OMD is the penicillin of popular music. Just like the antibiotic, the electronic pop group would not have been created if it hadn’t been for several specific variables and a chance discovery.

Not, this time, in a mouldering Petri dish, but in one of Liverpool’s most famous night clubs – a damp cellar on Mathew Street that went by the name of Eric’s.

Wirral-born Andy McCluskey and his school mate Paul Humphreys had heard the owners would give any local group a spot on a Thursday night – "whether or not there was an audience, and there usually wasn’t".

So they formed Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, back then a two-piece with a tape recorder, which would go on to great things.

"Bottomline – no Eric’s, no OMD," announced McCluskey. "We invented the band to play there. We wanted to go and play our songs the way we’d always envisaged them without our mates messing them up with horrible drums and guitar solos."

Eric’s, run by Roger Eagle from 1976 to 1980, earned a special place in the hearts of music-loving Liverpudlians because of its owners’ unusual ethos.

"They didn’t run it as a business, they ran it because they liked music, so they would invite bands they liked to come and play whether there was going to be an audience or not," explains McCluskey, who will be performing with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra later this month.

"At the time, I don’t think any of us would have been crazy or arrogant enough to assume it was going to be the catalyst for so much that happened.

"It was like that film – ‘If you build it they will come’. Eric’s was our Field of Dreams."

So many of the artists that performed at Eric’s have gone on to huge success – U2, Mick Hucknall, New Order and Elvis Costello all played the punk club, while OMD supported Joy Division on their first gig.

"There were about 30 people in the audience, most of whom were our friends, and in between songs it sounded like this . . . (slow hand clap).

"There wasn’t going to be a second gig. We hadn’t planned for one," reveals McCluskey.