Gary Numan

Gary Numan is among the most under appreciated acts to emerge from the late 70's, early 80's punk and new-wave scene. When you hear the name Gary Numan, you probably think "one hit wonder" for his chart topping song and current day advertising staple Cars, which went number one in both the UK and America in 1979 and 1980. Don't get me wrong, I'm as sick of that song as anyone on the planet. But while Cars may define Numan in many eyes, he in fact had many other successful singles and albums throughout the early 80's. His use of the synthesizer inspired legions of artists after him and popularized the instrument as much as anyone. I'll focus on his early work, primarily on the Beggars Banquet label, as it stands as Numan's definitive work and some of the best of the generation.

Numan had several false starts in punk bands in the late 70's until he teamed up with bassist Paul Gardiner in 1978 and formed Tubeway Army. On the strength of several demos the duo was signed to the Beggars Banquet label in 1978. The groups first album, Tubeway Army, didn't generate much interest and Numan sought to take the band a different direction, wanting to distance himself from the perceived negativism and corrosive nature of punk. A synthesizer, abandoned in a studio where the duo were recording, served as the catalyst Numan needed. Using the synthesizer has his base, Numan began to dissect the short stories he had written in honor of his favorite author, science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, to create a new musical style that would come define him.

The album announcing the "new" Tubeway Army would be Replicas, released in 1979. The first single, Down in the Park, was heavy on imagery of some future world, where robots patrolled the earth and humans were both friend and foe. On the strength of that single the follow-up, Are Friends Electric?, went number one on the UK singles chart and, following several television appearances, the album also climbed to number one on the UK album charts.

On the heels of Replicas, and now recording as Gary Numan & Tubeway Army, came the album The Pleasure Principle and the aforementioned smash single Cars, released in late 1979. On the success of Cars, Numan headed out on his first headlining tour, traveling throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and finally landing on US soil at the beginning of 1980. With huge neon light banks, electronic toys and lots of smoke, Numan's stage shows were unlike anything seen by the average concertgoer in 1980. Numan was also a master marketer, taking advantage of his popularity with well organized merchandising efforts via his Tubeway Army fan club. He was one of the first artists to embrace video and made both concerts and individual song video collections available on VHS.

The following year the album Telekon was released and it too went number one on the strength of singles This Wreckage, We Are Glass and I Die: You Die. Also during this time Numan, now financially secure, was able to pursue his life long dream of flight, obtaining his private pilot's license. His love of flying coupled with the success he had achieved to date led Numan to announce his retirement from any future touring in 1981. While Beggars Banquet was cashing in by releasing several live LP's, Numan placed his focus on flying, including a much publicized trip around the world. During his global journey he would be arrested in India and charged with spying, a charge for which he was later acquitted.

By the end of 1981 Numan released the album Dance, which quickly went to the top 5 of the UK charts and just as quickly dropped out of site. The fickle fate of fame had turned, many of Numan's fans were on to other bands. The decision to retire from touring was immediately reversed, as Numan headed to the US playing shows in support of the record. Dance also started a trend by Numan, where he would assume a different persona and focus the sound of the record on some particular style. Dance was a stark, experimental sounding album with a jazz vibe, 1982's I, Assassin had more of a funk flavor, ala Prince, and on 1983's Warriors he would add female backing vocals and assume a Mad-Max type look. Warriors would be his last record for Beggars Banquet. The public never took hold of any of this and the "experimental trilogy", as Numan would refer to the works, signaled the start of Numan's declining popularity.

Gary Numan would continue to release music on and off throughout the remainder of the 80's but his popularity never grew beyond the ever diminishing faithful from his early days. Most all of his work in the 1990's and early 2000 were all dismissible. Numan, as so many did, decided to follow rather than lead, playing a style of music that fit the flavor of the day rather than establishing his own mark. Having been a huge Numan fan in the early 80's and never having the opportunity to see him live I jumped at the chance to see him in 2000 when he as touring in support of Pure. Pure was attempting to capitalize on the funk-hip-hop-metal popularity of the day, which was making multi-millionaires out of bands like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Incubus. I figured it was worth enduring this new garbage for a chance to hear at least a few of my old favorites. So, off to the House of Blues on LA's famed Sunset Strip I went with high expectations, along with 75 or 80 like minded folk, to hear at least a Down in the Park or Are Friends Electric? along with the obligatory Cars. After one and half hours of the loudest, most indistinguishable music I had ever heard I wandered out of the HOB in a daze. Not only had he not played any of the old stuff, he didn't even play Cars. It was awful, Numan didn't say two words during the entire show, choosing to charge around stage, dressed all in black, all the while looking and sounding like some weak Nine Inch Nails cover band. I was pissed. My frustration would reach a new level as I passed the blinking sign I had obviously missed in my hast to get to the show "No Parking - Tow Away Zone". The cabbies lined up along the other side of the street (they'd done this before) gathered me and the other idiots that also failed to see the sign and whisked us off to parts unknown, to pay our $150 tow bill and retrieve our vehicles. Not only did I not get to hear even Cars, I had no car to show for it.

But I still love Gary Numan.