Düsseldorf: Day Three / OMD

In all my Kraftwerk related excitement, I forgot to mention that last night we ate at an excellent restaurant specialising in roast pork called Ham Ham, and then we went to the cinema to see the Pet Shop Boys concert film 'Dream World'. 

Today, we mostly worked, although I went back to my café for some breakfast and German speaking, and in the evening we took the U-Bahn to go and see Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark playing.

It's funny, OMD were never particularly cool - I've struggled in the past to find a great photo of them - and yet their history is impeccable: they really were the first British synth pop band*. 1981 was the breakthrough year for electronic music in the charts but 'Messages' was a hit in the Spring of 1980.

The best album of their early days was the excellent 'Architecture And Morality', yet 2017's 'The Punishment Of Luxury' was certainly one of the best three albums they ever released. Forty years of writing great and interesting pop.

I actually wrote about them, I've just remembered, for The Song Sommelier, and you can read that piece here. There was also a Spotify playlist to go with that, and then I interviewed them last year for 'The Art Of Longevity'.

This evening, they were terrific: fully of energy and sounding fantastic. I have a couple of grumbles about the setlist, of course, but it was unarguably a great gig. 

*I can see an argument for Tubeway Army here, but I wouldn't describe that as synth pop.