OMD: We Invented Electro-Pop

Newly reformed OMD claim The Human League’s Phil Oakey still harbours a grudge against them for inventing the British electro-pop scene.

The Liverpool band, who have just reformed for a new tour, claim they scooped bands like Human League, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan’s Tubeway Army by inventing the synth-led genre which dominated British music in the early eighties.

Singer Andy McCluskey tells The Scotsman, “Phil Oakey has issues because he knows we started before the League and it pisses him off. Electricity came out in May 1979, before Tubeway Army.

“Later, I heard Numan bought a copy of it, told his management he liked it, then they phoned us up and asked us to support him on his Cars tour. Suddenly, everyone said we were copying him!

“The politics were ridiculous. But Depeche Mode definitely started because of Electricity - Vince Clarke heard it in a club."