Andy McCluskey

Andy McCluskey (born George Andrew McCluskey, 24 June 1959, Heswall, Merseyside, England) was the lead singer and primary songwriter for the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). He met Paul Humphreys in school, (Great Meols Primary School, McCluskey used to live opposite) and played with him in several bands, including Hitlerz Underpantz, VCL XI and The Id. McCluskey then attended Calday Grange Grammar School in West Kirby. McCluskey briefly joined Dalek I Love You as their lead singer, but left because he wanted to sing his own songs.

McCluskey joined together with Humphreys again to form OMD in the late 1970s. They were successful, especially in their native United Kingdom where they had several hit singles. They are best known in the United States for their song "If You Leave" from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack album.

Humphreys and the rest of the band split with McCluskey in 1989, with McCluskey retaining the OMD name. He released 3 more albums under the band's moniker to diminishing sales. However Humphreys and McCluskey reformed OMD for a performance on German TV in June 2005, with the promise of more gigs to follow.

Atomic Kitten and The Genie Queen

In 1998, McCluskey founded the UK pop group Atomic Kitten. Their song "Whole Again", co-written by McCluskey, was his first UK No.1, and he and his fellow songwriters were nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for excellence in songwriting. In 2002, the band sued to terminate the songwriting/production agreement between themselves and McCluskey.

More recently, McCluskey formed White Noise Records and publishing label where he tried to recreate the formula of Atomic Kitten with Liverpool girl group, The Genie Queen. Even though The Genie Queen were featured in the Observer Music Monthly, they are now more famous as being the band that FIFA World Cup "WAG" Abigail Clancy was in, before she became widely known in the UK tabloid press as girlfriend to the England football player, Peter Crouch.

External links

• Mini biography at the IMDb website