Their real fondness was for bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!. The band rose to fame with their fourth single “Enola Gay”, which became a major hit throughout Europe in 1980, and achieved worldwide popularity the following year with their third album Architecture & Morality.Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a Synthpop group formed in the Wirral, UK, in the mid-'70s by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys. So why did the electronic music group OMD write a song about it? In our 2010 interview, we asked their lead singer Andy McCluskey, who replied: “Many people simply don’t know what it’s actually about. It was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the plane’s pilot, Paul Tibbets. Why did OMD write a song about Enola�s mother? It was written by vocalist/bass guitarist Andy McCluskey. The track addresses the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, toward the conclusion of World War II. “Enola Gay” is an anti-war song by the British synth-pop group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and the only single from the band’s 1980 album Organisation. Japan surrendered to the Allies on 15 August, six days after the Soviet Union’s declaration of war and the bombing of Nagasaki….Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison.
On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. One of the many reasons we split up was that Andy tends to want an instant result. We got fed up of not being proud of what we were doing or responsible for what we were doing. Musically, it had become predictable and you needed more stimulus. Cooper and Holmes then left OMD to join Humphreys in founding a new band called the Listening Pool. Humphreys departed in 1989 amid personal and creative dissension with McCluskey. Why did Paul Humphreys leave OMD?Īs OMD appeared poised to consolidate their US success, the group continued to fracture. Physicist Robert Serber named the first two atomic bomb designs during World War II based on their shapes: Thin Man and Fat Man. The bomb was dropped by a USAAF B-29 airplane named “Bockscar”, piloted by U.S.
The atomic bomb used at Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, was “Fat Man”. Wikipedia What year was Enola Gay by OMD?ġ980Enola Gay / Released Is OMD a gay band?Īre any of the members openly gay? Paul Humphreys: It’s the original four-piece line-up, Andy McCluskey ( Lead vocals and Bass ), Paul Humphreys ( Keyboards and vocals ), Martin Cooper ( Keyboards and Saxophone ) Malcolm Holmes ( Drums ) and, no, we have no gay members. The duo have been described as “electro pioneers”. He is best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist of the electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, which he founded alongside keyboard player Paul Humphreys in 1978. Who wrote the song Enola Gay?Īndy McCluskeyEnola Gay / LyricistGeorge Andrew McCluskey is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. What year did Enola Gay become popular?Įnola Gay, the B-29bomber that was used by the United States on August 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time the explosive device had been used on an enemy target.Why did OMD write a song about Enola�s mother?.