Wapping Music Videos - OMD - Messages

Last Friday lunchtime I was enjoying a crafty pint at the Prospect of Whitby with my housemate @potoft to celebrate my membership of the exclusive '100 Club'. The music changed, and OMD's Enola Gay came on. What followed was a bizarre three minutes and thirty three seconds (less fade out) of what a passerby might mistake as the Pilsbury Doughboy body-popping whilst remaining seated and drinking a pint of real ale. However, I like to ramp up the surrealism by making sure that my song and dance numbers attain a mythic quaity, by not only including 'air keyboard' but also performing them during less appropriate moments, which I think adds a certain aesthetic edge. On this occasion my performance may have coincided with a pair of American tourists saying grace, and I'm not sure if they appreciated my interpretation of Psalm 149 (Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp).


However, what this reminded me of, was that OMD (properly known as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark), recorded the video for their third single, Messages, at the Tobacco Dock warehouse. Whilst overshadowed by their next single, Enola Gay (which I consider to be one of the best pop songs of the New Wave and indeed the 1980s), Messages, released in May 1980 was the band's first top 40 hit.

It's striking how very different the warehouse looked in 1980 and at first it's difficult to believe it's the same building. It's difficult to work out exactly where it was filmed as internal walls have changed, but the roof structure is recognisable.

Anyway, sit back and enjoy another Wapping music video.