OMD @ Museum Gardens, York – 9 July 2026
- Iain McClay
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Forty-five years on, OMD still know exactly how to turn a summer evening into one giant synth-pop celebration complete with the best 'Dad Dancing' you will ever see.
Words Iain McClay, Photos supplied by Devon Chambers of Futuresound
York Museum Gardens continues to establish itself as one of the country's most picturesque outdoor venues, and with glorious sunshine overhead, this felt like the perfect setting for a night celebrating two of Sheffield and Merseyside's finest exports.
Arriving in time for Heaven 17 turned out to be perfect timing. Some support bands do enough to warm up a crowd. Heaven 17 looked determined to steal the whole evening.
Glenn Gregory and the band wasted little time throwing (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang into the set, before rolling through highlights from Penthouse and Pavement, The Luxury Gap and How Men Are. Their cover of David Bowie's Let's Dance wasn't just a crowd-pleaser; it came with a heartfelt tribute to the influence Bowie had on the music that followed throughout the 1980s.
Gregory's self-deprecating humour, joking that he occasionally needs "a breather" between some of the band's more lyrically demanding songs, only strengthened the connection with the audience.
By the time they closed with Temptation, thousands of people were singing every word back. It was one of those rare support slots where nobody was heading for the bar.
Following that was never going to be easy. Fortunately, OMD have been solving that particular problem for decades.
Andy McCluskey remains one of pop's most entertaining frontmen. He freely admits he'll never win Strictly Come Dancing, but his trademark dad dancing has become almost as iconic as the songs themselves. It's impossible not to smile watching someone enjoying themselves quite that much, and before long the entire crowd had joined him.
Even the occasional forgotten lyric became part of the fun rather than a mistake. McCluskey laughed it off, the audience happily filled in the blanks, and the show rolled on as if nothing had happened.
With a catalogue stretching back nearly half a century, OMD have the luxury of dropping classics almost at will. If You Leave, forever tied to Pretty in Pink, arrived early complete with Molly Ringwald filling the giant screens, reminding everyone just how deeply their music has embedded itself into popular culture.
Tesla Girls started one of the strongest runs of the evening before flowing into If You Leave, Souvenir, Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans. Five songs that would comfortably headline many bands' careers arrived one after another, each greeted like an old friend. If You Leave, forever tied to Pretty in Pink, was complete with Molly Ringwald filling the giant screens, reminding everyone just how deeply their music has embedded itself into popular culture.
If the pace eased slightly midway through, it was only to set up another sprint for the finish. Talking Loud and Clear, dedicated to its 50th anniversary, led into Dreaming, Locomotion, Sailing on the Seven Seas and, inevitably, Enola Gay. More than four decades after its release, it remains one of the most powerful and instantly recognisable anti-war songs ever written.
The three-song encore finished with Electricity, released in 1979 yet sounding remarkably fresh. It served as a reminder that OMD weren't simply part of the synth-pop movement—they helped invent it.
York Museum Gardens provided the backdrop, Heaven 17 provided one of the strongest support performances you're likely to see this year, and OMD reminded everyone why they've remained one of Britain's most enduring live bands.
If you've never seen OMD live, put that right. And if you've never watched a concert in York Museum Gardens on a warm summer evening, you're missing one of Yorkshire's finest live music experiences.
