Date: Thu, 14 Sep 95 01:00:03 CDT From: numan@cs.uwp.edu Reply-To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #157 Gary Numan Digest Thu, 14 Sep 95 Volume 1 : Issue 157 Today's Topics: * Nu-Zone Web Update * Plus 'Gazza' note Babylon Vols 1-4, more details Babylon Vols 1-4, more details correction Brief release + "Gary's Questions" comment catalog digest, meet angel Introduction Message IRS MATERIAL Isolate on vinyl More Re-releases! Praise be to Derek T-shirts The Definitive Poll - update 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 95 16:16:24 EDT From: Subject: * Nu-Zone Web Update * Plus 'Gazza' note To: Greetings, A major update to the NU-Zone web site has just gone in. Hopefully the system administrator will have issued the files by the time you read this. The highlights are as follows: - A new news page. - Minor corrections to the tour listings - plus full details of the 1996 tour. - Major update to the biography - now 7000 words over two pages. Goes right up to early 1982. Includes the meanings behind Are 'Friends' Electric?, Cars, We Are Glass and She's Got Claws. - Minor changes to the information and singles pages. - An update to the album page to include the new releases. - A slight change to the main page. I'm pleased to say the the site was publicised on BBC Radio 5 on Sunday. I'm hoping that the BBC will include a link in their web pages. Although when they see me slagging off Radio 1 in the latest front page, they may think again! Also, in #156, Richard V. Paiement asked about 'Gazza'. Well, virtually all 'Gazza' headlines in the UK are to do with the footballer Paul Gascoigne. Numan is sometimes called Gazza - but not in headlines. I remember this term being used to describe Numan in 1980 in the teeny mag Smash Hits. Matthew Holbrook ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 09:49:52 -0800 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Babylon Vols 1-4, more details To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello, I thought I'd pass on some more detailed info about the first 4 volumes of the Babylon CDs that hasn't been brought to the attention of the Digest before. General ------- First, Volumes 1 and 2 come with spare inserts that match the other volumes and presumeably the remaining volumes. The manufacturer used the wrong picture and fonts and rather than swap out the inserts they have just included the new ones so we can swap them out ourselves and have a spare "collectable". Beryl apologizes for the delay caused by the art work screw-up. They changed manufacturer after 1 & 2 from Disctronics to Mayking Records. Numa have used both in the past. All the CDs are in slimline CD single cases with no lyrics or discographical info other than the year of release and whether it was a 12" or b-side. The same picture is used for each volume - a two colour image of Gary's face taken from a photo I assume was taken during the Absolution shoot. There is no shading just solid white on a pale grey/beige background. Doesn't look as dull as it might sound. The writing on each volume is in the same font as "Dark Light" but upper case letters are used and each volume has a different colour typeface. Tracks/times sources -------------------- An * indicates a new-to-CD track, # indicates new to any format. Babylon 1 Beserker 6.44 (12" version) My Dying Machine 9.28 (12" version) Here Am I 3.09 (b-side to My Dying Machine 7" & 12") Empty Bed Empty Heart 5.43 (b-side to Berserker) She Cries 5.58 (b-side to My Dying Machine 12") Rumour 2.49 (b-side to London Times) total 34.15 Babylon 2 Your Fascination 5.16 (12" version) Call out the Dogs 6.50 (12" version) We Need It 6.58 (b-side to Your Fascination 7" & 12") Anthem* 3.27 (b-side to Your Fascination 12") This Ship Comes Apart* 4.00 (b-side to Call Out the Dogs 7" & 12") Mistasax 1* 3.05 (listed as 12" b-side but actually new) total 30.01 Babylon 3 Miracles 4.23 (12" version) I Still Remember* 3.59 (listed as 12" but actually 7" RSPCA mix) The Fear (95 remix)* 6.14 (originally b-side to Miracles 12") Puppets (95 remix)* 5.21 (originally b-side to I Still Remember) Tribal# 5.52 (unreleased version of Call Out the Dogs) Shame* 4.45 (b-side to red vinyl 7" of Heart) total 31.07 Babylon 4 This is Love 4.32 (12" version, same as album CD) I Can't Stop* 6.33 (listed as 12" but actually 10" Club mix) Survival* 5.08 (b-side to This is Love) Faces* 4.50 (b-side to I Can't Stop) Time to Die 4.16 (b-side to New Thing From London Town) Mistasax 2* 3.04 (b-side to Radio Heart 12") total 28.55 Discussion of track selection ----------------------------- They have tried to use the 12"/extended mixes for the singles. So there is some replication ('Berserker', 'My Dying Machine', 'Your Fascination', 'Call Out the Dogs', 'This is Love' are all on the "Isolate" CD), however, there are a few new mixes, some of which have been mislabelled. 'Miracles' is here as the 12" version (though at 4.23 it's only a minute longer) and is new to CD but what they have labelled as the 'I Still Remember' 12" is in fact the 7" RSPCA mix. The 12" RSPCA runs over 5 mins. It is great to have an RSPCA mix on CD but still, it would have been nicer to have the 12" version which is simply stunning. The other surprise is that the mix of 'I Can't Stop' on vol. 4 is not the 12" as labelled but the 10" Club Mix, a glorious error as this is the best mix of the song I have ever heard and fails to produce my reflex response to hit the "next track" button on my CD player. Some of the b-sides are great to have on CD - 'Puppets', 'Survival', 'Faces'. What impressed me is that there is some really good material there (I wasn't familiar with too many of the Numa b-sides before). The 'Mistasax' versions are wonderfully moody pieces that remind me of the quieter parts of "Bladerunner". 'Tribal' is a fascinating rendition of 'Call Out the Dogs' that is unrecognisable until you hit the chorus. It sounds very Bowie-esque with pounding tribal-style rhythms in the background. The 95 remixes of two b-sides are subtly different not radical reworkings. I'll ask Gary why they were remixed. Sound quality ------------- The transfer to CD seems good - very low noise threshold. In fact, a comparison of the "Berserker" tracks with the album CD makes me think they have been remastered or at least re-EQ'd. I hope the rerelease of the whole "Berserker" CD has been treated similarly as these tracks sound sharper with better instrument separation. Could someone with a better stereo and both CD please make a comparison? Future volumes -------------- It will be intriguing to see what Gary does with the IRS material as he said in an answer to a question last week that he can't use IRS material as is, but has to remix it. Does this apply to general releases only or also to Fan Club only releases. Will they all be 95 remixes? Apart from the sample intro, 'Shame' is the same as the IRS vinyl b-side. All told they will be a nice set but I think these are the more interesting of the volumes. Only three new-to-CD tracks remaining unless Gary remixes some songs. I hope they plan some more as some things are still missing - 'No Shelter', 'New Thing From London town' 12" and the 'I Still Remember' RSPCA 12" are sorely missed by me. Most of the 7" edits are also shorter than the 12" and album edits. If you are interested in acquiring these Babylon CDs contact Ron Cole zippy@ecst.csuchico.edu, our UK Fan Club official contact for information. Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 14:32:01 -0800 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Babylon Vols 1-4, more details correction To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I made a mistake on the track listing for Babylon 1. It should be: Babylon 1 Beserker 6.44 (12" version) My Dying Machine 9.28 (12" version) Empty Bed Empty Heart 3.09 (b-side to Berserker) Here Am I 5.43 (b-side to My Dying Machine 7" & 12") She Cries 5.58 (b-side to My Dying Machine 12") Rumour 2.49 (b-side to London Times) (I had 'Empty Bed, Empty Heart' as track 4 and with the time for 'Here Am I') Total time is the same, of course. Sorry, Derek (wanting to avoid being corrected) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 9 Sep 1995 23:31:07 -0700 (PDT) From: Stevorama Subject: Brief release + "Gary's Questions" comment To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Pardon me for a moment. "Berserker" re-released? YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAA! (I feel better now.) On another note, I never would have guessed in high school, listening to "Cars" at full volume, that years later I would be part of a group that has the ability to connect with Gary directly in ANY fashion. Thanks to Derek and his elves (and with deep, humble respect to Gary himself). How many artists give the fans this much direct insight? I am proud to be a fan, and although I hope he achieves worldwide fame, I feel part of him will always be ours. Thanks again. Steve Orlando, FL USA ****************************************************************** * "John Lennon knows your name, and I've seen his." -Marc Bolan * ****************************************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 13:46:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Glen Sutton Subject: catalog To: Numan 9-10-95 Can anyone e-mail or snail mail me a COMPLETE list in chronological order of every Gary Numan release including singles, special edition releases, interviews, picture disks, Gary with other artists like Bill Sharpe, Radio Heart, Dramatis, etc.... any videos, books etc...PLEASE? I would greatly appreciate it, not only for my own knowledge and search but to show some of my friends that Gary does exist beyond Cars. Thanks Glen Sutton 159 Lloyd Drive Marietta, Georgia 30066 Zendrum@RandomC.com Wyeth Persons Random Access Internet Shell account Standard disclaimers apply. Email: zendrum@randomc.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 03:42:37 -0400 From: Angelzero@aol.com Subject: digest, meet angel To: numan@cs.uwp.edu listen up, this is C.O.N.F.E.S.S.I.O.N.: i owe it all to merv griffen. i'll set the wayback machine. my actual introduction to gary numan occurred somewhere in the vicinity of the summer of 1979; a friend of mine had a mixed tape of some songs, about half of which were from 'replicas'; i remember thinking it was great stuff, particularly the song 'the machman', but i was only about 11, so i didn't know how to go about procuring my own copy. so i eventually forgot about it. the next year, 'cars' broke on american radio, and i knew immediately it was the same cool guy responsible for 'replicas', and this time i managed to get my adolescent hands on a 7" of cars at the local woolworth's. i think i played it until the grooves wore through, but then gary faded away again. flash-forward two years. it's sometime in 1982, and i'm 14 now. i'm flipping through the channels one night trying to avoid the reality of earth science homework, and i stop on the merv griffen show. i'd never watched merv before, and didn't honestly have much interest in talk shows. but to postpone my homework, i'd feign interest in anything. so not 60 seconds later, merv makes an announcement, a paraphrasing of which is: "and now, live via satellite from london, england, it's gary numan performing his new single, 'white boys and heroes'." and right there and then, it all came together. replicas, the machman, cars and now this... gary was amazing. the set, as well as i can remember it, was black and chrome. gary was in his gangster motif, and i can remember thar chris slade played a drum kit that looked like it had been genetically cross-bred with an octopus, or cthulhu: each drum, rather than being a squat cylinder, tapered into long tubes which curlec out onto the stage. well, now i'm a worldly teen-ager, and that weekend i set up for a local record store and plunked down six dollars for a cassette copy of 'i, assassin'. i was dumbstruck. i was already steeped in the sounds of early, primitive new wave: my turntable hosted duran duran, soft cell, a flock of seagulls, the human league, depeche mode, blondie and that kind of thing. but gary numan was different: not as poppy but no less catchy, musically varied but accessible, and lyrics somehow more meaningful than simon lebon's and mike score's. i think i wore through that copy of i, assassin before the year was out. in the meantime, though, my uncle took me to used record stores and i found telekon and and pleasure principle. and when i found a copy of replicas, i was in heaven. i had died, suddenly and peacefully, and i was in heaven, where every walkman had a mixed tape of tubeway army classics and every turntable had a copy of 'dance' on it. through the rest of high school, i collected everything with gary on it that i could find. my obession grew proportionately with the size of my income, and i eventually found everything there was to find. and i had to do it all myself, too, because i didn't know anyone else (save maybe my sister) who thought gary numan was the least bit cool. in art school, i continued to track numan's progress, into and through the IRS years. there, i was more successful spreading the gospel, and some of my friends took to numan (hi, imp). during those years, i had a leather jacket with the tubeway army face icon painted on the back. in the three years i sported that jacket, all of about four people said, "hey, nice gary numan jacket" to me. now, it's 1995, and i can't get 'sacrifice' out of my cd player. in the last few years, i've gone to considerable lengths to get all the numan music i had on vinyl on cd, more or less successfully; i have over 40 numan cd's and i keep looking. and when i went online a few years ago, i kinda figured there had to be other numanoids lurking in the data. and when i was introduced to the Digest (thanks, imp) back at issue #118, i knew i was hooked up. i was still dead, and i was still in heaven, only now i could get email from other people who had also seen the light. it's a great feeling. and i owe it all to merv griffen. all of it, everything. if i hadn't seen gary perform that night on television, i'd probably be one of those people who says, "gary numan? isn't he that guy who did 'cars'?" but now i'm so much more. > > > > "the strangest living boy you could ever wish to see..." end of line. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 95 14:34:45 EDT From: Alexander Deacon <100603.3353@compuserve.com> Subject: Introduction Message To: Numan mailing list Hello, im Alexander Deacon. I first heard numan (tubeway army) on John Peel in early 1979 aged 11. Serious impression made. Father took me to Touring Principle, Teletour and as a tearful 13yr old to Wembley. Favourite numan records have to be the first four albums. the first records i really bought and i still listen to them religously. i continued again a tide of abuse throughout the eighties buying the annual LP and the autumn tour, though since The Fury I have relied for numan faith on the trusted sound of old rather than the covers of prince songs and in my opinion the nasty clunky bass and drum sounds. Oh for a polymoog, even live. All this considered he is still the best and the only music that hold a torch to it is Bowie pre 1980 and a flash of John Foxx (another unjustly ignored). Best Wishes Alexander Deacon ------------------------------ Date: 11 Sep 95 09:54:56 EDT From: Subject: IRS MATERIAL To: "The Digest Asks Gary" was a most welcome enhancement to the Digest. Well done Derek. Something that Gary said got me wondering. He said that he is not allowed to re-issue IRS material - just re-record it. This made me think that I Don't Believe on Babylon 5 will not be the original - which will upset me greatly. And yet - Babylon 3 includes the original version of Shame - which is an IRS track. What is going on? Matthew Holbrook ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 10:23:45 -0400 (EDT) From: MHDST4@vms.cis.pitt.edu Subject: Isolate on vinyl To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Yeah, it was on vinyl, I saw way way back when it first came out. I didnt own any of the NUMA albums at the time but for $15 I passed on it. M ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 08:54:27 +0000 From: jfarr@drake.bt.co.uk (Jeff Farr) Subject: More Re-releases! To: numan@cs.uwp.edu In addition to the recent confirmation of the 'Berserker' re-release, you'll be interested to hear that in Gary's Answaphone message (Sept '95, only avail from UK), in response to a question, he says that it's (Numa's) intention to re-release Strange Charm and The Fury as well on CD. I know some from the digest have been asking for this for some time. It's not at all clear whether the Fury release would be the extended mix version - Gary implies that this would depend upon what people wanted so let him know! I would hope that the Berserker re-release is of the extended format, but I've seen no comments on this at all. See Ya Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Sep 95 05:57:00 UTC From: king1@genie.geis.com Subject: Praise be to Derek To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Thank you, thank you, thank you! Having Gary online is cool. I had NUMAN as a license plate on one of my motorcycles. Interestingly enough it was stolen off of my bike at the Ben and Jerry's plant in VT. Try explaining that to the cops! Thanks againg Derek. But you know, I get the feeling that you are doing more wpe that somedaspeak for th if not a gmake each weekDoes anyone have the Telex album "Sex", who would be willing to sell, loan or copy for me? Shane ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 13:57:21 EDT From: "Richard V. Paiement" Subject: T-shirts To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) In Digest #156, IMP wrote: >i'm very excited about the possibilities: i've never actually SEEN a gary >numan shirt (or anything else for that matter, save buttons), so this will be >quite fun [and functional]. I have an original Numan t-shirt which I rarely wear to avoid wearing it out. A friend of mine painted (with proper fabric paint) Gary's face with white and blue make-up as he was for Berserker. He even included the loop earing. It's on a plain white cotton (but good quality material) short sleeve t-shirt, and I forget what we wrote on the back! (I'm getting old) I also had an old sweatshirt which I had dyed a bunch of colours and spray- painted, using a home-made template, some Numan lyrics, including 'She's like death on two legs', using a typeface (font?) similar to that found on the Berserker LP. I just wanted to make some of you jealous. And while I'm at it, I also have a Gary Numan postcard from the Berserker era as well as a bumper sticker which says 'Play Music. Play Gary Numan.' Richard ************************************************************** Richard V. Paiement Internet: Hull Quebec CANADA ac925@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 08:11:41 +1000 From: Donald Neil Pedder Subject: The Definitive Poll - update 3 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu The Definitive Poll - update 3 ------------------------------ previous references - #133 #135 #136 #139 voting form in #139 YES, it's still on! Yes, I have been "scarce", but I'm still "out here". Haven't had time to scratch myself lately. So, I thought I'd post a reminder (this has been on my mind at LEAST a month, so this is how busy I am). There has been a steady influx of new subscribers who may know nothing of the poll. So, if you're a "newbie", then check out the above references. It is a poll encompassing ALL of GARY's work. I also though I'd expand a bit on the reasons behind such an exhaustive approach, since it has been suggested to me that maybe the whole thing seems a bit vague and a waste of time. So, why do the whole catalogue? Well, to draw attention back to the last time a song poll was done... (this was in #79 for those who are interested) - it wasn't done with great ACCURACY. (BTW this ISN'T a criticism - to do an ACCURATE poll requires quite a bit of TIME and EFFORT, which people may not have). In that poll a No. 20 vote scored the same as a No. 1 vote. Obviously a No.1 vote should be worth MORE (but this involves added time in the calculations). NOW, 8 people voted - and from 8 people voting for 20 songs each, only FIVE songs garnered >50% vote. i.e. only 5 songs had 4 votes or more. What this means in effect is that from a "top-20" poll, you are in fact ONLY getting a top-5! Since songs that have received less than 50% of the vote quite clearly might not end up in the top-20 at all if the original votes were for more than a top-20. i.e. there might be a song which EVERYONE thought was a "21", and DOESN'T even rate a mention, whereas a song that ONE person thought was a "20" does (and the others had it much lower). You can see that OVERALL the song that all people had at "21" was more popular than the one song that one person had at "20", yet appears to be LESS popular using this method. The moral is - that to get a TRUE top-20, you need to have people send in at LEAST a top 50 (say). So I say, let's go all the way! There ar NO inaccuracies that way (and being able to write a program to do the tallying means it's no trouble at all to do such a big poll). The other thing that I would find interesting from this exercise is just WHERE some songs are. i.e. I have previously mentioned "where will 'Cars' be?". We know already (from previous poll) that it's not in the top-20 (top-5), but is it close?, is it around the middle?, or are people REALLY sick of it? Also, see my comments about "Strange Charm". i.e. everyone cites "My Breathing" as a great song, but are the other songs close in standard, or just not bad enough to drag down the album as a whole? All these questions and more WILL be answered........ Now, I have a question for some of the older members of the list - does anyone have the results of the last ALBUM poll? I can't find 'em. If anyone would like to take part in the poll, and hasn't emailed me - please do so. IT'S NOT TOO LATE (I haven't even started doing MY vote yet). You DO need to get started soon though - I want to have this wrapped up well before we hit "Xmas shopping". Obviouly anyone who hasn't made a start by then (i.e. mid-late Nov.) will NOT end up finishing before new-year. Lastly - I have asked DEREK to ask GARY if he will take part. Obviously he is a fairly busy man - but if he CAN do it, it will be VERY interesting to see how the man himself rates his work (this'll settle a few arguments!). DONALD PEDDER. "I can see in your eyes, you're not so sure about me. This machine is my voice, Please Listen!". G. NUMAN - "Steel And You" ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************