OMG it's OMD!!!

Saturday 1 March

Saturday 1 March - officially the start of Autumn, but you’d never know it as it was probably the warmest day yet!

I popped into Hornby to get some final snack supplies for the big day ahead - then got lost in the mall and ended up meeting this lovely chap with his two canine consorts on the way back to the car, and we had a lovely chat about Lake Aviemore and Lake Benmore which are on our to do list.

Today was the reason for us hauling ass all the way back to Ōtautahi Christchurch - Louis had bought tickets for Selwyn Sounds almost a year ago as soon as he saw that Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark would be playing… the synthesiser pop heroes of his teenage years and beyond, the inspiration for his musical journey. He'd even bought the T-shirt especially for the gig (and I had obviously just bought the perfect music festival dress!)

It was a long, hot sunny day full of retro bands including Castaway (local Lincoln lads), the Narcs who were big in NZ in the 80s, Diesel (who used to be Johnny Diesel and the Injectors when I saw him at Melbourne Moomba in 1989!), Jon Stevens who fronted Noiseworks and also sang with INXS after Michael Hutchence died, Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins and of course OMD.

Tom Bailey was sadly out of tune for much of the Thompson Twins set - and in his white suit surrounded by female musicians in slightly raunchy white outfits it did have a touch of Robert Palmer or Billy Mac about it!

It was a long hot Saturday so we visited the merch tent and Electric Pukeko (a kiwi hat seller), had a few naps between acts, had picnic and snacks and generally enjoyed ourselves.

I was obsessed with the number of outrageous shirts being worn - it seemed to be the uniform of the day! Some were unique in their glory, but some groups had pre-planned and got matchy matchy printed shirts - including one birthday party with a guy's face & number 60 printed on garish yellow Hawaiian style shirts!

The women were competing in their own way - besides a large number of ShineOn dresses, 70s camping chic got a few outings, and one woman's dress really caught your eye...

Finally it was 7pm and we packed our stuff and decamped right to the front to boogie with the OMD boys. It was an awesome set by Andy & Paul, still giving it their all after 45+ years! Soooo many hits - from Electricity in 1979, through both the Joan of Arc songs, Sailing on the Seven Seas, Forever Live and Die, Souvenir, Talking Loud and Clear and finally to the epic Enola Gay... We had an absolute blast.