Orchestral manoeuvres in the dark

Labour MP Tony Lloyd has left us with an intriguing EDM to ponder over the summer recess.

It is in praise of a very special performance at this year's Manchester International Festival and its "well-deserved reputation for innovation and imagination".

Lloyd draws attention to the "extraordinary contribution of the blind Malian singers, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia".The pair "had long housed the ambition to perform in total darkness in order that their audience should also experience the sensation of their music without sight".

Lloyd's EDM, signed by seven other MPs so far, states that “this opportunity was denied to them on previous occasions; recognises the cultural bravery of the Director and Producer, Marc-Antoine Moreau and Christine Gettins, Festival Director, Alex Poots and General Director, Simon Mellor on accepting the undoubted challenge of staging `Eclipse'; congratulates Mariam, Amadou and their musician colleagues for an extraordinary contribution to the festival; and thanks them for their contribution in enriching the world's music over so many years”.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark would approve - the synthpop group’s founding members are from the Wirral Peninsula, just down the road from Manchester.

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