W
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OMD FANS SAVE 632 3003
Stephanie McCahill had always been a fan of OMD but when
she saw a post on Facebook of Andy McCluskey standing
where the famous OMD telephone box had been in Meols, she
knew she had to do something to get it reinstalled.
With the support of Andy and Hazel Barrett, she formed the
‘Friends of 632 3003.’ The phone number is well known to OMD
fans the world over as being from the band’s local phone box in
Meols where they grew up.
Steph said: “It was so important to us and fans from across the
world because it was the unofficial office of OMD in their early
days in the late 70s/early 80s when they used to use it to speak
to their manager and to book gigs. They even heard that one of
their early singles was in the top 20 chart in that phone box. There
was so much publicity for this box being taken away and the
campaign to get it back, that lots of fans put pressure on Wirral
Council and BT to bring it back.”
Steph and the group got an article in the Wirral Globe to state
their unhappiness about this historic landmark, linked to OMD,
being ripped from the neighbourhood.
After much planning, they held the inaugural ‘Friends’ meeting at
the end of August 2018. At this meeting, Wirral Councillor, Stuart
Whittingham, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport,
announced that the Council in conjunction with BT, had found
the phone box and had organised for it to be transported and
reinstalled in Greenwood Road. The phone box was reinstalled
exactly 2 months after it had been removed; 18th October 2018.
Steph said: “We were absolutely delighted! We then set about
painting it to look good for fans who wanted to come and see
it before the OMD Punishment of Luxury Liverpool Empire
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concert on 29th October 2018. We held a meet and greet and
had visitors from near and far – from as far as the Netherlands,
Poland, Germany and even Chile! We even had OMD’s support
act, Tiny Magnetic Pets, make the trip over to visit the phone box
and to say hello to fans, which was very special.”
Since then the group have done many things to raise funds for
the phone box. They held an 80s disco with a specialist OMD
auction, a beer and cheese evening at a local brewery, an OMD
tribute act, Manoeuvres, came all the way from Cornwall to do
a fundraising gig for them and they have sold telephone box pin
badges that has ‘632 3003’ number on them and have even had a
ballot to sell the old Perspex panels that were in the phone box –
these were signed by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys and
were very desired by fans. And Steph is pleased with the way the
phone box is attracting fans.
“The telephone box is looking great and has had a complete
facelift. Using the funds raised, we have replaced the old, battered
Perspex panels with glass ones. We have installed bespoke
artwork which was designed by local artist John Petch, who
designed OMD’s ‘Punishment of Luxury’ album cover, and he
added red and grey themes to reflect lyrics from the ‘Red Frame
White Light’ track by OMD which is about the phone box. We
have also added a traditional BT Pay on Answer Phone and we
have hand written lyrics to Red Frame White Light on the inside.
We have lots more plans for the box – watch this space!”
The ‘Friends’ next big fundraising event is in conjunction with
Wirral Festival of Firsts at The Railway pub, Meols on 13th July
at 9pm. The OMD tribute act, Manoeuvres, will be headlining.
It’s a free gig and the group will be doing some fundraising to
raise funds for the maintenance of the 632 3003 phone box.