THE second coming of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) has been a quiet success story over the last few years.

Reforming in 2006, the Wirral band have now released four albums of new material with this year's Bauhaus Staircase entering the UK charts at number two with just Taylor Swift in the way of a first chart topper.

Now headlining Liverpool's "big room" as frontman Andy McCluskey gleefully calls the M&S Bank Arena this hometown gig gives OMD both the chance to wallow in nostalgia but also acknowledge their present status as entirely relevant electro heroes with the new songs played tonight fitting seamlessly among the old classics. 

As if to prove the point, the band, all clad in black, start proceedings with Anthropocene, off their latest album, before the delicious synth pop of 1980 hit Messages produces the first retro hit of that irresistible combination of icy futurism and melody that OMD made their own.

While McCluskey has often been derided for his unbridled enthusiasm rather than the studied cool of contemporaries like Ian Curtis or Gary Numan, it's hard to begrudge him his outbreaks of dad dancing as he and Paul Humphries grin from ear to ear as they lap up the audience's devotion and tease each other over their Wirral upbringings. 

Hits like Tesla Girls and a brilliant If You Leave, taken from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack and accompanied by projections of a pop art Molly Ringwald, remind that OMD remained a force far into the 80s.

Perhaps the highlight of the evening comes with a triple dose of songs from their 1981 album Architecture & Morality as Souvenir, Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans are played together as a dramatic suite of songs to breath-taking effect.

While perhaps understandably after such a peak the atmosphere dips a little, OMD recapture attention with neglected late career hit Sailing on the Seven Seas as it's glam stomp provokes one of the night's loudest singalongs.

The unmistakeable earworm of Enola Gay closes proceedings (does atomic warfare deserve such catchiness?) before OMD enter the home straight with an encore of debut single Electricity ("let's dance like in the 70s" the tireless McCluskey implores) as the crowd join in a song that still sounds as the band's manifesto.

45 years on from their birth OMD are still proudly providing that "final source of energy".