George Andrew McCluskey (born 24 June 1959) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist of the electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), which he founded alongside keyboard player Paul Humphreys in 1978: McCluskey has been the group's sole constant member. He has sold over 40 million records with OMD, and is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music in the UK. McCluskey is noted for his frenetic onstage "Trainee Teacher Dance".
McCluskey also founded pop girl groupAtomic Kitten, for whom he served as a principal songwriter and producer, and has collaborated with various acts. His work has received nominations at the Ivor Novello, Grammy and Brit Awards, and has topped charts in the UK and internationally.
Early life and career
McCluskey was born on 24 June 1959 in Heswall, Wirral,[1][2] and grew up in a working class home in Meols, on the northern coast of the Wirral. McCluskey's father, James, was born in Glasgow and was a railway worker.[3][4][5][6][7] He met Paul Humphreys at Great Meols Primary School,[8] in Elwyn Road, and played with him in several bands, including Hitlerz Underpantz, VCL XI and the Id. McCluskey then attended Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby. He briefly joined Dalek I Love You as their lead singer, but left because he wanted to sing his own songs. McCluskey teamed up with Humphreys again to form OMD in 1978, achieving global success. Humphreys and the rest of the band split with McCluskey in 1989, with McCluskey retaining the OMD name:[9] he disbanded the group in 1996. McCluskey has sold over 40 million records with OMD,[10][11][12] and is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music in the UK.[13]
McCluskey and Humphreys reunited for a performance on German TV in June 2005, officially reforming OMD in 2006.[28][29] 2007 saw the first tour of the reformed band, including Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes, commemorating the twenty-sixth anniversary of the release of their seminal album Architecture & Morality.[30]
The group released a CD and DVD of their Hammersmith Apollo (London) live gig from the 2007 reunion tour in the spring of 2008,[31] before undertaking a short tour to celebrate thirty years as a band in the autumn of 2008.[32] A compilation of their singles and videos, Messages: Greatest Hits, was released that year.[33] On 20 September 2010 OMD released their 11th studio album History of Modern, their first in 14 years.[34] The group's Souvenir box set, a career retrospective covering their entire oeuvre, was nominated for "Best Historical Album" at the 2021 Grammy Awards.[35]
Live performance
McCluskey noted how, in the early days of OMD, the band's work was perceived as "robotic intellectual music that you couldn't dance to". In response,[36] he developed an onstage dancing style that has been described as "manic" and "jerky".[37][38] While some journalists – and McCluskey himself – have been critical of his dancing ability,[39][40] the routine found popularity with OMD fans as well as with teaching students, thus earning the name, the "Trainee Teacher Dance" (coined by broadcaster Stuart Maconie).[39][41][42]The Scotsman hailed McCluskey's dancing as "legendary",[36] while The Times said that he "deserves credit for making it an integral part of the OMD brand... You can fault his skill, but not his tireless enthusiasm."[43]
Rock group ZZ Top were noted admirers of McCluskey's dancing, incorporating elements of the routine into their own live show.[42][44] Electronic musician Martyn Ware remarked that "his stage performances are exceptional".[27]No Doubt bassist and OMD fan, Tony Kanal, said in 2012, "McCluskey is the singer and he also plays bass, which is [an] incredibly difficult way to multi-task. I finally saw them live last year and his playing and singing are so incredible."[45]Kevin Hearn of Barenaked Ladies called McCluskey a "great frontman" and an inspiration.[22]
In live performances, McCluskey often plays bass guitar and occasionally, keyboard instruments and guitar. He is right-handed, but originally learned to play bass guitar on a left-handed model. As a result, he plays with the strings "upside down" (i.e., with the lowest-pitched string on the bottom and the highest-pitched one on top), counter to normal practice.[46]
Atomic Kitten and the Genie Queen
In 1998, McCluskey founded the UK pop group Atomic Kitten, serving as songwriter and producer.[47] Their song "Whole Again", co-written by McCluskey, was his first no. 1 song on the UK Singles Chart,[48] and he and his fellow songwriters were nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for "International hit of the year".[49] The song also received a Brit Award nomination for "Best British Single".[50] McCluskey was also a writer of the Atomic Kitten hits "Right Now", "See Ya", "I Want Your Love" and "Cradle". He parted ways with the group during the recording of their second album, Feels So Good (2002).[51]
McCluskey subsequently formed the White Noise records and publishing label where he worked with Liverpool girl group, the Genie Queen.[52]
Other work
McCluskey has written with, and provided session musicianship for, various artists. Some of his collaborators include: Gary Barlow, with whom McCluskey wrote the song "Thrill Me" for the soundtrack of the film Eddie the Eagle (2016);[53]The Lightning Seeds, for whom he played keyboards on their debut album Cloudcuckooland (1990);[54] and Karl Bartos, whose record Esperanto (1993) – released under the Elektric Music moniker – features McCluskey as co-writer on "Show Business" and "Kissing the Machine" (and as lead vocalist on the latter track).[55] Bartos also co-wrote the song "The Moon & the Sun", which featured on OMD's Universal (1996). "Kissing the Machine" would later appear in a reworked form on the OMD album English Electric (2013).[56] McCluskey recorded the song "A Million Stars" with members of Fun, for the soundtrack of 2015 film The D Train.[57]
McCluskey owns the Motor Museum, a recording studio in Liverpool.[58]
Personal life
McCluskey's girlfriend in the late 1970s was the Id bandmate Julia Kneale.[59] She wrote the lyrics to "Julia's Song",[60] which appeared on OMD's eponymous debut album (1980).
McCluskey later married Toni,[61] with whom he had two children.[62][63] A prominent reason for OMD's reformation was that his children had never seen him on stage; in 2007 he said: "I was happy to stop working to be with the kids, but strangely enough they have been the most vocal in encouraging me back."[62] The couple divorced in 2011 and Toni returned to her native San Diego, California, with the children.[63] Their son, James McCluskey, is a founding member, bass player and backing vocalist of the group MiG 15, named after the fighter jet of the same name.[64]
"Sounds of the 80s". BBC. 26 April 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2023. ...the man regarded as a pioneer of electronic music in the UK, Andy McCluskey from OMD.
"OMD Interview". Clash. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 4 February 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2016. OMD founder and electro pioneer Andy McCluskey...{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ abHoughton, Richard (2019). OMD: Pretending to See the Future (expanded paperback ed.). This Day in Music Books. pp. 25–28, 414–415. ISBN978-1-9161156-2-0. [Balfe:] Andy was definitely doing something interesting, something with more talent than most, something approaching contemporary. This was such a rarity, as to be almost impossible in those days." "[Hearn:] What a great frontman Andy was... an inspiration to me.
^ abWare, Martyn (4 November 2022). "Andy McCluskey: Show Notes". Electronically Yours with Martyn Ware. Episode 113. Anchor.fm. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023 – via Podbay.
^Walters, Barry (28 September 2010). "OMD, 'History of Modern'". Spin. Archived from the original on 15 October 2010. Retrieved 5 April 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ ab"Electropop (no. 5: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)". Top Ten. 7 April 2001. Channel 4. [McCluskey] launched a dance that remains popular at teacher training college discos... Despite the odd piece of dancing derision, OMD were hot.
^Simmons, Sylvie (1–15 July 1982). "Over the Top!". Kerrang!. No. 19. p. 6. [Billy Gibbons:] We steal our moves heavily off Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. We watch [McCluskey].
^"A Message from Andy McCluskey of OMD". Archived from the original on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2009. I play bass with the strings upside down even though I am right handed....because my first bass was a left handed Wilson Rapier...
^Cragg, Michael (2023). "Now Here's a Story from A to Z: Who's Who?". Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop's Final Party. Nine Eight Books. ISBN978-1788707244.
