Hi,

It has been a very long time since I made any posts (many years), but OMD is still my favorite band by far.  After my posts years ago, I got very busy and unfortunately didn't have time for things like online discussions.  I hope this is the correct place to make this post; if there's a better category, please let me know and/or move the post - thanks

I have some questions:

- I'm looking around to fill some holes in my collection of OMD-related tracks.  Most recently, I realized I never got a copy of some of the mixes from the more recent albums, and it appears some of them were free for a while from what I read elsewhere.  All the old links to those tracks appear to no longer be valid; any ideas where I can get things like Sister Marie Says (Soil in the Synth Remix)?  I think that was one of the previously-free ones if I'm remembering correctly.  I've never even heard it so I don't know how well done it is, but of course the original song is great and it is an OMD track I don't have!  So I really would like a copy.  I have this same issue with many other remixes, also; this is just an example of one of them.

- I did pay for some mp3 downloads from Amazon, but I live in the US and some of the tracks aren't included for some reason (they are only on the UK site and I can't purchase them from there because of region restrictions).  Any idea how to get those tracks?

- I bought a copy of the 5 CD / 2 DVD 40 set and had some questions about it.  First of all, all 5 CD's acted like they had some kind of manufacturing errors in that my computer didn't want to transfer some tracks towards the end to mp3.  I finally was able to get around it by slowing down the transfer (which I didn't even know I could do until I did some research on the problem), but it seems strange that it was necessary to do so.  CD's 1-3 were actually heavily scratched so they are sending replacements for those, but it was strange that even the unscratched CD 4 and mostly good CD 5 also had this problem.

- The first DVD has a number of performances which are great visually, but it seems like the performance audio has been replaced in most cases with the standard studio recording for some reason.  Was this how these were originally broadcast, or was this a change for the DVD release?  It is unfortunate, even if the audio wasn't good in the performances, because I'd much, much rather hear the actual performances.

- I hope it ok to ask here, but for various reasons I'd like to additionally also participate in the other forum at http://www.omd.uk.com.  Unfortunately, I have been trying for a while to get an account there with no success.  Specifically, when I tried signing up several years ago and then again a few days ago (under a different email address), I never could get past the final step of getting the account activated (it just says "The specified username is currently inactive. If you have problems activating your account, please contact a board administrator.")  I tried sending emails both times to the administrator email listed there but never got any reply.  Any ideas?  Or how to actually contact someone there that can help?  Again, I hope it is ok to ask here, it is just since OMD is my favorite band I'm therefore very interested in participating with all major OMD forums.

- Does anyone who has contact with the band know if they listen to fan feedback/suggestions regarding future products?  I'm very interested in another set of B-sides on CD, and it would also be great to get more remixes onto CD's (and even a digital download would be better than nothing, although I vastly prefer physical media).  It seems like most of the non-album tracks related to the first 4 albums have made it to CD, but there's still a lot missing from later on that is only on old out-of-print vinyl.  I have copies of most of them, but better copies would be extremely good.  I read somewhere that they aren't planning to continue the re-releases on CD with the bonus tracks (meaning, they are not going forwards with that for Crush and on), which is unfortunate, but something like a "Navigation 2" would be great.

- I've been very curious for years about Introducing Radios.  I found it on vinyl many, many years ago in a little record shop and always wondered when they recorded those tracks and exactly why they recorded them, since they seem a little out of character with their other material.  I enjoy them tremendously; are there more like them that haven't been released?  I did read about how they were originally released along with Organisation (and then they were bonuses on that re-released CD), but that's about all I know about them.  Again, I'd really be interested in more details about the history of these songs.

In case anyone is interested in the results of my previous posts, I DID get to take the trip to the UK in 2007 and watched OMD on both nights in London performing A&M.  I was in the front row on the first night, which was absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately, they recorded on the second so I'm not visible on the DVD, but that's ok.  Those were the best concerts I've ever been to before or since, as well as being the best vacation I've ever been on.

Thanks

A lot of questions Gary.
Are you on Facebook? We have a large Facebook Community running if you are
Most mixes can be found on YouTube and you can get apps/extensions to download the videos and or convert to MP3

The official OMD Forum was put to sleep a few years back and has just a handful of people that still use it. You will not be able to get an account on it.

I have done a couple of Q+A sessions with Andy where fans send in questions to ask, have nothing scheduled to do another one, but perhaps another one will get done.

Did you get the recent released Souvenir Box set?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

> A lot of questions Gary.

Sorry, maybe they would have been better as separate posts.  And I actually have more; this was the short version!   Since it's been such a long time since I last posted, I have built up a lot of questions and topics I've been wanting to discuss with other fans.

> Are you on Facebook? We have a large Facebook Community running if you are

I did create an account there a while back.  I do have a question about that, however.  Does the OMD page allow posting new topics?

The reason I ask is that I'd like to have discussions about specific topics and I wasn't able to do so on another page I tried (not OMD's; haven't tried their's).  I've never used the account for anything else; since trying to do so on that other page was totally unsuccessful, I gave up trying to use it.

More specifically, I originally made the account because I wanted to post a question related to another band (my 3rd favorite band, Inxs), but I had nothing but trouble using it; that page acted more like a news feed, as the topics were all preset and I was unable to start a new topic of my own; when I entered the text for a new topic, it acted like it was going to post, but then it never showed up even after multiple attempts and days of waiting.  So I never was able to ask my question.

Someone I know told me afterwards that Facebook is for communicating with people you already know, often just to trade photos, and you only really post new topics on your own page for specific people designated as "friends", which doesn't work at all for asking a public question to everyone on a band's page.  As someone who has been using various forums for decades, I found the experience very frusterating, and while I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to resolve the problem, I could never do so; I simply could find no way of starting a new topic.  Therefore, I gave up trying to use it.  But maybe that was just the way the Inxs page was set up, I don't know.

Do you know if the OMD page of Facebook allow posting new public topics?  If that's where fans are currently having discussions, I would certainly like to give it another try.

If you're not sure, I can just go try it, but I have a feeling I just don't know how to use Facebook correctly or something; that is really why I ask.


> The official OMD Forum was put to sleep a few years back and has just a handful of people that still use it. You will not be able to get an account on it.

Thanks for explaining that, I've really been wondering what was wrong and asked in a number of places; you are the first person who has been able to answer this; thank you.  Again, I really appreciate this forum, I just wanted to also participate in the other, as well.  So it's too bad I missed out on signing up for that when doing so was still possible.  I'm a really big fan, but just haven't spent much time posting online (always intended to, just never seemed to have much time for one reason or another) so it is too bad that I missed out on getting an account there while I still could do so.  One thing about that forum was that I noticed some band members were actually posting and having discussions with fans there.  I think was really cool of them to interact with fans like that.  While I'll admit that I'd have probably been a little nervous about doing so myself, it seems that it was an opportunity I missed out on anyway (unless via the fan questions that you mentioned - thank you, that would be great).

That said, if I had one thing to tell them, it would be just to thank them for the many, many years of joy their music has provided for me, and also to thank them for the various recorded concerts (particularly the DVD videos), particularly since I can unfortunately no longer go to concerts due to health problems in recent years, but at least can still enjoy the concerts through those recordings.  So not really a question for them, but a "thank you".


> I have done a couple of Q+A sessions with Andy where fans send in questions to ask, have nothing scheduled to do another one, but perhaps another one will get done.

That would be great, thanks!  Do you think that maybe my "thank you" and such I mentioned above be appropriate as part of that?


I still have a few more topics to also reply to (and thank you for those), but I wanted to at least start with the above topics.

Thank you again, I really appreciate it

Yes you can start new topics on Facebook its very popular - https://www.facebook.com/groups/orchestralmanoeuvresinthedark/
The official OMD Facebook is just a page so not interactive.

Our Facebook group does have "official" members and I am sure you would soon get into the swing of things.