Gary Numan Digest Sun, 4 Oct 92 Volume 1 : Issue 3 Today's Topics: Administrivia Bill Sharpe Correction? Gary Numan Digest V1 #2 Ironic Kipper, B-sides Kipper; B-sides Numanews 23rd Sept 1992 UK Fan Club Yearbook and materials ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:34:54 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Administrivia To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu Just a few of things: There was no Digest V1 #1 because that was a test run by Dave. If replying to a part of the last Digest please specify which part in the subject line. Otherwise we will have a bunch of "Re: Gary Numan Digest Vx #y" for the index to the digest each week. Still no word about the Ghost CDs :(. I thought it would have been this week but no. I'll be sending out a Numanewsflash as soon as I hear that things are rolling. Your patience is appreciated. I realise that some of you paid for this in May but at that time I was told by Beryl they could be ready by the time I would be ther last June. It should be soon. Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:19:46 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Bill Sharpe To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From bhammond@zephyr.cair.du.edu Wed Sep 30 11:49:13 1992 Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 12:46:44 -0600 From: "BRIAN D. HAMMOND" Message-Id: <199209301846.AA15945@zephyr.cair.du.edu> To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Subject: Bill Sharpe Status: RO I'll attempt an answer to the Bill Sharpe question. Unfotunately, I will not be able to say much about Shakatak because, like Derek, I don't like the band *at all* and have not bothered to keep track of them. About Shakatak, I can only say this: they've been around a long time (since the 70s) and were still putting out music as of last year. They're music ranges from easy-listening dentist office music to more disco dancey stuff. Bill Sharpe has been the band's keyboardist, occassional vocalist, and writer/composer of about half the group's material. Bill Sharpe's association with Numan began in early 1985 when he went searching for a studio to record his first solo album. He eventually ended up at I believe Shepperton Studios where he met Numan. He needed a vocalist for the song "Change Your Mind" which somehow fell to Gary to do. The song of course did very well, making it to #16 in the UK and I was told hitting #1 in Canada. This success made Polydor very happy and helped move Bill Sharpe's solo album called _Famous People_. From this period the following Sharpe/Numan pressings were made: Famous People LP Famous People cassette Famous People CD* 7" PD of Change Your Mind/Remix Remake Remodel 7" promo with Change Your Mind on both sides 7" Change Your Mind/Remix Remake Remodel (black vinyl) 12" PD of Change Your Mind/Remix Remake Remodel/Fools In A World On Fire 12" same (black vinyl) 12" Change Your Mind razormaid/Change Your Mind ext/Change Your Mind single** *I was told once that the CD contains the UK extended version on it. If true, then I beleive this is the only place where the extended version exists on CD. **This is the US 12" single. It has virtually the same cover as the UK version and the only difference is that the US single has a thicker paper sleeve. Do check the song listing on the back, a casual glance will lead one to think they are the same. Remix Remake Remodel and Fools On A World In Fire are both from Bill Sharpe's album and neither one has any particiaption from Numan. The same is ture for all the tracks on the LP although it should be mentioned that many of Numan's band members particiapted on the LP like Tessa Niles, Jo Hubbard, Dick Morrissey, Linda Taylor, and Pino Palladino. For those that might be interestedthere was one other single released from the album for the song "Famous People" but again Numan had no personal involvement. Since the collaboration was so successful, they decided to try it again, this time on the Numa label in hopes of bringing in some desperately needed cash for the financially strapped label. This led to the 1986 single "New Thing >From London Town." Unfortunately the song didn't do nearly as well as Change Your Mind. Many fans prefer the haunting B-side song "Time To Die" to the single. In any case, the single was released as follows: 7" PD New Thing From London Town/Time To Die 7" same (black vinyl) 12" PD same song order 12" same (black vinyl) LP Strange Charm CD Strange Charm Cassette Strange Charm It may not be common knowledge, but there are actually two sets of lyrics for this song. All the singles had Bill Sharpe's lyrics whereas the album version had Numan's. The 12" singles feature an extended version. After the success of "Change Your Mind", Polydor decided to release an album with the combo. I've heard many rumours about this. I was once told that Sharpe/Numan signed a 5 album deal. If true, then _Automatic_ is but the first of 5 albums to come. I was also told that the first album was recorded and was ready to go in late 1988 but due to many problems, didn't get out until late 1989. I don't know if the latter is ture, but it would explain the long lag time between "No More Lies" and the actual album. The Polydor investment would, alas, never pay off as Sharpe/Numan were never able to repeat their success of 1985. In defence of Polydor though, they always maintained excellentstandards in their recording quality and packaging. 1988 saw the release of "No More Lies" which many feel was the low point of the combo. Few fans liked the song. Indeed, the West German CD single features the B-side song "Voices" as the A-side. Despite the song's unpopularity, Polydor heavily promoted the single and put out possibly the most variations for any Numan single to date. 7" No More Lies/voices 7" No More Lies/Voices PD 7" same (clear vinyl)* 7"same (blue vinyl) 7" same (white vinyl) 12" No More Lies extended/Voices 12" same PD CD single No More Lies extended/Voices/Change Your Mind/No More Lies 7" version *I was told back in 1988 that of the three coloured vinyl singles, the clear vinyl was the rarest. I don't kow if this is true or not. In late 1989 the single _I'm On Automatic_ was released. Shortly after that the actual album came out. Neither did very well but once again the packaging was superb. The LP for Automatic for example when held up to the light at the proper angle, reveals sillouttes of Sharpe/Numan's faces plus the title of the album. The releases from this period were the following: 7" I'm On Automatic/Love Like A Ghost 7" I'm On Automatic/No More Lies (new version) poster sleeve 7" I'm On Automatic/Love Like A Ghost PD 12" I'm On Automatic/Love Like A Ghost/Voices '89 remix 12" same PD CD single same as 12" single LP Automatic Casseette Automatic CD Automatic The CD contains the 12" single versions of No More Lies and I'm On Automatic as bonus tracks. As the album didn't do too well, the future of the combo is definitely up in the air right now. Personally, I've never been crazy about any of their work together. Bill Sharpe seems to write songs that have the same underlying beat to them that at times comes too close to a disco beat. Overall, Change Your Mind, New Thing From London Town, and I'm On Automatic are bearable for me when in the right mood. There are a couple of songs off Automatic which I can also tolerate. By and large, however, I don't play my Sharpe/Numan items that often. Me! I Disconnect From You ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:18:40 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Correction? To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu --- Forwarded mail from Al Crawford Bit of a boob in a post to the list I'm afraid - It's Rrussel Bell that's dead, innit, not any of the others. Leave it in if you want, though, it's not important. -- Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165 Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209 --- End of forwarded message from Al Crawford Was it? I thought I heard that Gary's uncle Jess Lidyard passed away. Anyone know for sure? Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:14:47 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #2 To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mon Sep 28 04:50:10 1992 Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 12:44:02 BST Message-Id: <12323.9209281144@garay.dcs.ed.ac.uk> From: Al Crawford Subject: Re: Gary Numan Digest V1 #2 To: Gary Numan In-Reply-To: numan@edu.uwp.cs's message of Sat, 26 Sep 92 11:24:44 CDT Organisation: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science > My recommendation is that if he wants to get current then he should bring > back Tubeway Army (Lidyard and Gardiner) and bring the guitar sound from > that first album. Wouldn't that require a seance? I'm sure at least one of the Numan clique from the early glory days has passed on since (from a drug overdose, I think). I can't remember which, but since Chris Payne and Ade Orange are both alive and well, I'd assume it's quite likely to be one of the others. If I'm wrong, interpret this as a request for enlightenment - just which early Numan collaborator is currently a corpse? > I would appreciate a variation since his infatuation with making another > Berserker/Fury has grown tired. We need a movement. I figure he is well > overdue since the stream currently looks like this He definitely needs a change. It's getting to the stage where I'd welcome *any* sort of move from him (Numan goes rap, Numan goes house, Numan goes big-band, Numan goes Mongolian nose-flute, ANYTHING), as long as it got him out of his current rut. Payne and Orange took an interesting detour as Big Noise UK last year which, while still firmly in the synth-pop vein, doesn't show any obvious Numan influence (i.e. it's original and not a rehash of the last album). Maybe he should be looking to his (ex) sidemen (preferably the ones that are still alive) for inspiration, as Trent suggests. Another avenue Gary might have done well to pursue was Yen, the new group he "discovered" (they approached him, in fact) and toured with on the Skin Mechanic tour. Yen's debut (and only) album, while more dance-oriented than most of the stuff Gary's been doing of late, at least has a certain spark to it, a bit of energy. You get the impression they're having fun, rather than trotting out the same thing year after year just to pay the bills. I partly blame Numan's recent terminal dullness on the fans. He releases it, they buy it, apparently without any regard as to what it actually *sounds like*. That's why I, for one, have stopped buying Gary's albums and will continue to do so until he gets his act together. Al -- Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165 Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:15:33 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Ironic To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mon Sep 28 07:47:32 1992 Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 15:36:34 BST From: Al Crawford Subject: Ironic To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Organisation: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science There's a new double CD compilation just been released over here to celebrate 25 years of Radio 1 (the main national radio station). What's ironic is that their 30-odd best tracks from the past 25 years includes..."Cars". Strikes me as kinda weird that Gary, whose career has been completely ignored by Radio 1 for the past 10 years or so, actually gets a track included on this compilation. Radio 1 certainly play his older material enough, but given the animosity between the two I'm surprised Gary gave permission for it to be included. Al -- Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165 Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:23:24 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Kipper, B-sides To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu Ken, I have no idea about Kipper. There are a couple of photos in UK FC newsletter and he's obviously in his 30s, has long wavy hair and is on the heavy side (did his presence cause Gary's seeming incrase in girth :) There is no indication who he is or where he came from. Anyone? Here's a list of the bonus tracks on the Asylum discs. Note the discs also have the complete albums. I extracted this from the numan discogrpahy available via FTP at cs.uwp.edu in the pub/music/discography directory. number in parentheses indicate tracks were not on album i.e. bonus tracks 1990 Asylum 1 [Disc 1] The Plan 1978 + 7 Tracks 3:22 That's Too Bad, Single Mix [1] 2:20 Oh! Didn't I Say [1] 3:30 Out Of Sight [1] 3:19 That's Too Bad, Orig Version [1] 3:54 Bombers, Single Version [1] 1:47 Blue Eyes [1] 2:39 O.D. Receiver [1] [Disc 2] Tubeway Army + 6 Tracks 3:10 Fadeout 1930 [1] 3:05 Me! I Disconnect From You, Live '79 [1] 4:05 Something's In The House, Live '79 [1] 3:29 Everyday I Die, Live '79 [2] 4:33 Down In The Park, Live '79 [2] 5:48 Bombers, Live '79 [1] [2] Tracks not originally on album and not available elsewhere [Disc 3] Replicas + 7 Tracks 3:43 Do You Need The Service? [1] 2:56 The Crazies [1] 3:38 Only A Downstat [1] 8:03 We Have A Technical [1] 2:56 We Are So Fragile [1] 6:40 I Nearly Married A Human (2) [1] [Disc 4] The Pleasure Principle + 6 Tracks 3:50 Random [1] 3:02 Oceans [1] 2:30 Asylum [1] 4:50 Remember I Was Vapour, Live '79 [1] 7:43 Conversation, Live '79 [1] 4:48 On Broadway, Live '79 [1] 1990 Asylum 2 [Disc 1] Telekon + 6 Tracks 4:46 We Are Glass [1] 3:46 I Die: You Die [1] 5:10 A Game Called Echo [1] 2:29 Photograph [1] 4:16 Down In The Park, Piano Version [1] 2:44 Trois Gymnopedies, 1st movement [1] [Disc 2] Dance + 4 Tracks 4:59 Stormtrooper In Drag [1] 2:34 I Sing Rain [1] 4:30 Exhibition [1] 4:41 Love Needs No Disguise [1] [Disc 3] I, Assassin + 7 Tracks 7:45 We Take Mystery (To Bed), Extended Version [1] 3:49 Noise, Noise [1] 4:27 Bridge? What Bridge? [1] 3:58 War Games [1] 4:49 Glitter And Ash [1] 5:59 The Image Is [1] 5:58 We Take Mystery (To Bed), Early Version [1] [Disc 4] Warriors + 6 Tracks 3:02 My Car Slides (1) [1] 4:45 My Car Slides (2) [1] 4:28 Poetry And Power [1] 3:49 Face To Face/Letters [1] 6:16 Cars, 'E' Reg Extended Model [1] 4:31 Cars, Motorway Mix [1] And the track listing on Asylum 3: 1990 Asylum 3 Living Ornaments 1979-1980 This CD is missing the tracks "Something's In The House" and "Conversation", these can be found on Asylum 1, Disc 4 and Asylum 2, Disc 2. 3:17 Airlane 3:27 Cars 2:39 We Are So Fragile 3:56 Films 2:35 My Shadow In Vain 4:17 The Dream Police 3:30 Metal 5:26 This Wreckage 3:53 I Die:You Die 4:36 M.E. 4:35 Everyday I Die 5:57 Down In The Park 3:34 Remind Me To Smile 5:56 The Joy Circuit 3:05 Tracks 5:45 Are 'friends' Electric 4:42 We Are Glass CD JA Beggars Banquet ALCB-31 Considering that these CDs are the only places to find the complete albums plus all the bonus tracks, many of which are very listenable, and all the lyrics + photos and a discography it is very hard to pass these up at $48.99 each for vol 1 and 2 at Tower Records. Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:09:17 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Kipper; B-sides To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From wet!ken@well.sf.ca.us Sat Sep 26 12:21:38 1992 Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 12:18 PDT From: wet!ken@well.sf.ca.us (kenneth stuart) To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Subject: Kipper; B-sides Cc: wet!ken@apple.com Status: RO Hello, So who is this Kipper anyway? Also, someone mentioned B-sides being present on some Asylum releases; could you give more details - which Asylum, how many B-sides, how are they musically IYHO. Personally, I find Kate Bush's B-sides album to be her best album, so I no longer sneer at them... Ken PS Thanks Dave for Numan Digest - but can you get the numbering software fixed? Us collectors were deprived of having Vol. 1, No. 1 !! :-) PPS The movie Blade Runner influenced so much in pop culture, that if you went back in your time machine and shot the director (Ridley Scott?), then upon your return, most movies, commercials, albums and TV shows would be different. I haven't been able to see the director's cut yet :-( , but it sounds like all the unfortunate aspects of the original film have been eliminated. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:12:37 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Numanews 23rd Sept 1992 To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mon Sep 28 05:09:11 1992 Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 13:04:57 BST Message-Id: <12685.9209281204@garay.dcs.ed.ac.uk> From: Al Crawford Subject: Re: Numanews 23rd Sept 1992 (LONG) To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Organisation: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science Status: RO A few general comments on stuff in the last old-style Numanews... Press coverage of M+S... > Has anybody seen any published reviews for the album? I have scanned the > August issues of NME and Melody Maker an dcouldn't find anything. Yep, I saw the review in the issue of Q. They seemed surprisingly positive about the album. It merited 6/10 which is, given the music press' attitude towards Gary in recent years, pretty good. ---- Slightly off-subject, on John Foxx... >> As for "Burning Car"...well, that was a hit in late '79 at which time Foxx >> was in the process of recording _Metamatic_ and related material, so who >> knows? :-) > > [Are you sure Al? 'Cars' was a number 1 hit in the UK in Sept 1979. I > thought that 'Burning Car' was released in the summer of 1980. I also > thought it was released after 'Metamatic'.] Sorry, this was a typo. I'd meant to say "Cars" was a hit in late '79, at which time Foxx was in the process of recording _Metamatic_. > Since I have listened to all of the early Numan, Ultravox and John Foxx > albums, it seems to me that there was a certain use of synths that came > out of the late 70's. > > However, since I don't know any of the personal details of the development of > those albums, I cannot say who influenced who... > > About all I do know is that Billy Currie, keyboardist of Ultravox, did play > keyboards for Numan sometime in the late 70's... > > Does anyone have more knowledge concerning who influenced who? Ultravox / \ / \ Numan Foxx Ultravox were the most strongly rooted influence for both artists (Bowie was another influence on all three, albeit to a lesser degree). The influence of Ultravox on Foxx was rather more obvious, of course, since he'd formed that group and Foxx's solo albums can be seen as a continuation of the ideas he had worked on in Ultravox. Numan has publicly acknowledged Ultravox as an influence. Comparing early U-Vox with early Numan, I'd say _Ha! Ha! Ha!_ was the primary influence. As for cross-influence between Foxx and Numan, I don't really see it. Their are certain similarities in sound but that's really only to be expected when two artists both have similar influences. Currie played with Numan in the gap between the breakup of the original Ultravox lineup and them coming together with Midge Ure as vocalist. There's another link hidden here, since Currie got together with Ure and Chris Payne (from Numan's backing group) to write the hit "Fade To Grey" for Visage, which Ure and Currie were both members of. ---- More unrelated stuff - sorry 'bout this, folks... > Anyway, now for the snippet promised in the subject heading. Actually, > this isn't Numan related, and probably belongs on the FoxxVox list, > but I'm not subscribed to it, and Numan fans might be interested. If > you want to send this on to Al Crawford then please feel free to do > so, but I expect this has been discussed to death there. 'Fraid not. I'm still trying to get FoxxVox off the ground. About half of the mail-system gunk needed to get it off the ground (it's to be run as a weekly digest - where'd you think Derek got the idea from? :-)) is in place but Mysterious Bugs have been manifesting themselves, and I'm not going to set the list running until I'm sure it's working properly. > [Hmmm. Sounds highly likely. Al, any ideas? Has JF/DL been doing > more than we think in his semi-retirement. Still waiting for Metamatic > on CD :(] An interesting snippet - I'd been "The Emperor's New Mind" at a friend's a couple of weeks back and had noticed the cover, specifically that the Roman statue bore a striking resemblance to that on the cover of Foxx's _Assembly_ CD and the Nation 12 _Electrofear_ single. It didn't occur to me to check the credits for the artwork though. In response to the question posed though, yes, after dropping out of the music scene Foxx went back to graphic design. He's done a number of book covers (anyone else spots more, please tell me), he's also working on a book and has done some video work. Umm, I guess I'd better add some more Numan stuff. Nah, telling everyone about all the nice Numan rarities AND DIDN'T BUY at a record fair on Saturday wouldn't be fair :-) -- Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165 Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 11:26:52 PDT From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: UK Fan Club Yearbook and materials To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu -------------------------------------------------- UK GARY NUMAN FAN CLUB 1992 YEARBOOK AND MATERIALS -------------------------------------------------- I am unsure when this was initially sent out to UK fans as I only joined in June. I suspect it was in the first quarter of 1992. The Yearbook is a glossy 16 page + cover publication filled with 3 articles and a lot of pictures of what I presume were Gary's 1991 concerts and his flying exploits. In the first half is a diary of 1991's events followed by a piece about the Emotion Tour, with the second half being devoted to Gary's personal experience of being able to fly in a Tornado fighter jet. Clearly flying is a full half of Gary's life. With the yearbook mailing came my membership card (my number is close to 13,500 so its a reasonably sized club but I don't know if all these are active members). A Teletour badge (pin) was also included. There's a photo of Gary in concert and a pages of merchandise that is available including the Berserker and Ghost CDs, 7 and 12" vinyl, cassettes, t-shirts, sweatshirts, past newsletters, yearbooks, posters and concert programmes. An incredible amount of stuff. Unfortunately I cannot personally get any of this stuff for you as it would take an incredible amount of time to organize. Logistics would also be incredible unless I went into business proper. If someone would pay me $30,000 + per year I would run a North American GN Fan Club operation but I don't think that is going to happen :) Beryl included a personal note : Dear Derek Thank you very much for taking care of the U.S.A.fans for me. It was really nice of you to take back their CDs. We are still trying to get the Ghost CD sorted out. I will let you know as soon as we have them. I was really disappointed I missed meeting you and your family but as you say, better luck next time. I hope you enjoy the reading, the next newsletter will be a double one and it should be with you in a couple of weeks. Bye for now, Beryl G.N.F.C. THE YEARBOOK ------------ Given are the UK phone hotline numbers. These are not available to those calling from outside the UK :(. The charge is bad enough calling within the UK (36p i.e. about 70c per min at the cheapest time). 1991 DIARY __________ January - writing 'The Unborn' soundtrack. Also states it seems unlikely it will ever be released (IRS not co-operative) but the extra instrumental material may be released someday. February - 'Heart' video, band rehearsals for 'Outland' Tour. March - release of 'Heart' single on 4th, promotional activities, more rehearsal, tour from the 16th. April - songwriting for 'Machine and Soul'. May - a break, airshow in his Harvard plane, arrival of new recording desk at his Outland Studio. June and July - writing, recording, airshows, planning club tour. August - finalizing club tour, Karting with Fan Club competition winners, resumption of NUMA Records distrinuted this time by Pinnacle. Shoot of 'Emotion' video. September and October - band rehearsal, paintball competition day (outdoor wargames with paintball guns) , release of 'Emotion', Emotion Club Tour (three weeks into October). November and December - continue song writing, plan release of compilation (Isolate) [this was brought forward to March when it was clear M+S was not going to be ready by then. He predicted it's release in May or June but it was August in reality.] 'The Skin Game' release was already planned for March at this time. Gary also became certified for Group C (fighter) Display Authorisation. THE EMOTION TOUR ________________ Gary's first club tour. It was hoped that playing smaller venues fans could see him more easily (less distance to travel, fewer costs for fans), arouse local attention and get exposure that the radio stations were not giving him. He had to cut back his light show to 60 from 300 lights and eliminate some of the special effects to fit into the venues. Fewer lights made the shows cooler. He often loses 4lbs each noght on the major tours He was worried and nervous because of the intimacy of the venues. Much less anonymous than on a big stage, far from most of the fans. He had not felt this nervous since when he first started performing. There was little room for movement on stage which made him feel more self-concious. Things seemed to go continuously wrong - it was a contant batle keeping the show going. Tripped the noise meter in London (power shut down for a few mins), two power cuts in Crewe due to a faulty building supply, venue lights constantly on in Ayr, fire alarm in Leicester set off by smoke machines and required evacuation of the hall, and on the second visit to London a lightning stroke mid- show, temprarily put out the power and gave Gary a mild heart attack. In Derby the PA 'threw a wobbly' resulting in no higher frequencies for the whole show while in Portsmouth the stage started to move mid-show. Despite many problems on the tour he enjoyed it tremendously. JET POWER _________ This is Gary's story of how through connections at airshows he was able to fly with the an RAF pilot in the European Tornado Fighter jet. I won't go into detail but will just say he seems in awe of the jets and was amazed by the speed and power of it. The plane he flew in had taken part in Desert Storm adding more to the experience. ----------------------------------------------------------------- So, not a bad package of info. I'm glad I am mainly a fan of the music as all the merchandise would add up to a significant expenditure. I'll report on the UK GN FC newsletters next week and possibly the WORLD STORM fanzine if I have time. Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************