Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Peter Hook & The Light and A Certain Ratio – Rochdale Town Hall Square, 7 August 2026
★★★★★ Words & Photos by Stephi LaReine – Liverpool-based music, culture, fashion and travel writer.
Follow @stephilareine for more live music, festival and culture coverage.
Some concert line-ups look good on paper. This one made even more sense once you were standing in Rochdale Town Hall Square.
On a gloriously warm August evening, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark played their first-ever Rochdale concert, bringing their Summer of Hits tour to the town alongside Peter Hook & The Light, A Certain Ratio and Clint Boon. More than 5,000 people filled the square for a homecoming 47 years in the making, because Rochdale is woven into the beginning of this music. OMD recorded their debut single “Electricity” at the town’s legendary Cargo Studios in 1979. Joy Division and A Certain Ratio recorded there too, making it one of those small places that ended up having a much bigger influence on British music than its size might suggest.
Forty-seven years later, those threads came back together. And what a way to do it.
The sunshine certainly helped. Rochdale Town Hall looked phenomenal in the August light, the square filling with Joy Division shirts, Factory Records references, OMD devotees and several generations of northern music fans long before the headline set began. There was history everywhere, but thankfully very little reverence. This wasn’t an evening of standing politely still and admiring the past.
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A Certain Ratio Bring Factory Records Back to Rochdale
A Certain Ratio immediately set the tone. Opening with “Do the Du” before “Flight” and their take on Talking Heads’ “Houses in Motion”, their collision of post-punk, funk and rhythm still has something wonderfully difficult about it. “Won’t Stop Loving You” and “Good Together” led into “Shack Up”, before “Lucinda” and closing track “Knife Slits Water” kept things wiry, physical and slightly unruly.
That was exactly what worked about them here. This could easily have become a night entirely about looking backwards, but A Certain Ratio never sounded like a band interested in being preserved as a piece of Factory Records history. There was still something rough-edged and alive about the set.
The evening could easily have become an exercise in looking backwards, but A Certain Ratio reminded everyone that the most interesting music from that era was never particularly interested in behaving itself in the first place.
A Certain Ratio setlist: Do the Du / Flight / Houses in Motion / Won’t Stop Loving You / Good Together / Shack Up / Lucinda / Knife Slits Water
Then came Peter Hook. And really, how do you argue with a set beginning with “Transmission”?
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Peter Hook & The Light Turn Rochdale into One Huge Singalong
That opening bassline tore straight across the square and from there, Hooky basically had the crowd in his hands.
“Transmission” gave way to “Ceremony” and “Regret”, followed by Monaco’s “What Do You Want From Me?”, before “Bizarre Love Triangle”, “Temptation” and “True Faith” pushed the set towards “Blue Monday”. You know that bassline before the song has even properly started, and hearing it blast through the square at that volume was something else.
It is easy to forget just how unusual some of these records once sounded because they’ve become so deeply embedded into British culture. Live, at full volume, they suddenly feel huge again.
And then there was “Love Will Tear Us Apart”.
Thousands of voices. A warm August evening. Rochdale’s Gothic Revival Town Hall behind the stage. One of the most recognisable songs in alternative music ringing around the square. Honestly, what a setting for it.
It was one of those moments where you stop watching the stage for a second and look around at everyone else instead. People who must have heard the song hundreds of times were still singing every word.
Not exactly a modest support slot.
Peter Hook & The Light setlist: Transmission / Ceremony / Regret / What Do You Want From Me? / Bizarre Love Triangle / Temptation / True Faith / Blue Monday / Love Will Tear Us Apart
By the time OMD arrived, Hook had left them quite a stage to follow. They didn’t seem particularly worried.
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OMD Finally Play Rochdale
OMD opened with “Isotype” before moving into “Messages”, and straight away it was obvious this wasn’t simply an exercise in replaying the 1980s. Andy McCluskey remains one of the most entertaining frontmen in electronic music, not least because he appears to have absolutely no interest in standing elegantly behind a synthesiser. The dancing remains gloriously, unmistakably Andy. If you know, you know.
“Tesla Girls,” “History of Modern (Part I)” and “(Forever) Live and Die” carried things forward before the mood softened with “If You Leave,” “Souvenir,” “Joan of Arc” and “Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans).” “Veruschka” and “Talking Loud and Clear” followed, before the set moved back into some of the band’s biggest songs.
There is something particularly beautiful about hearing OMD outdoors. Their music has always played with contrasts: machinery and romance, technology and emotion, cold electronic textures wrapped around enormous melodies. Rochdale Town Hall made a spectacular backdrop too — ornate Victorian architecture behind music that once sounded like a completely different kind of future.
Old stone, glowing synths and an August sunset. Somehow, it worked perfectly.
By “So in Love,” “Dreaming,” “Locomotion” and “Sailing on the Seven Seas,” the square had fully loosened up before that unmistakable opening synth announced “Enola Gay”. The reaction was immediate, thousands turning Rochdale Town Hall Square into an outdoor dancefloor while McCluskey bounced around the stage with seemingly inexhaustible energy.
The encore brought “Secret” and “Pandora’s Box”, but there was really only one song capable of closing this particular night: “Electricity”. Recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale in 1979, it was now being played back to the town by the band who made it, 47 years later, at their first-ever Rochdale concert.
You really couldn’t have picked a better final song.
OMD setlist: Isotype / Messages / Tesla Girls / History of Modern (Part I) / (Forever) Live and Die / If You Leave / Souvenir / Joan of Arc / Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) / Veruschka / Talking Loud and Clear / So in Love / Dreaming / Locomotion / Sailing on the Seven Seas / Enola Gay
Encore: Secret / Pandora’s Box / Electricity
