Date: Sun, 3 Jul 94 04:00:14 CDT From: numan@cs.uwp.edu Reply-To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #86 Gary Numan Digest Sun, 3 Jul 94 Volume 1 : Issue 86 Today's Topics: Compilations and Live disks help? Numan MUD Anyone? Numan Spotlight White Noise? YADQ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 08:12:11 -0500 (CDT) From: Doug Finney Subject: Compilations and Live disks To: numan@cs.uwp.edu J. Leroy writes: >Re: the question about live albums, I think that Numan now has more live >albums than the Grateful Dead and more Greatest Hits compilations than Yes >or Steely Dan. I agree that enough is enough, unless you put them in one >big boxed set called "Numan Runs Around" or "Lots of versions of Down in the >Park" and release them that way. I'd buy it. The only thing about the compilations that annoys me is the ones that have one or two songs I haven't been able to find someplace else so that I have to buy them. :) As for the live stuff, I figure it's better for Gary to release an album of every tour than to be bootlegged. They appeal to the same people who buy boots but cost less and probably have better sound quality. Plus he gets a share of the pie. Doug ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jun 94 21:28:27 EDT From: DRUMS14939@aol.com Subject: help? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Greetings all! Though I am not specifically a fan of Gary Numan, I am a fan of one of his bassists - Mick Karn. I understand that Karn toured with Numan, and I was wondering if any boots of that tour were available. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Scott Mies VR@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 21:19:49 -0500 (CDT) From: Lycan Subject: Numan MUD Anyone? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Numan MUD Anyone? Just a thought, has anyone seen or considered a Numan-ish MUD/MU/MOO/etc. that puts some of Numan's Darkish/Cyberpunkish/freakish future into a Multi User Dimension? You know! We could have Mach Men and RapeMachine BOTs roaming about, The Tubeway with Screamers, a Dream Cold Storage Factory... Just a WIERD Thought... ;)= Lycan ;)= -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lycan@tyrell.net From The LYC-O-SUCTION Archives! /\ /\ ( \---/ ) \/ o o \/ // /@\ \\ "I 'BATCH PROCESS', therefore I live!" * /// |"| \\\ ( * Better known as... "How to thrash a net, ///\"/\\\ A easy 10 step Course" ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jun 94 21:06:02 From: Joe.Lindstrom@telekon2.cpubbs.cuug.ab.ca (Joe Lindstrom) Subject: Numan Spotlight To: numan@cs.uwp.edu So I arrive home the other night and playback the messages on my machine. One of them's from my old friend and former room-mate Ross. "Joe", he said. "You're still into Gary Numan, ain't ya? You might wanna tape MuchMusic at 9:30 tonight, they're doing a spotlight on him" I look at the clock. 9:27pm. DIVE for the blank videos. Tear off the cellophane. Slam the tape in VCR, dial up channel 18, and press RECORD. Sure 'nuff, a 30-minute "MuchMusic Spotlight", this time on Gary Numan. They start off with a "fax sheet" which got his year of birth wrong, stated that he released three albums in 1989 including The Pleasure Principle (yes, '89), and that his last album was 1991's "Outland". Tsk tsk. Not off to an auspicious start. Then it got better. ========== Starts off with some early (January 1980) interview footage with Jeanne Beker, prior to a concert in Toronto (you can see the stage show being set up in the background). Speaks for a while about: The electronic thing: "I find guitars boring. Everything I played on the guitar sounded like what I played the day before. I just found the whole thing.... boring. Synthesizers were like a breath of fresh air, really... they opened it all up." Being a one-finger wonder: "I'm down to two fingers now. I'm twice as good as I used to be." Describes stage show (two towers, pyramids, all that jazz) Jeanne: "How'd you come up with this concept? It's amazing." Gary: "I dunno. You just think of things, don't you? You decide to buy things to wear, I decide to make things like that. That's my hobby." ========== Roll video for "Cars". I think we've all seen this one a zillion times so I won't describe it. ========== Return to (different) interview, October 1980, also Jeanne Beker: Jeanne: "Do you think that you've paid your dues? You've had a lot of success in a very short time." Gary: "I didn't pay any dues. I made it on my second album... I only did clubs for a little while and I got fed up with it so I stopped, the next week after that I was number one... no, I've not paid any dues... you have to pay dues, don't you? That's stupid, that..." Jeanne: "People shouldn't have to pay dues?" Gary: "No." Jeanne: "Do you feel you deserve..." Gary (interrupting): "I don't believe you should tour around for five years before you make it. If it's to gain experience, that's obviously been proven wrong cuz I'm doing ok and I've got no experience whatsoever." Jeanne (laughing): "So it's all a myth!" Gary: "Yeah, I think so. That whole attitude of... that you should be expected to do five or ten years... that they say I've got it easy... that I've got it too quick... that I've got it without earning it. I earned it because I wrote the album. That's how I earned it." ========== Roll video for "Radio Heart". Never even *HEARD* this song before. *GREAT* video. Someone fill me in on this: who is this band he's working with, what's the story? I've heard bits and pieces, that's all. ========== Return to first interview, Jeanne Beker, January 1980 Gary: "What I'm going to do is go into videos in two years' time, and get out of music completely. And then after that I'm going into aviation." Speaks about getting into running a charter business with old aircraft, nostalgia trips, etc. On how he feels about the audiences: Gary: "It depends. If they're nice to me, then I like them back. If they boo me, then I don't particularly like them very much. Same as people in the street, really." Jeanne: "That's certainly one of the things you'd have to forego if you became a full-time pilot." Gary: "Well that's what I wanna do anyway. I mean, I can't be a public figure and a pilot, every time I got out of the plane people would jump on you all the time. So I wanna fade that out, that's why I'd have to get out of... this... and stop being a public figure." ========== Roll *ANCIENT* video, "Down In The Park", live performance. Poor video and sound quality. Haven't checked but it's likely taken from the "Touring Principle" video, looks similar. Not his best performance of the song but he seems to be having a good time with it (it *IS* his favorite song of everything he's done). Still enjoyable. ========== Return to interview, this time November 1981 with J. D. Roberts. Interview takes place on airport tarmac, with Gary leaning against a "NumanAir" aircraft, registry G-NMAN, all black with double red stripes (you've all seen the pics of the plane in question, check your liner notes for Asylum, Exhibition, and/or The Best Of Gary Numan 1978-1983. I'd like to observe at this point that ol J. D. looks and acts like he found Gary under a rock. He seems genuinely stunned that the CITY-TV people actually sent him out to interview this guy. J. D. was always an ego case. Gary: "I used to go on stage, I could never think of what to say to people, so I didn't say anything. No point in blabbering like an idiot, sorta fumbling for words, so I didn't say a word. And... and that become like a stock in trade thing... I became known for it. I didn't intend it to happen that way. I didn't smile because... I was supposed to be something and they didn't smile. I just got stuck in me own little image, really... I was then expected to do something and if I did go on stage and talk or laugh even, or smile, then people actually shouted from the audience, and they didn't like it cuz I was destroying the illusion, I suppose... I dunno" J.D.: "When you look back on it, do you think you should have injected a bit more humor into what you were doing?" Gary: "No, no. You can't (something... man the guy's got an accent from hell !) successful and it worked very well and I had great fun doing it. If I go back... maybe next time I'll tell jokes... or wear dickie-bows and a dinner jacket... I don't know, I'll do whatever I like." (dickie bows and a dinner jacket? Sound like "The Fury" to you?) J.D.: "You say that you're a person who very quickly becomes bored of things. Last time we talked to you, you were bored of touring... you were planning on settling down... what's next?" Gary: "I wanted to do videos. In England, now, that's out of the question because the big'uns have moved in. It's virtually impossible to do anything in video now because the finance isn't there. There's other people... other companies that are running the loss of video from the profits they make on other things. And it's big people like EMI and Warner Brothers, those type of people doing it. So I'm afraid for the time being... videos are put on the shelf. And it's back, really, to flying." Describes aircraft a bit. Gary: "I'm doing a few things outside of music. I'm trying to keep music as a hobby, really... an enjoyable hobby. It became very much a job when I was touring, and now I think if I go back to touring and do it again, I can approach it in a completely different way." ========== Roll video for "Heart" (from the "Outland" album). Not a shabby video, though definitely has that "shot on video" feel as opposed to being shot on film. Gary's looking very airbrushed. Great close-ups of his overbite. :-) Don't know who the chick in the video with him is, but I'd like to. The song's a ballad so the video gives a very "intimate" feel. Of the whole bunch, Gary comes closest to "normal" or "mainstream" with this one. I guess that's another reason the Numan/IRS connection fell apart. :-) That said, it's an EXTREMELY well-executed video and sure gives me a better appreciation for the song. ========== Return to interview. This time on a roof-top somewhere, interviewer is Daniel Richler and it's March 1985. Daniel is interviewing both Gary Numan and Bill Sharpe, but Bill doesn't do any talking in this clip (except briefly sing "Happy Birthday" to Gary, whose 27th is fast approaching). Gary's wearing a white suit, tie, and shirt, and has blue hair. Gary: "At the end of the day, all we're supposed to be here for is to entertain people. And if these inventions and technology can make it easier, then so much the better. I think the days of having to be technically perfect on your instruments is a very old-fashioned and outdated concept really. Now, that has it's market, and let it stick to it, but we can do it with our machines." Daniel: "Everywhere I look, there are people dancing in this city and a lot of the time it's to black American funk. But a lot of it is also the electro-beat stuff, which you were playing some six... seven years ago. Do you consider yourself to be... like, the daddy of it all?" Gary: "I do now, I'm 27 on Friday! Grand-daddy, not daddy. (much laughter from all three) No, no... really, I don't think I started it, I was just the first to become successful at it, but I wasn't doing it first. I think the only thing I did, really... was present it in a way that was accessible. We made a show AROUND the instrument. With a synthesizer, you can't put your feet up on it and do all those things like rock and rollers do... it's not a very visual instrument, so you're stuck with it cuz it's very static. And so I just made a character around it, and the character become famous. It's as simple as that, really." Daniel: "Now, this new character of yours that's featured in the video with Bill... very white, very black lips... what is it supposed to be?" Gary: "I dunno... God knows really... I just try to think of something that I haven't done before, and that nobody else had done before, cuz I'm always being compared to somebody or another." Daniel: "Oh really?" Gary: "Oh, always. And I thought, I never seen anybody with blue hair, so I'll give that a crack." (laughter, then fade to the video in question) ========== Roll video for "Change Your Mind", credites as "Gary Numan with Bill Sharpe". This, quite frankly, is one of the best videos I've ever seen, and for its time (1985) was absolutely INCREDIBLE. The "blue hair, black lips" (along with all-white outfit and blue dickie-bow) works extremely well. Bill's sitting in front of "the MIDI setup from hell" and he's playing keyboards (both computer and synthesizer) plus a Macintosh mouse. He's apparently controlling the whole setup, plus a robot-laser that's carving a bust of Gary out of stone. He's also "controlling" Gary himself, who seems at times to be a marionette on strings... but one that later tries to cut those strings and break out. It's amazing that for a guy who was often accused of being "cold" and "emotionless", Gary is a guy with INCREDIBLE ability to express emotion with his face... particularly the eyes and mouth. This character seems almost (but not quite) EVIL, kinda like a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong and about to turn on its creator. This ability I mention is also well-reflected in the videos for "Heart" and "Radio Heart" as well (but not in "Cars" or "Down In The Park"). He also has a wide range of body-language too. None of this of course comes through just by listening to his albums. :-) All in all, considering the dearth of available material and noting the factual errors at the beginning, I'd say MuchMusic did a darned good job here - the interview segments provide a lot of insight into the character. The only flaw maybe is that the comments selected seemed to be geared towards viewers who were NOT familiar with Gary and wanted a feel for the guy. For those of us who've been following him for years as we have, there isn't a whole lot "new" here (although it's definitely entertaining, especially the Daniel Richler interview). Then again, perhaps that's not a flaw. Because the one thing Numan hasn't received is respect as a legitimate artist from the music industry. This interview paints him as exactly that, although with a few quirks... but it paints him as a human being, doing what he WANTS TO with his life. The only failing is that it doesn't mention in any way his problems with getting airplay. And considering that MuchMusic is a part of that industry that's shunned him, I guess it's not surprising (though I'm told that "Change Your Mind" got quite a bit of airplay on MuchMusic, I don't know about "Heart" or "Radio Heart"... "Cars" of course got lots of play on MuchMusic's precedessor, the syndicated "The New Music" show) It sure made my week. :-) [~] The Liquid Engineer [~] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 12:45:21 -0400 From: flargh@tiac.net (Peter A. Cohen) Subject: White Noise? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Several years ago I came across a live Numan album called "White Noise." Perhaps it's because I had a head full of acid at the time, but I thought it was one of the most remarkable live synth band albums I had heard. It probably _was_ the acid, because I remember a Twinkie I consumed that night as the most remarkable pastry I'd ever had, also. Do other Numan fans share my opinion of this album? Was this an official release or was this a bootleg? Regardless, does anyone know where I can get a relatively fresh copy of it? I've fallen out of touch with the owner of that album and I've never come across it in the bins of my local record stores (Boston and Cambridge, MA). -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | flargh@tiac.net | in real life: Peter A. Cohen | fax: 617.662.1825 | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Free your mind and your ass will follow." - George Clinton | | Brought to you by MacTCP, MacPPP, & TIAC (data: 617.275.0331) | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 12:45:16 -0400 From: flargh@tiac.net (Peter A. Cohen) Subject: YADQ To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Yet Another Discography Question I was wondering if any kind soul out there would be willing to email me a relatively compleat Gary Numan discography. Principally, however, I'm interested in CD's. -- +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | flargh@tiac.net | in real life: Peter A. Cohen | fax: 617.662.1825 | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | "Free your mind and your ass will follow." - George Clinton | | Brought to you by MacTCP, MacPPP, & TIAC (data: 617.275.0331) | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************