Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Featuring the core members Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey, the Liverpudlian synth pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark formed in the late '70s. The group released its first single, "Electricity," on Factory Records; the record led to a contract with the Virgin subsidiary DinDisc.
In 1980, the group released its self-titled debut album. Organisation appeared the same year, which featured the U.K. Top Ten single "Enola Gay". The band's next few albums -- Architecture & Morality (1981), Dazzle Ships (1983), and Junk Culture (1984) -- found the band experimenting with its sound, resulting in several U.K. hit singles.
"If You Leave," taken from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, was their biggest American hit, climbing to number four in 1986. The Pacific Age was released the same year, yet America was the only country where it was popular. Shortly after its release, the Weir brothers left the band, followed by Holmes, Cooper, and Humphreys. McCluskey continued with the band, releasing Sugar Tax in 1991; in the meantime, Humphreys formed the Listening Pool.

After Sugar Tax failed to gain an audience, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark returned with Liberator in 1993, which also was ignored. It was followed three years later with Universal, which saw Humphreys return for some co-writing credits. By the late '90s, McCluskey had moved into artist management, while Humphreys revived the OMD name for occasional shows.

A full-blown reunion came in 2006, including both McCluskey and Humphreys plus Holmes and Cooper. Initially, the band toured around a full-album performance of Architecture & Morality, and released one of their performances as Live: Architecture & Morality and More. Finally, in 2010, the new album History of Modern appeared on the 100% label.

"Electricity" is their debut single. The song is one of the OMD's most popular 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) #99 in 1979. "Electricity" would later appear on OMD's debut album and is regularly featured on OMD compilations.

"Enola Gay" was written by frontman Andy McCluskey, and appears on the band's second album, Organisation . It was released as a 7" single on 26 September 1980. "Enola Gay" reached number 8 in the UK chart and topped the charts in other European countries.

The song is named after the Enola Gay, the USAAF B-29 Superfortress bomber that carried "Little Boy", the first atomic bomb to be used in an act of war, dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, killing more than 100,000 of its citizens. The name of the bomber itself was chosen by its commanding pilot, (then) Col Paul Tibbets who named it after his mother, Enola Gay Tibbets (1893–1983).

The lyrics to the song attack the decision to use the bomb . 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 above text is a mashup from Wikipedia."