Gary Numan Digest Sun, 14 Feb 93 Volume 1 : Issue 20 Today's Topics: ADMINISTRIVIA introductions - Greg Samson Later Lidyard and stuff Oceans, Telekon, Dance Telekon - the disagreement continues Yen - Down in the Park ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:52:40 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: ADMINISTRIVIA To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu I am going to send out 'invoices' late next week for the White Noise and Berserker CDs. If you have still to order let me know within the coming week. I expect to phone Beryl again and will confirm the status of WN and the Shadowman Video. I have still to hear from some whom I was expecting to receive orders (Greg T., Sean, John Stine, Eric and Stephen down under). Please let me know if you want copies. The cost should be less than posted a few weeks ago. The pound has dropped some 10c or so against the $US. So they might be some 5%-7% less. Interesting to hear the snippet last week that the tracks on the Nu-Music phone line were reminiscent of the phase between Dance and Warriors. Does this mean like I, Assassin? We'll have to wait and see. Have a good week Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:30:25 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: introductions - Greg Samson To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From wiggli@u.washington.edu Wed Feb 10 01:44:48 1993 Sender: wiggli@stein.u.washington.edu Subject: introductions Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 1:44:21 PST hi there; nice to meet you all. i'm greg samson. i started off with 'the pleasure principle,' which i think hit me very hard just as i was beginning college because it was the first pop music i'd been exposed to that created a mood, as opposed to most of the pop drek i was listening to at the time (or, indeed, much of the non-pop drek i listen to now :) ). that mood was depression, back then, but i've gotten around that now. i bought up everything i could on USA-domestic vinyl, which wasn't that much. when my buying shifted later to CDs, i was pleasantly surprised when i discovered _exhibition_, _tPP/warriors_ and _telekon/i, assassin_, albeit at import prices. i was also very happy when about nine months ago i happened across _asylum 2_. i guess i'd date my more hardcore involvement from then, although some of it started to show up when i found tracks like 'love is like clock law' on the _exhibition_ CDs that hadn't been on the USA-domestic vinyl. the rare tracks on asylum 2 make me quite happy. i'd describe the numan i like best as being around the time of _tPP_, though now things like _dance_ are starting to percolate through to me in their ambience - perhaps i'm getting old. :) i also am not thrilled by his new material, including the USA _new anger_, but i still find something to like in tracks like 'child with the ghost' or 'don't call my name'. has anyone got any more recommendations for me? i know i've been pestering derek about that kind of thing for what must seem like ages to him. ;) my email's gts@gnu.ai.mit.edu, or wiggli@u.washington.edu. nice to be meeting you all... -gts/uwiz ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:23:52 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Later Lidyard and stuff To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From cix.comp@compulink.co.uk Tue Feb 9 11:43:05 1993 Date: Tue, 9 Feb 93 19:06 GMT From: Rupert Goodwins Subject: Later Lidyard Hi 'gain... Browsing through the back issues of the list mailing, I came across a couple of questions along the lines of 'Where's Jess Lidyard' and so on. Well, looking through the credits on Strange Charm -- voila! Jess Lidyard. Voila! Rrussell Bell. Viola! Chris Payne. All credited with playing on various tracks -- in fact, Bell and Lidyard both played on The Need, which Brian Hammond said was 'the first song by Numan that I thought *stunk*' :) So it doesn't look as if reassembling the old team(s) would reincarnate the slumbering corpse, just by itself. In any case, I don't know how much musical input the players had in the early days (although they get a fulsome 'thanks, lads' on The Pleasure Principle); it was certainly an industry commonplace at the time that Tubeway Army was just Gazza plus some pals he'd roped in so he could get a contract, such things being next to impossible for solo male new wave/punk artists. Is there a Numan track/lyric database anywhere? Given that the lyrics are normally printed on the sleeves (wish everyone did that), if the copyright was sorted this could be a relatively easy thing to set up. Ditto an online discography, which wouldn't even have the copyright problems. Hey, we have the technology to indulge our compulsions, why not! [Rupert, a very large discography is available via ftp from cs.uwp.edu in the pub/music/discographies directory. The Asylum sets plus album CDs have all the lyrics. I am not sure if any of them are posted on cs.uwp.edu - they may be.] (Obscure trivia: mastering on SC was done by one Arun Chekraverty, who also mastered Brian Eno's first solo album and his most recent... wonder what Eno would do in a studio with Numan? Can you spell mutual incomprehension? Yes, I thought you could...) Rupert ------ Rupert Goodwins in real life, electronically represented by: rupertg@cix.compulink.co.uk rupert_goodwins@mcimail.com 72241.476@compuserve.com | G6HVY | 42 E6 3AR UK | (44) 71 325 6825 (w), (44) 81 472 6160 (h) (voice) (44) 71 378 6702 (w), (44) 81 472 6161 (h) (fax) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:39:24 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Oceans, Telekon, Dance To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu I was listening to my Asylum CDs the other night and noticed that "Oceans" borrows elements from "I am an Agent". It took me a while to figure it out but it is definitely there. This seems almost parallel to the reappearance of "Metal" in "Moral". Or, perhaps that Gary was not immune from sounding the same on his songs back then :) I also listened to the Telekon album to see if the statements I made a couple of weeks ago without hearing it in several months, held up. One thing I noticed was that some parts sounded amateurish and lame, as if it was done like that to sound "cute" or for convenience. There are touches which one might expect only to find on the most bland pop music you could imagine (Abba, and their British cousins Brotherhood of Man). The ambience of Replicas and TPP are replaced by a less intimidating air. It's as if Gary was trying to broaden his approach but his lack of experience shows through. So, I still think it is one of his weaker efforts before the capitulation. In comparison, Dance has much to commend it. Here gary does achieve what he set out to do on Telekon and succeeds. The almost 10 min Cry, the Clock Said is stunning and Crash is one of my favourite short and to the point numbers. I keep meaning to take a poll of the albums but don't have the time. Anyone like to take it on? Derek ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford Dept. of Biology dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu San Diego State University ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:17:50 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Telekon - the disagreement continues To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From claris!wet!ken%netcom.com@apple.com Tue Feb 9 08:12:14 1993 Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 23:11 PST From: ken@netcom.com (kenneth stuart) Subject: Telekon Hello, As usual, fans often disagree on what albums of the artist are good! I listened again to Telekon, and find it generally to be not bad (I already knew that I liked "This Wreckage"). The title song is not bad at all... it is sort of avant-garde; all the stuff that seems like mistakes are part of the song concept. IMHO. Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Feb 93 22:26:18 PST From: dlangs%sunstroke@sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Yen - Down in the Park To: numanews@cs.uwp.edu >From awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk Mon Feb 8 11:20:46 1993 Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 19:18:06 GMT From: Al Crawford Subject: Re: Gary Numan Digest V1 #19 > Re, AFE and DitP remix/reworkings.... > --------------------------------- > > Where? Where! Gimme now now please.... > > [Both are were in progress but might be ready now. AFE was done mainly by > Kipper with a new vocalist, DiTP is Gary with Yen. The latter may see > release by IRS, Yen's label] Unlikely - I was in touch with Yen sometime last year to see about arranging an interview with them but they were without a deal at that time. It seems that while it was Gary helped get them the deal on IRS, when Gary went so did they. No idea *where* it'll appear, I'd have thought Numa was a good bet but their finances are a bit too iffy for them to start releasing material by other artists. To be honest, I find the idea of a Yen-ified version of "Down In The Park" to be slightly bizarre. Given that Yen are something like a cross between Freur and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, the thought of "DiTP" being done in their sample-happy dance-pop sound is...interesting, to say the least. -- 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 Gary Numan Digest ******************************