OMD
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English new wave/synthpop group formed in 1978 by founding members Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals). While steadily eschewing pop star status, the band cultivated a fanbase in the United Kingdom from 1978–1980 and gained popularity throughout Europe with the 1980 single “Enola Gay” and the album Architecture & Morality (1981) and its singles. The band reformed in 2006 and began releasing new material in 2009. The group have sold over 40 million records. The Quietus magazine editor John Doran once remarked: “OMD are not one of the best synth bands ever: they are one of the best bands ever.” (More from Wikipedia)
Name shortening has been common among rock bands: The Young Rascals became the Rascals, the Troglodytes lost a little something in the translation when they changed their name to the Troggs, Small Faces morphed into Faces, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was abbreviated to OMD, and (believe it or not) the 1990’s Irish band the Cranberries started out with the name The Cranberry Saw Us. Sometimes the official name never changes, but fans and DJ’s naturally begin to shorten the name, so the Rolling Stones are just as often the Stones, the Doobie Brothers are sometimes rendered the Doobies (as on two of their Greatest Hits albums, Best of the Doobies and Best of the Doobies Volume II), and bands like, say, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show are called just Dr. Hook. Occasionally it can even go the other way: A DJ on one of our local radio stations where I was growing up in Winston-Salem, Dick Bennick at WTOB-AM Radio was forever calling the Fab Four “the beetley, bootley Beatles”.
(June 2012)
