Andy McCluskey was in attendance at New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion on Sunday evening, September 7, to watch Kerry Katona as she and Katie Price entertained audiences for ‘An Audience with Kerry Katona and Katie Price’, the show allowed the two long-term friends to lift the lid on many aspects of their lives from marriages to family life and their careers.
OMD frontman Andy McCluskey had a huge role in launching the career of Kerry Katona. The ‘So in Love’ singer formed Atomic Kitten in 1998 with drummer Stuart Kershaw. The initial line-up included Liz McClarnon, Kerry Katona, and Heidi Range, though Heidi quit to join the Sugababes and was replaced by Natasha Hamilton.
After five top ten singles, original member Kerry Katona quit, four weeks before “Whole Again” reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, and was replaced by former Precious singer Jenny Frost. While it may be nearly three decades since the pop group were formed, Andy still has a close bond with Kerry.
On Facebook, the official Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark account said: “Andy popped along to New Brighton to say “hello” to the vivacious Kerry Katona. Incredible that it’s 27 years since he and Stuart created Atomic Kitten”, alongside a photo of the two.
However, after a wave of negative messages about Kerry, her personal life and appearance, Andy returned to the post to add a comment of his own in defence of the former Atomic Kitten member.
He said: “I am saddened to see some cruel and frankly misogynistic posts on this thread about my friend Kerry. She may not be everyone’s cup of tea and all are entitled to an opinion, but degrading sexist comments speak more about the person posting than their intended target.”
OMD were formed in 1978 by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys in Meols, Wirral. They were one of the earliest and most successful synth-pop acts in the UK, scoring seven top 10 hits in the UK. The group, who looked to German group Kraftwerk for plenty of inspiration have sold over 40m records worldwide.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fomdofficial%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0291fJffDtENaVnT5MYRJyYp8iniAuNabpp7pjSYR2vmhX9QCpmbWbRsDgkmMQRjNJl&show_text=true&width=500
In 2019, the OMD bass player and lead singer from the Wirral, spoke about Atomic Kitten’s formation on ITV’s Lorraine. He said: “It was actually quite good fun. I had no idea what I was getting into, no idea what I was getting the girls into.”
Speaking about Kerry specifically, Andy added: “I had no idea what I was getting her into actually, I knew she was going to be famous because she just had that kind of Marilyn Monroe syndrome and she didn’t know how pretty she was. But I didn’t realise what I was inflicting upon her, so I have taken the opportunity to apologise.”
At Sunday’s show in New Brighton, Katie and Kerry were forced to maintain their professionalism as members of the audience were ejected after a delay in proceedings.
The ECHO was in attendance in the crowd as the show was hit with minor disruption during the first half. Security staff were seen talking to a member of the audience during the show.
Host Matt Foister told the crowd the interval would last around 15 minutes before they would return to the stage for the second half of the show. However, the second half was hit with a short delay as security dealt with members of the crowd, who were seated in the front row.
As the group were escorted out of the venue, the remaining members of the audience cheered as the show was finally able to continue. Katie and Kerry laughed off the incident with host Matt as the former Atomic Kitten singer joked: “We’re changed women.” They explained they didn’t know much about the incident, but were watching it unfold on a TV backstage