disc version was released in France only, which included the remixed versions by Guetta and Garraud as well. The Guetta and Garraud remixes were released on a limited 12" to promote the compilation album.
A live performance of this song, recorded at Guildhall, Portsmouth, England on September 19, 1980 (1980-09-19), is featured in the film Urgh! A Music War
The song is named after the aeroplane, a USAAF B-29 Superfortress called Enola Gay which dropped "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb to be used in an act of War, on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 to bring an end to the Second World War.
The lyrics attack the decision to use the bomb, making use of sardonic black humour ("Is mother proud of Little Boy today?") and suggesting that the bombing was unnecessary ("It shouldn't ever have to end this way").
The song was also released during a major controversy surrounding then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to allow US nuclear missiles to be stationed in Britain.
The music video begins by showing sped up footage of clouds passing over sky. After the opening riff; which is shown as just the keyboardist's hands playing it whilst being animated using digital rotoscoping, it shows a transparent video image of McCluskey vocalising and playing a bass guitar. The still photo from the album cover is taken from the video.
Click the link below to download the following: Video Sash Remixed Video Single Version Sash Remixed Version Annex - B-Side
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is the self-titled debut album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1980. The album peaked at number 27 in the UK Albums Chart.
'Electricity' and 'Red Frame/White Light' were low charting singles taken from the album. A re-recorded version of 'Messages' provided OMD with their first hit in the UK, reaching number 13.
The album was remastered and re-released in 2003, with six bonus tracks.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is also the title of a 1981 compilation album of tracks from this album and Organisation, released only in the United States.
Have to say thank you to Scott Wheeler for providing me with this as I seem to had lost my copy of this Album. Once again thank you Scott.
Tracklisting: 01 - Bunker Soldiers 02 - Almost 03 - Mystereality 04 - Electricity 05 - The Messerschmitt Twins 06 - Messages 07 - Julia's Song 08 - Red Frame/White Light 09 - Dancing 10 - Pretending To See The Future
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