Gary Numan

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on March 8, 1958, in Hammersmith, West London) is an English singer, composer, musician and electropop pioneer.

Career

After education at Slough Grammar School, Numan rose to prominence at the tail end of the 1970s, initially recording under the band name Tubeway Army. After recording an album's worth of punk-influenced demo tapes (released in 1984 as The Plan), he was signed by Beggars Banquet Records in 1978 and quickly released two singles, "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers", neither of which charted. A self-titled, New Wave-oriented debut album later that same year sold out its limited run and introduced Numan's fascination with dystopian science fiction and, more importantly, synthesizers. Tubeway Army's third single, the cinematic "Down in the Park" (1979) also failed to chart but it would prove to be one of Numan's most enduring and oft-covered songs; a live version of it can also be seen in the movie Urgh! A Music War. After exposure in a television advertisement for Lee Cooper jeans with the jingle "Don't be a dummy", Tubeway Army released the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" in May 1979. The single took seven weeks before it finally reached #1 at the end of June; the parent album Replicas simultaneously climbing to #1 in the album charts.

A few months later he repeated the feat with "Cars", which became a Top 10 hit in America in 1980 as well, and the 1979 album The Pleasure Principle, both released under Numan's own (assumed) name, which he had plucked from an advert in the "Yellow Pages". Topping both single and album charts simultaneously was noteworthy enough; doing so twice in the space of six months was astonishing. A sell-out tour ('The Touring Principle') followed; the concert video it spawned is often cited as the first full-length commercial music video release.^[1]^[2] The Pleasure Principle was a rock album with no guitars; instead, Numan used synthesisers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a phased, metallic tone. Self-produced in a fortnight for very little money, The Pleasure Principle sounded like nothing else, and remains one of Numan's most highly-regarded efforts today. A second single from the album, "Complex", made it to #6 in the UK charts.

Numan was pop music's first synthesizer star. He wore costumes and make-up and openly proclaimed his influences: David Bowie, Marc Bolan and contemporary electronic acts such as John Foxx's Ultravox. On stage his persona came across as aloof, alien and androgynous; in interviews, however, his disarmingly open manner caught many by surprise. Numan's great popularity and unabashed admiration of wealth alienated critics and even some fellow musicians; Yes recorded a sardonic song about him, "White Car," for their 1980 album Drama, a reaction to his habit of tearing around London in the white Chevrolet Corvette given to him by Beggars Banquet. His one-time idol, David Bowie, refused to appear with Numan on an episode of The Kenny Everett Video Show on which both were scheduled to perform. Numan bewildered the music press. He was a driven, creative, troubled 21-year-old loner who still lived with his parents. He was not punk. He was not quite New Romantic either, and retrospectives of the period tended to ignore him and his influence. Yet, during this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves Numanoids, enough of whom would remain loyal to carry him through the latter half of the 1980s, when his fortunes began to fall precipitously (even before this time, and throughout his commercial peak, Numan was constantly vilified and ridiculed by the UK music press).

1980s

In 1980 Numan again topped the album charts with Telekon, although the concurrent singles "We Are Glass", "I Die: You Die" and "This Wreckage" only reached #5, #6 and #20, respectively. The last album of Numan's so-called "Machine Trilogy", Telekon reintroduced guitars to Numan's music and featured a wider range of synthesisers. The same year he embarked on his second major tour ("The Teletour") with an even more elaborate stage show than The Touring Principle the previous year. Although considered a success, Numan claimed the tour actually lost him a great deal of money because of the vast expense in mounting it. By this time he was weary of the pressures of fame and announced his retirement from touring with a series of sell-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981, supported by Alternative musician Nash the Slash and Shock, a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe whose members included Barbie Wilde, Tik and Tok and Carole Caplin. The decision to retire would be short-lived – in his autobiography he recalls walking out onto an empty stage after his final concerts and thinking, "What the fuck have I done?" – but it would have a fateful effect on his career, as Numan found the fickle pop audience quickly turned its attention to other artists.

Turning his back on electropop, Numan experimented instead with jazz, funk and ethereal, rhythmic pop. His career quickly nosedived, eclipsed initially by Adam Ant, and later by Duran Duran, Culture Club, and Depeche Mode. He spent the decade in a creative malaise, trying to recapture his former chart glory with less distinguished albums some of which were stylistically derivative of artists like Robert Palmer and Prince. Each album saw a new "image", none of which captured the public's imagination to nearly the same extent as the lonely android of the late 1970s. His penchant for sharp suits and hats seemed faintly outmoded, while his later adoption of leather and shades seemed opportunistic.

Numan had an embarrassing episode in 1981 involving his hobby of flying, which briefly put him in the UK news. Attempting a round-the-world flight in a light aircraft (Pitts S1 G-FLIC), Numan had to make a forced landing (reported in the press as an outright crash) in India, where he was arrested on suspicion of smuggling and espionage. Contrary to news stories at the time, Numan was not piloting the plane himself during the landing. During the late 1980s, he had his life threatened on several occasions by a mysterious stalker.

Numan's first album after his farewell concerts, the bleak, atmospheric and experimental Dance (1981), charted as high as #3 on the UK charts, but it dropped out of the charts after only eight weeks; it featured guests Mick Karn (bass, saxophone) and Rob Dean (guitar) of Japan, Roger Mason (keyboards) of Models and Roger Taylor (drums) of Queen. The more upbeat and danceable I, Assassin (1982) fared less well than Dance: despite spawning three Top 20 singles, the album peaked at #8 and dropped out of the charts after six weeks. Numan supported the album with a concert tour in America in late 1982 (his first series of live shows since his farewell at Wembley). Warriors (1983) further developed Numan's jazz-influenced style and featured contributions from avant-garde musician Bill Nelson (who fell out with Numan during recording and chose to be uncredited as the album's co-producer) and saxaphonist Dick Morrissey (who would play on most of Numan's albums until 1991). The album peaked at #12 and, like I, Assassin, spent six weeks in the charts. Warriors was the last album Numan recorded for Beggars Banquet Records, and was supported by a 40-date UK tour (again with support from robotic mime and music duo Tik and Tok) -- Numan's first live tour in the UK since his Wembley appearances in 1981. Numan's look for the album artwork and tour was a black leather costume against a sci-fi post-apocalyptic backdrop (obviously influenced by the movie Mad Max 2) but this latest image change was scorned by the music press despite the sell-out tour and aggressive vibrancy of his new sound.

Now battling against the increasing public perception that he was a spent force, Numan issued a series of albums and singles on his own record label, Numa. The first such album, 1984’s Berserker, was also notable for being Numan's first foray into music computers/samplers, in this case the PPG Wave. Berserker moved away from the fluid, fretless sound that characterised Numan's previous three albums, featuring instead harder-edged electric bass and drum sounds. The album was also accompanied by a striking blue-and-white visual image, a tour and a live album/video, but it divided critics and fans and commercially was Numan’s least successful release to that date. 1984 also saw the death of Paul Gardiner, who was Numan's bassist and friend since his Tubeway Army days. Numan's next album, The Fury (1985), charted slightly higher than Berserker, and featured another new image of white suit and red bow tie. To date, The Fury is the last Numan album to crack the British Top 30.

Collaborations with Bill Sharpe of Shakatak helped little, though one single the duo recorded, "Change Your Mind", did see chart action, reaching #17 in Britain. Numa Records, which had been launched in a flurry of idealistic excitement, folded after the release of Numan's Strange Charm album (1986). In addition to Numa's commercial failure, a lack of radio play (his records were removed from the BBC Radio 1 playlist) and sales drained the fortune (he estimated £4.5 million) Numan had amassed in the late 1970s. Numan signed to IRS Records and his final studio album of the 80s, the edgy, industrial-funk Metal Rhythm (1988) found favour with fans and scored some positive reviews in the UK music press, but it sold poorly. Metal Rhythm's sales were arguably confounded by the lack of strong promotion and IRS's inappropriate choices of singles (the record label also changed the album's title to New Anger and remixed several of its tracks for its American release, against Numan's wishes). 1989 saw the release of the Sharpe + Numan album Automatic. A more lightweight-pop effort than Numan's solo albums, Automatic fared less well than Metal Rhythm (and has been out of print since its initial release).

1990s

In 1991, Numan ventured into film-scoring by co-composing the music for The Unborn with Michael R. Smith (the score was later released as an instrumental album in 1995, Human). After Outland (1991), another critical and commercial disappointment and his second and last studio album with IRS, Numan reactivated Numa Records, under which he would release his next two albums. However, even Numan considers his 1992 Machine + Soul, a misguided attempt at a purely commercial release recorded solely to pay off debts, a career low point. The album sold only a few thousand copies. By 1994, Numan decided to stop attempting to crack the pop market and concentrate instead on exploring more personal themes, including his vocal atheism. His future wife Gemma encouraged him to strip away the influences of the previous years. Numan re-evaluated his career and went in a harsher, more industrial direction with his songwriting on the album Sacrifice; for the first time, he played almost all the instruments himself. The move was critically well-received, as Numan's harder and darker sound emerged just as Numan-influenced bands like Nine Inch Nails were enjoying their first rush of fame. The influence was two-way; Numan claimed that Nine Inch Nails' song "Closer" is his favourite hit single of all time, and influenced his music. Sacrifice was the last album Numan made before shutting down Numa Records permanently. His next two albums, Exile (1997) and Pure (2000), restored Numan's critical reputation; Numan even toured the U.S. in support of Exile, his first stateside concerts since the early 1980s.

Resurrection of career

After years of ridicule in the press, Numan found himself cited as "the godfather of electronic music" and an artist respected by his peers, with such musicians as Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters and Nirvana), Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), Marilyn Manson and the band Nancy Boy proclaiming his work an influence and recording cover versions of old Numan hits. The band Basement Jaxx had a huge hit in 2002 with "Where's Your Head At?", which relied on a sample of Numan's "M.E." - from The Pleasure Principle - for its hook. Fear Factory produced a cover of "Cars" featuring a guest appearance by Numan. Nine Inch Nails covered the song "Metal" on their album Things Falling Apart, as did Afrika Bambaataa (with Numan himself) on Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light. "Cars" remains Numan's most enduring song; it was a hit again in 1987 and 1996, in the latter case thanks to an appearance in an advert for Carling beer. In 2000 DJ Armand Van Helden sampled the track and mixed it up in his single "Koochy" which conquered the dancefloors. In 2002, UK pop trio Sugababes scored a #1 with "Freak Like Me" - a mashup of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" and "Are Friends Electric" from Numan's Tubeway Army. Other musicians who have sung Numan's praises in recent years include Beck, Grant Nicholas, Tricky, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, and The Smashing Pumpkins (whose album "Siamese Dream" is based on the title of the Numan song "A Dream of Siam" from his 1982 album "I, Assassin"). Afrika Bambaataa has also talked about the influence of Numan's music on the fledgling American DJ scene: "In the late 70s and early 80s Gary had the rhythms that DJs wanted to get hold of and people waited for his records on the dance floor." Cars was also featured on the soundtrack for the blockbuster 2002 PlayStation 2 videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as part of the New Wave radio station Wave 103 , however, it did not appear on the soundtrack CD release for the game. The song "Are Friends Electric" appeared on EA's game Need For Speed: Carbon in 2006.

In 2002, Numan enjoyed chart success once again with the single "Rip", reaching #29 in the UK chart and in 2003 with the Gary Numan vs Rico single "Crazier" which reached #13 in the UK chart. Rico, an up-and-coming artist from Glasgow, also worked on the remix album Hybrid which featured reworkings of older songs in a more contemporary industrial style. 2003 also saw Gary Numan performing the vocals on a track named "Pray For You" on the Plump DJs album "Eargasm" which was very well received. In 2004 Numan took control of his own business affairs again, launching the label Mortal Records and releasing a series of live DVDs as a precursor to a critically well-received new studio album, Jagged, which was released on 13 March 2006. An album launch gig took place at The Forum, London on 18 March followed by UK, European and US tours in support of the release. Numan also launched a Jagged website to showcase the new album, and is making plans to have his 1981 farewell concert (previously released as Micromusic on VHS) released on DVD by November 2006 as well as releasing the DVD version of the Jagged album launch gig. An extended version of the Jagged album is due for release before the end of 2006. Numan undertook a Telekon 'Classic Album' tour in the UK in December 2006, primarily to appease his more nostalgic fans and also to reserve his regular tours for more contemporary material. He has also hinted at plans to release his 1981 Wembley farewell concert (released on VHS as Micromusic) on DVD.

In late 2006, Numan announced on his website that recording would begin on his new album in January 2007, with Ade Fenton again co-producing, as he did with Jagged. Numan stated "think of Jagged and Pure, but faster, with bigger choruses, more energy, and more aggression" to describe the album's intended sound.

The Race

On November 6, 2006, Numan took part in the Sky One reality show The Race. It pitted ten celebrities (five male, five female) against each other in a series of Formula One-style car races. These races were held at Silverstone over the next five days, and varied in racing styles, ultimately culminating in one final Grand Prix race on Sunday, November 12.

	Race type	Numan's place (Out of 8)
Monday, November 6	Maserati	6th
Tuesday, November 7	Monster trucks	Unknown
Wednesday, November 8	Mini 7s	4th
Thursday, November 9	Caterhams	1st
Friday, November 10	Lotus Exige	1st
Sunday, November 12	Grand Prix finale	2nd

In the end, Numan did win on the overall leaderboard. Losing the final race, he and another contestant, AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson, were tied in first for points. The winner of the championship was decided by who had the fastest lap time, which Numan had. As Numan wrote on his website, it was a very fair outcome, as Johnson would win the final race, but he would win the championship.

Numan wrote he was dismayed to find the announcement of his winning the championship was cut out from the television broadcast. In addition, the overall standings were not shown.^[3]

Personal life

Numan married a member of his own fan club, Gemma O'Neill. In 2003, after a series of miscarriages and IVF attempts, the couple had their first child, Raven. In 2005 they had a second daughter, Persia. In March 2007 the couple had their third child, Echo.^[4]

He published his autobiography, Praying to the Aliens, in 1997 (updated edition 1998), in collaboration with Steve Malins (Malins also wrote the liner notes for most of the CD reissues of Numan's albums in the late 1990s, as well as executive producing the Hybrid album in 2003). Numan has recently moved to East Sussex from Essex.

Flying

Numan is known for his love of flying and has owned several aircraft, most famously, since 1984, a radial-engined Harvard WW2 trainer often seen in formation aerobatic displays. Numan was a passenger in one of these aircraft when it made an emergency landing on a main road in England, in 1981. This came shortly after successfully flying around the world, during which he was briefly imprisoned in India on suspicion of spying. His aerobatic flying career is also noted on the BBC TV series The Mighty Boosh, whose character Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) is a huge Numan fan, with a "Cars" ringtone on his mobile phone. Numan has recently stated that he likes to go sailing from time to time. Numan's brother is also a pilot and has flown aircraft such as the Bristol Blenheim at airshows.

Asperger syndrome

Gemma apparently first recognised Numan as having a mild form of Asperger syndrome. She has discussed this, and also how she and Gary met, in at least one UK women's magazine. In the April 29 2001 edition of The Sunday Times magazine, Numan stated:

"Polite conversation has never been one of my strong points. Just recently I actually found out that I'd got a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome which basically means I have trouble interacting with people. For years, I couldn't understand why people thought I was arrogant, but now it all makes a bit more sense."

In an interview for Metro he said:

"It was suggested I had it when I was younger but no one knew much about it then. I've read a lot about it since and I fulfil some of the diagnostic criteria but not others. I probably have a mild form...for example, if people came over for dinner and I saw a magazine I hadn't read, I'd pick it up, sit in the corner and read it - which I now know is wrong...I have an obsessive focus when it comes to pushing forward with my music. I don't get crushed by disappointment. I don't do this for the acclaim, luckily...because of Asperger I see the world as a hostile place...it feeds into my style of songwriting completely."^[5]

Discography

Singles and EPs

"That's Too Bad" (1978) - with Tubeway Army
"Bombers" (1978) - with Tubeway Army
"Down in the Park" (1979) - with Tubeway Army
"Are 'Friends' Electric?" (1979) - with Tubeway Army UK #1, US #105
"Cars" (1/9/1979) UK #1, US #9
"Complex" (24/11/1979) UK #6
"We Are Glass" (24/5/1980) UK #5
"I Die: You Die" (30/8/1980) UK #6, US #102
"This Wreckage" (20/12/1980) UK #20
"Stormtrooper in Drag" (25/7/1981) - with Tubeway Army co-founder Paul Gardiner UK #49
"She's Got Claws" (29/8/1981) UK #6
"Love Needs No Disguise" (5/12/1981) - with members of former backing band as Gary Numan and Dramatis UK #33
"Music for Chameleons" (6/3/1982) UK #19
"We Take Mystery (To Bed)" (19/6/1982) UK #9
"White Boys and Heroes" (28/8/1982) UK #20
"1978-79 Volume 1" (2/4/1983) - (12" vinyl only) - as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army UK #97
"Warriors" (3/9/1983) UK #20
"Sister Surprise" (22/10/1983) UK #32
"Berserker" (3/11/1984) UK #32
"My Dying Machine" (15/12/1984) UK #66
"Change Your Mind" (9/2/1985) - with Bill Sharpe as Sharpe and Numan UK #17
"1978-79 Volume 3" (16/3/1985) - (12" vinyl only) - as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army UK #76
"1978-79 Volume 2" (23/3/1985) - (12" vinyl only) - as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army UK #82
The Live EP (25/5/1985) - tracks: "Are 'Friends' Electric?"/"Berserker"/"Cars"/"We Are Glass" UK #27
"Your Fascination' (10/8/1985) UK #46
"Call Out the Dogs" (21/9/1985) UK #49
"Miracles" (16/11/1985) UK #49
"This Is Love" (19/4/1986) UK #28
"I Can't Stop" (28/6/1986) UK #27
"New Thing from London Town" (4/10/1986) - with Bill Sharpe as Sharpe and Numan UK #52
"I Still Remember" (29/11/1986) UK #74
"Radio Heart" (28/3/1987) - with Radio Heart as Radio Heart Featuring Gary Numan UK #35
"London Times" (13/6/1987) - with Radio Heart as Radio Heart Featuring Gary Numan UK #48
"Cars (E Reg Model)" (19/9/1987) - re-mix UK #16
"All Across the Nation" (7/11/1987) - with Radio Heart as Radio Heart Featuring Gary Numan UK #81
"No More Lies" (30/1/1988) - with Bill Sharpe as Sharpe and Numan UK #34
"New Anger" (1/10/1988) UK #46
"America" (3/12/1988) UK #49
"I'm on Automatic" (3/6/1989) - with Bill Sharpe as Sharpe and Numan UK #44
"Heart" (16/3/1991) UK #43
"My World Storm" (1991) US #46 (Hot Dance Club Chart)
"Emotion" (1991) (Did not chart)
"The Skin Game" (21/3/1992) UK #68
"Machine + Soul" (1/8/1992) UK #72
"Cars ('93 Sprint)" (4/9/1993) - re-mix UK #53
"Like a Refugee (I Won't Cry)" - with Dadadang as Dadadang Featuring Gary Numan (1994) (Did not chart)
"A Question of Faith" (1994) (Did not chart)
"Absolution" (1995) (Did not chart)
"Dark Light - The Live EP" (1995) - tracks: "Bleed"/"Every Day I Die"/"The Dream Police"/"Listen to the Sirens" (Did not chart)
"Cars (Premier Mix)" (16/3/1996) UK #17
"Dominion Day" (1998) (Did not chart)
"RIP" (13/7/2002) UK #29
"Crazier" (5/7/2003) - with Rico as Gary Numan Vs. Rico UK #13
"In a Dark Place" (29/7/2006) UK #63, reached #4 in the official independent chart
"Healing" (30/4/2007) - with Ade Fenton as Ade Fenton vs. Gary Numan (Did not chart)
"The Leather Sea" (23/7/2007) - with Ade Fenton as Ade Fenton vs. Gary Numan

Albums

Not including numerous compilations, many of which are unauthorized.

1978 Tubeway Army (also known as the Blue Album) UK #14 (1979 reissue)
1979 Replicas UK #1
1979 The Pleasure Principle (Numan's first solo album) UK #1
1980 Telekon UK #1
1980 Living Ornaments '79-'80 UK #2 (live recording, expanded/reissued as Living Ornaments '79 in 1998 and Living Ornaments '80 in 2005)
1981 Dance UK #3
1982 I, Assassin UK #8
1983 Warriors UK #12
1984 Berserker (first album on self-owned Numa label) UK #45
1984 White Noise (live recording) UK #29
1984 The Plan (demo recordings from 1978) UK #29
1985 The Fury UK #24
1986 Strange Charm UK #59
1987 Exhibition (compilation from Beggars Banquet days) UK #43
1987 Ghost (live recording)
1988 Metal Rhythm (released in a re-sequenced edition in the US as New Anger) UK #48
1989 The Skin Mechanic (live recording) UK #55
1989 Automatic (collaboration with Bill Sharpe as Sharpe + Numan) UK #59
1990 Outland UK #39
1992 Machine + Soul UK #42
1994 Dream Corrosion (live recording)
1994 Sacrifice
1994 The Radial Pair (video soundtrack)
1995 Dark Light (live recording)
1995 Human (Gary Numan and Michael R. Smith, instrumental album)
1997 Dawn (US reissue of Sacrifice; same track listing)
1997 Exile UK #47
1998 Living Ornaments '81 (live recording)
1998 The Mix (remix project by Cleopatra label, featuring Spahn Ranch, Information Society and others)
1999 The Radio One Recordings (1979 BBC radio sessions)
2000 Pure UK #58
2002 Exposure (compilation of Beggars Banquet and recent material; two new recordings plus new track "Exposure") UK #53
2003 Scarred (live recording)
2003 Hybrid (remix project featuring Curve, Alan Moulder, Rico and Flood; three new songs including Andy Gray mix of "Crazier")
2003 Reconnected: Live and More (live and studio recordings)
2004 Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (live recording)
2006 Jagged UK #59
2007 Artificial Perfect (Ade Fenton album with Numan singing lead on four tracks)
2007 The Complete John Peel Sessions (live Peel sessions from Gary's 1979 and 2000 sessions, respectively)

Notes

^ On this day in music. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
^ Premier Hits review. Retrieved 15 May 2007.
^ Gary Numan (November 25, 2006). NuWorld Special. Retrieved 2 December 2006.
^ NuWorld News. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
^ A. Williams (2006). 60 Second Interview: Gary Numan, Metro, 6 November 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2006.

References

Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide To Gary Numan.
Guinness Book of British Hit Singles 7th Edition

External links

[1] On this day in music. Retrieved 15 May 2007.

[2] Premier Hits review. Retrieved 15 May 2007.

[3] Gary Numan (November 25, 2006). NuWorld Special. Retrieved 2 December 2006.

[4] NuWorld News. Retrieved 12 February 2007.

[5] A. Williams (2006). 60 Second Interview: Gary Numan, Metro, 6 November 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2006.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]