{"id":779,"date":"2019-02-25T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T02:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=779"},"modified":"2026-06-25T02:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:24:21","slug":"thompson-twins-orchestral-manoeuvres-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=779","title":{"rendered":"Thompson Twins,\u00a0Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January 1986, West Palm Beach Auditorium, <\/strong>West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thompson Twins was a tweener \u2014 it rode the line between popular and alternative (Howard Jones is like this too, and maybe Billy Idol) \u2014 where it has good songs that everyone knows and great songs few people know. \u201cDoctor! Doctor!\u201d is a solid song that no doubt you\u2019ve heard, but \u201cIf You Were Here\u201d is a great song you may not know, and if you did, you still might call it \u201cthat song from Sixteen Candles<\/em>\u201d (if you\u2019re old enough to know about Sixteen Candles<\/em>) not knowing it\u2019s a Thompson Twins song.<\/p>\n

In the mid-80s, Thompson Twins found its groove, with 1984\u2019s Into the Gap<\/em> and 1985\u2019s Here\u2019s to the Future Days<\/em> producing four hits singles and a whole slew of new fans (though 1982\u2019s Quick Step<\/em> and Side Kick<\/em> is a solid listen as well). My group of friends gravitated toward Into the Gap<\/em>, it\u2019s a damn catchy record, and decided to make a road trip to Miami from West Palm to see the show.<\/p>\n

One thing about people from Miami \u2014 we think everything is at least three hours away, except Fort Lauderdale, a town we would never go to because why would you? I\u2019ve lived in West Palm, it\u2019s a mere 64 miles from Miami, but for whatever reason Miamians think it\u2019s farther. I only mention this because we got to the show way early, finding easy parking aside the auditorium that in 1986 sat in a barren concrete wasteland with not much near it.<\/p>\n

The auditorium (which is now a Christian convention center) was the scene of many a classic rock show, with Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent and even Elvis Presley playing the hall \u2014 a round, cavernous spaceship kind of place. I was there with Karl and several other friends (maybe Jon was there?) for a show that came during the winter break of our senior year in high school.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t know much about Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, other than we liked the named. OMD had just released Crush, the band\u2019s sixth album, but was not well known in the States. Aside from the song \u201cEnola Gay,\u201d which we heard in passing on WVUM, OMD was a mystery but one we were curious to discover.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll preface OMD\u2019s performance by saying this: The day after the show all of us went to buy Crush<\/em>. The band\u2019s performance was powerful and elegant \u2014 singer Andy McCluskey worked hard to ensure you paid attention to him and the band. I still remember him working every side of the stage, dancing with wild abandon while singing \u201cEnola Gay,\u201d imploring the crowd to dance along. You never know how openers will act, but the hungry ones perform like they are the headliners. This is what OMD did. Months later, when \u201cIf You Leave\u201d became a monster hit, you could see why the band was so confident.<\/p>\n

OMD\u2019s stellar performance made the Thompson Twins seem just OK. They dutifully did this hits \u2014 \u201cDoctor! Doctor!,\u201d \u201cLay Your Hands on Me,\u201d \u201cKing for a Day,\u201d \u201cHold Me Now\u201d \u2014 adding some of those hidden favorites \u2014 \u201cThe Gap,\u201d \u201cLove on Your Side,\u201d \u201cIn the Name of Love\u201d \u2014 for good measure. Tom Bailey and bandmates ended the set with \u201cRevolution,\u201d a cover of the Beatles song which is tacked on to the Here\u2019s to the Future Days<\/em> album. Why does anyone cover the Beatles for their own catalog? Probably best to leave well enough alone.<\/p>\n

We drove the hour or so to witness one band and came back to Miami loving another. It\u2019s a lesson I\u2019ve followed to this day \u2014 go and see the opener, you never know what you might miss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January 1986, West Palm Beach Auditorium, West Palm Beach, Fla. Thompson Twins was a tweener \u2014 it rode the line between popular and alternative (Howard Jones is like this too, and maybe Billy Idol) \u2014 where it has good songs that everyone knows and great songs few people know. \u201cDoctor! Doctor!\u201d is a solid song […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[79,78],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-omd","tag-thompson-twins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":781,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions\/781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}