Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 01:00:03 CDT From: numan@cs.uwp.edu Reply-To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #165 Gary Numan Digest Thu, 12 Oct 95 Volume 1 : Issue 165 Today's Topics: "THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995" part1 "THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995" part 2 Concert Tickets Introduction Request for help Terminate Numanoid. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:11:08 -0800 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: "THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995" part1 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995 ------------------------------------- This is the second Q & A session with Gary and again he has answered in greater detail than one would expect for a man so busy. Info on how to send questions are at the end of part 2 (I had to split this session in two due to its size). Gary is apparently slipping further behind with the new album :-(. This month's edition has twice the number of questions as August's but I don't think it is why gary is falling behind. I hope that after this initial flurry, the number of questions might level off so that we can let him finish "Exile" :-) A very small number of you may notice your questions have been reworded. I've done this to save duplication, clarify and in some cases, enable us to get more info from Gary. I try my best not to change the meaning of the content though. Cheers, Derek ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Fetters of Arizona, USA Q1. It seems that the old analog synths gave a richer, thicker sound than today's synths - what is your retrospective view of analog synths? And is there any place for some of the older technology in the 1990's or is "newer better"? A1. If you had used them in the days when they were all you had to use I think you would find that your memories would be full of the times they let you down and the very narrow, relatively, amount of sound variation they could produce rather than how wonderful they all were. The sounds that I used to get in the days of analogue only synths are all easily reproduced by virtualy any of the newer machines. I definitely think that newer is better. I like old aeroplanes but it's pure nostalgia and I think the same thing applies to old synths in many ways. It tends to be people that missed them the first time around that, in the main, have the strongest feelings for them. ---- Kelly Ann Malkowski of Marietta, Georgia, and Robb Moran of New York, USA have similar questions: Kelly asks: Q2i. Hello Gary! I am aware that you like the SF work of Philip K. Dick and it seems obvious that you like the SF work of Fred Saberhagen's "Berserker" series. I would like to know if it's true you liked the Berserker series and also, what other literature tastes you have? A2i. Yes I did read several of the Berserker books by Saberhagen although when I revisited them again recently they didn't seem to be as good as when I was younger. Still a great concept though. My other tastes in literature are quite varied really. I like tech books about flying, war hero true stories, I very much like some Clive Barker books, Imagica and Weaveworld mainly, although I dislike most of his others. Tolkien is my all time favourite, The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings which is, in my opinion, the greatest book ever written. I read James Herbert at times but I'm convinced that I'm missing all the most interesting stuff through lack of time, apart from The Lord Of The Rings that is. Robb asks: Q2ii. Your music seems to have many references to films & books. Aside from the obvious movie samples in The Fury and Outland periods (Blade Runner, Terminator & Predator) I am curious if you could name some of those influences/favorites that inspire you? A2ii. The inspiration gained from books or films is extrememly limited, mainly stealing the odd sample rather than any true direction. I love Bladerunner for example but only gained a few image and stage lighting ideas from it, the Strange Charm cover being one of them. Lyrically most things come from my own experiences with just the occasional steal from a book, William Burroughs was always a good one to get me out of a dry patch. --- Jeff Farr of Ipswich, Suffolk, UK asks: Hi Gary. Firstly can I say how much I've enjoyed the last few tours in particular (including the OMD-'support' dates), and how grateful I am to have two FULL live albums available to document these! Q3. I have a (hopefully) constructive suggestion for the next tour - publicity. Last time you played in Ipswich (the Emotion 'club' dates) I saw almost no LOCAL publicity advertising the event in advance (two posters each inside the venue itself!). No doubt cost is a factor, but why not produce a few thousand leaflets/postcards to advertise the dates and get fanclub members to stick a couple of hundred in sports clubs, other venues, swimming baths, pubs, noticeboards etc etc. Would that not increase awareness? Thanks for 'Sacrifice' & Good Luck on 'Exile'. A3. Local publicity is a problem. Any publicity is a problem come to think of it. The cost obviously has a bearing on things but perhaps not in the way you think. To get posters printed is actually not that expensive, it's getting people to put them up that cost's the money. To get them put up in the UK you invariably have to deal with rather shady groups of people who take a large wad of cash and, for arguments sake, 100 posters for each town and promise to put them everywhere. The truth is that most of the time they take the money and throw them away. On the last tour that we tried it we counted only 4 posters seen over the entire tour. Now we may have missed some but bearing in mind we travel in to towns on major roads you would have expected to have seen more than four posters on a 14 date tour. And those 4 were all in one town! The best kind of useful publicity, in the absence of majoy national publicity which is now very difficult for me to get, is local press and radio interviews or write ups about the forthcoming shows. This is something that we do try hard to get but clearly could do better. The problem again is money as to employ people that specialise in this kind of local promotion is actually very expensive so we try to do it ourselves which is cheaper but less effective. It's a constant battle to do the best we can with what we can afford. The leaflet idea sounds good, we did actually try this in a small way on the Sacrifice tour, but we would need to know who would be willing to actually help out in that way and who would actually put the leaflets in good places and not just keep them all (that happened a few times last year when I did hand out leaflets to people). We will look into doing it on the next tour though as I think that it could be very helpful if we organised it more efficiently. ---- Andy McHaffie of Reading, Berkshire, UK delves way back in time to ask: Q4. I know you like to resurrect old stuff for your live shows, and I was wondering if any of the pre-Plan stuff would be a possibility to play live, like some stuff off the Roxy '77 bootleg ("Me my head", "Boys", "Motherless Faces" etc....) Also, I love all the pre-Replicas guitar-based stuff and often toy around with your songs on my 4-track, and wonder if you'd be able to remember the lyrics to these extremely early punky' songs, cos the tape quality is so bad and its pretty impossible to decipher? A4. Regarding the lyrics to the early punky songs I haven't the remoteset idea what any of the words are. In truth, on many of those songs, I used to make them up as I went along whenever we played live. Nobody could undersatnd a word you were singing anyway the PA systems were so awful and so it didn't seem to matter. It was the attitude that carried the message, if you had a message, and I didn't even have that half the time. Doing those songs live is probably not going to happen although I wouldn't rule it out absolutely. By the way, most of the song titles on those bootleg punk albums are wrong. I can't remember what it was called but I know it wasn't 'Motherless Faces' for a start. I've seen other song titles written down with some very interesting interpretations. If anyone can get me a list of the various bootleg song titles I'll try to remember what the real titles are and send you all a corrected list. ---- Derek Macdonald (cu17@csu.napier.ac.uk), of Edinburgh, Scotland asks: Q5. Is there any possibility of the Gary Numan Songbook being reprinted? Also , I'd vote a definite "YES" for an unplugged album. What songs would you consider doing? A5. I think the Gary Numan songbook was a Beggars Banquet product and so they own the copyright and any re-print is up to them. I would very much like to put out songbooks of my own in the future but it all takes time to get together and I don't have enough at the moment. The unplugged album song list is something I've not even considered yet. But I would be very keen to see it span the entire career. ---- Andy Flatman of Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK asks: Q6. Any plans or reasonable chance of you working with Bill Sharpe again? A6. No plans whatsoever, I haven't seen Bill for many years now, although I am supposed to be meeting up with him again fairly soon so who knows what plans he may have. I'm actually very happy doing my own thing at the moment, which is what I've always been happiest with really, and so I would be quite reluctant to get involved with anything else. This Techno Army thing is slightly different in that I only had to re sing the vocals and my part was over. It took a day and a half so it wasn't that intrusive to my progress on 'Exile'. ---- Jon Garland of Leicester, England asks: Q7. Could you clear up the events of a bizarre incident at the end of one of your concerts on the 1985 Fury Tour? The gig (which was magnificant), at the Ipswich Gaumont, was reaching a superb climax when you appeared to get caught up in some sort of a fracas with a fan at the front. Before the rest of us could work out what was happening, the gig ended in total, shocked silence, with you, obviously very upset, storming off the stage. As this was happening, the fan was being set upon by other irate fans before being rescued and escorted from the building by the bouncers. This incident spoiled what was a truly breathtaking and storming gig. What exactly happened Gary? A7. As far as I can remember it was the last song of the show anyway. A man tried to pull me into the crowd and as I pulled back, expecting him to release his grip which is what usually happens, he gripped even tighter and yanked on my arm again. It twisted it quite a bit which hurt a lot and pulled the skin down which hurt a lot more, so he pissed me off mightily. Bear in mind this was 1985 and I thought all that sort of hysteria nonsense was long gone especially as this was an adult and not a starstruck 13 year old (no offence intended). It didn't stop the show as I was finishing the set anyway but I must confess to leaving the stage somewhat miffed. I had no idea that anybody had set about the bloke until I was told later that night back at the hotel. I was very upset that he had been hurt. I thought he had let his enthusiasm get the better of him and that hardly warrents getting a beating. In the days of using microphones with leads people would sometimes wiggle the mike stand so that it cracked into my mouth or they would pull on the mike cable so that the mike jerked back into my teeth. Apparently done so that I would look at them and receive a nice smile or a small fluffy gift of some kind. Well worth getting smacked in the mouth for. All of those things were far more annoying that having my arm twisted. The only thing I could never quite understand is what would people do if they did manage to pull me in? ---- Aaron Hannum of Arlington, Texas, USA asks: Q10. You have worked with some great musicians (Mick Karn, Bill Nelson, Pino Pallidino(sp?), Nick Beggs, Billy Currie). Who has been your favorite or most interesting person to work with? A10. Bill Nelson was interesting in that it was amazing how badly we got on. I had been a great fan of Bill and Be Bop Deluxe for some time but when we finally worked together we were so different. Bill told me that he genuinely believed that we received our inspiration from 'beams' of some kind from across the cosmos. I thought that was complete crap and said that, at the time, I did it for fun, money, girls and all other trivial pursuits and benefits. He thought I was shallow, a point that I couldn't really argue against, and I thought he was a pretentious dickhead. I'm not quite as shallow now as I was then but I still don't believe in cosmic beams of inspiration. He was a fantastic player though, very clever, very creative. ---- Aaron Burke of Cleveland, Ohio, USA asks: I have been a fan of yours for years. Unfortunately, I have never been able to see you in concert, and highly anticipate you coming to the States for a tour. Q11. When you come to the States, I would assume that you would play smaller venues (2000 people or so). How would someone who has been waiting for the honour of meeting you and thanking you in person get the chance to do so? Do you sign autographs and say hello to the die hards after the show? Do we have to be record company reps who haven't heard anything since "Cars" to meet you? If the question seems loaded, it is. I have been waiting for years to meet you. If this is the closest I get, thank you for years of fantastic music, and I would like to apologize for the American pop music culture and record companies for being so completely lame. A11. Lots of questions in one this. First of all I would probably be playing in 200 capacity venues not 2000 unless I'm very much mistaken. Most people meet me, if they want to, back at the hotels after each show. I don't keep the location a secret as I'm very happy to meet fans on almost any occasion. I always sign autographs, all night if needs be, and I always have my picture taken with any one that wants it, and I'm nearly always the last to go to bed. No you don't have to be record company reps. I'm perhaps one of the few people that would make the President of Sony wait while I chatted to the fans. Especially now after so many years of loyalty. ---- Rudy from Palmdale California, USA, and Tiffany Profet of Glendale (Second safest city in the country), California, USA have related questions: Rudy asks: Q12i. Gary, in the last question I asked about "God only Knows" you said that "Nothing clever or deep I'm afraid" was involved in that song. Gary, you underestimate the power of your words. I know you are a pilot. But after listening to your music, your emotion comes through. Memory becomes one with the music. You haven been a part of my life for 16 years. Each song brings a different memory. Thank you. Was "Love Isolation for the Fans? 12i. Love Isolation started out being for my mum but I didn't think I was doing her justice and so it kind of evolved into just a general ballad. The bits that were meant for my mum were the chorus sections 'Call me +', 'You were there +' and the 'You cried for me' bit, but the rest was definitely not. Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Tiffany asks: Q12ii.I personally would like to know the motivation behind your more heart-felt songs such as "Love Isolation", "The Seed of a Lie", "Time to Die", and "Empty Bed, Empty Heart". These songs, to me, have the most powerful feelings and I was wondering where your inspiration came from for them. (Faithful fan, Tiff) 12ii/ 'Love Isolation' I've covered in Question 13. 'The Seed Of A Lie' concerns someone that leaves you and lets you down but perhaps realises it was a mistake. 'Time To Die' is about the waste of all those memories and experiences when someone dies. 'Empty Bed, Empty Heart' I wrote for an old girl friend who had gone off with someone else when I was about 25. ---- Steve Lilly of Orlando, Florida, USA asks: Q13. Some of your influences and musical tastes have been well publicized over the years. Whose music grabs you nowadays? A13. I like the Sisters Of Mercy, Depeche Mode, some of The Mission's new album, the Jesus Jones 'Perverse' album, not much else. ----- John Neil from Grand Rapids, Michigan USA asks: Q14. I notice in a lot of your music - particularly on "The Pleasure Principle", there are many droning synthesizer sounds. These 'droning sounds' sound a lot like they might have been influenced by the sounds heard from the cockpit of an airplane in flight. Could this be true? (Or have I just been playing your tapes in my walkman too much on continental flights...?) :) A14. I think your walkman idea holds the answer to this one. Nothing to do with me. And another question: Q15. Do you listen to/are you interested in hearing music from artists such as myself who create music and are very much influenced by you? If so... is there an address you could give us to send such works to? A15. I am interested but sorry, I cannot get involved in correspondance about its good and/or bad points. Send tapes to PO Box 14, Staines, Middx. England. TW19 5AU. ---- (continued in part 2) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:14:07 -0800 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: "THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995" part 2 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu THE DIGEST ASKS GARY - SEPTEMBER 1995 (continued from part 1) ------------------------------------- Andy McHaffie of Reading, Berkshire, England asks: Q16. I've always wondered what happened to the original song "Letters" which was supposed to be on the B-side of "Sister Surprise". "Face To Face" was pressed up instead, but does "Letters" still exist ? And Gary, congratulations on 'Sacrifice'. It was great to hear a return to the darker, more stripped down Gary Numan and I hope this is a direction that you will be continuing...I especially enjoyed the last Hammersmith show, again because of its more minimal instrumentation... A16. I struggle to remember. My vague recollection is that the wrong song was used on the record. That would lead me to assume that another song did exist at the time. Whatever the truth is though, any other song that may have been around at the time is long lost and forgotten about now. It may have been that it was simply a title error anyway. I'm sorry but I can't remember. ---- Alek Way of Oakland, California, USA asks about something more recent: Q17. On 'Absolution', it sounds as if your voice is taking a new direction (i.e. - the patented Gary Numan glottal attack is almost completely avoided). This song means a lot to me. It is a non-denominational, non-sectarian spiritual gateway, a little different style of gateway than what other Gary Numan songs are for me. Was this singing style intentional, or am I just hearing something that doesn't exist? A17. The singing style is not intentional in that I deliberately chose a new direction for my voice. It's just the way the song was meant to be sung. As for being a spiritual gateway of any kind I have to wonder what you see in the song. As far as I'm concerned it deals with blind obsession, religious fervour being just one example of blind obsession but not the one in the song. If you notice, the lyric becomes increasingly 'fanatic' as the song progresses which I think sums up the real danger of an obsession. For what it's worth 'Absolution' is my favourite Numan song of all time. I wrote it, recorded it and mixed it in about 7 or 8 hours as well so it was all very immediate and exciting. ---- Derek Langsford of San Diego, California, USA enquires: Q18. Were the live tracks that appeared on the "Here I Am" compilation from Receiver Records taken from the unreleased "Isolate" Tour recording? A18. None of us know the answer to this one. I'll try and find out from Receiver. Q19. Back in May 1995 rumours spread through music dealers of a UK release titled "Heartbreak Hill" - supposedly the 3rd contracted compilation of NUMA material by Receiver Records. It never appeared. Has it's release just been postponed? A19. Again, we have no knowledge of any planned release from Receiver called 'Heartbreak Hill' or anything else. In fact I don't think we've had any contact with them for quite some time. They did licence a large number of tracks for future use so another album is possible in the future but that's about as much as we know. ---- Ed Carmack of Tampa Bay, Florida, USA asks: Q20. On the "Sacrifice" tour you performed songs such as M.E., This is my House and War Songs which didn't show up on Dark Light. Were these songs recorded? If so, could we hope to see them as "B" sides or in some other form? A20. No they aren't recorded. Quite some time ago a fan suggested to me that it would be a good idea to play different songs each night to make the shows more interesting for people that go to more than just one show. This makes it more difficult from my point of view as it increases considerably the amount of rehearsal time required to learn all the extra songs that we will need to choose from each night. On the last tour for example we had over 30 songs listed from which to choose the set list nightly. Although I grumbled at the time this idea was suggested it was in fact an excellent idea and not quite as difficult to implement as I'd first imagined. However, it does mean that not all of the songs were played all of the time and some were missed out the night that 'Dark Light' was recorded. 'Dark Light' is a complete recording of that night with only the gaps between encores taken out. Q21. What can we expect on the next CD? Is it a similar sound that was created on "Sacrifice" or are you progressing into new territory? Are you again playing all of the instruments? A21. I'm playing most of the instruments, Mike Smith is helping out a little bit with some of the synth sounds as he has a PPG Wave system. I'm playing all the guitar, most of the keyboards and anything else I can think of. The sound of the album has the same core of reference as the Sacrifice album but is, perhaps, even darker, certainly more powerful and rhythmic. It is more like Sacrifice than any of my other albums though. ---- Tiffany Profet-Simpson of Glendale, California, USA asks: Q22. What are you referring to in the song "Pray"? There seem to be a definite dark side to you, and I would like to know what makes that side tick? And how does it manifest itself? A22. I'm actually slowly working on my first novel called (working title only so far) 'PRAY, The Final Treachery Of God'. The song 'Pray' was taken from ideas based on the book. Whatever dark side I have is a mystery to me although I'm sure it's there. Q23. You know how some albums tie all of the songs together by blending one song into the next with an overlying theme (a continuous track concept album)? I think that would be a great idea and I'm curious to see if you have ever thought about doing that in the future on some of your own albums. A23. I actually did something along the lines of this with my 'Outland' album. This had all of the songs blended together although without an overall theme. ---- Derek Langsford of San Diego, California, USA asks: Q24. When Sacrifice was nearing completion a partial track listing was released including a song titled 'Badland'. Did this song change it's name to something we now know as something else? A24. Badland was a title for the song that was eventually called 'The Seed Of A Lie'. Q25. Any news on the long awaited and much anticipated "Living Ornaments '79/Wembley 81" double CD set from Beggars Banquet? A25. No. Living Ornaments belongs to Beggars Banquet and so if they do release a CD version of it, as they've indicated they might, which would be a good idea from my point of view, they probably won't tell me about it until it's ready. We don't have much of a day to day relationship really. Although it's still very friendly we talk to each other only on very rare occasions. ---- Paul Mayer of New London, Connecticut, USA asks: Q26. Are there any other tracks like 'This House is Cold' that Beggars Banquet are sitting on that could be released? A26. Not that I know of but my memory is so bad on things like that I'm probably the worse person to ask. I'd forgotten about half the stuff on the plan album until I saw the songs listed on the sleeve. Q27. You said last time you had no intention of using a drummer in your studio for a future albums. How about a bass player? A27. I once used a bass player on the Metal Rhythm album, which I think was called New Anger in America for some reason known only to Miles Copeland. This bass player turns up, I go out to meet him, help him in with his two guitar cases, he plays well, goes home and we're all happy. Then I get his invoice and find that he's not only charged me for the session, that's fair enough, but he's also charged me 'porterage' which is for him carrying his cases from his car to the studio. A mighty distance of some 2 or 3 yards and I carried one of the cases anyway. My discontent with bass players reached new heights with that one. To be fair, and to answer the question sensibly, I have no reason not to use a bass player other than this. Normally when you record you kind of do all the conventional things, drum tracks, keyboards and so on. With the new album I am trying to avoid doing the obvious. This isn't to imply that I'm doing something revolutionary because I'm not, it's just that when I listen back to a song in progress and the obvious thing to do is to add guitar, or piano, or bass I deliberately do something else instead. It's a small attempt at trying to make this one just a little different to what's gone before. Limiting the choice of conventional instrumentation is a way of doing that and so bass, at least, is out, real or synthesised. The reasons for not using them too much on some of the other more recent albums is that I do find that nearly all bass players tend to do very similar things on songs and so you inevitabley have the bottom end of the spectrum sounding a bit samey from song to song and album to album. I realise that this argumant could be levelled at any number of instruments but you have to draw the line somewhere and with me it's bass. Actually I've also added brass to my list of no no's as well. And strings. And organ (I've always hated the organ). And girl singers. ---- Rudy from Palmdale California, USA asks: Q28. "Deadliner" is a powerful haunting tune, with theme's of the hidden fear in us all. Any insight? I hope your "Exile" project is just as good!! A28. So do I. 'Deadliner' actually started life as a short 26 second ditty for a French perfume TV advert. I did three bits of music for this ad company, they liked one of them, the perfume company liked the second and both of them thought that the 'Deadliner' music was too heavy, so I wrote some words for it, stretched it a bit and there you have it. The lyrics are actually about an experience I had twice on the Dream Corrosion tour and once shortly after it when I was back at home. Basically they were nightmares of a particularly vivid and realistic kind. I went into REM sleep within seconds of closing my eyes according to Gemma and straight away began to show signs of great distress only to wake up a bit of a mess a few minutes later. In the dreams a force of some kind, it felt like a person, hurt me quite badly and when I woke up I still felt pain in the same places. They were unlike any other dreams I've ever had and at the time I was convinced that something was waiting for me. Even though the scarier side of it is now long gone I still feel that. It was more than a dream, something was there somehow, waiting for me, and, more than that, it knew me. I like the song because it tells the story well in my opinion. ---- Kevin Duarte of San Francisco, California asks: Q29. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind chatting about your studio technique. I'm interested in finding out how you mix vocal tracks (ie. do you use one reverb on the whole mix or one on the vox tracks and another for the music, etc.). I'm also interested in finding out what microphones you like for studio and/or touring. - Thanx K. A29. The microphone list is easy as I only use a very battered Shure SM58. I've tried all kinds of all dancing super this and that things over the years but still come back to the SM58. It may be cheap but it works. My studio technique isn't quite so easy as I don't really have a 'technique' as such. I only have two reverbs, an AMS and a Lexicon so I'm fairly limited on my choices. The AMS is usually tied up with the drum sound anyway. The Lexicon normally has a general concert size hall programmed in which I use for all other reverb requirements including my vocals. I also use an AMS DDL on the voice using the two Harmonizer sections to automatically double track what I'm singing. Apart from that it's all pretty basic, I have two gates, two compressors, no phasers, flangers or panners of any kind. no moving faders or any of that high tech console stuff. I do tend to record more bits than I need and then sort it out at mix time by sending lots of pre mixed chunks into a hard disc recorder, chopping them together in a variety of ways and then sorting it out. That's why I can put out these extended mix albums because I'm actually doing most of the work as I'm preparing the conventional album. I'm not a great technician in the studio at all. I'm not a techy whizz kid at all either. I tend to just go in and see what happens from day to day. Sometimes I read or hear about a particular procedure or technique that you're supposed to use to get the best sound, mix or whatever and I'm horrified to learn that I've been doing it completely wrong for years. That's happened a few times and some of them are so bad I will never own up. ---- Joe Lindstrom of Calgary, Alberta, Canada asks: Q30. Some of us are planning a trip to the UK to catch one or, hopefully, many shows on your '96 tour. For most of us, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it's one we'd really like to remember. It would be absolutely unforgettable if we were to get the opportunity to meet and talk with you, maybe get a backstage tour or something. How might we arrange something like this, who would we talk to, etc.? A30. Just ask me. Nearer the time, quite near actually, I get a list of all the hotels that we will be staying in which I can pass on if you wish. It's not a secret, most people that want to can come back and hang out. Q31. I saw you perform live 'way back in 1980, during your final stop on the (second) North American tour of that year, at the Max Bell Arena here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Leaving aside the fact it was "a totally mind-blowing experience", I recall as I *LEFT* the show that, parked 'round back, was a Gary Numan tour bus. This baby was decked out in all the Telekon paraphanelia... black with the red double-bars, etc. I've wondered occasionally whatever became of that bus... rental job? I'd be interesting in finding out WHERE you got that bus, because it's very likely that the operator, if still in existence, will have PHOTOGRAPHS of it somewhere... and if they exist, I'd like to get copies. Here's hoping this is the TOUGHEST question you've had to answer since we started the Ask Gary column. (grin!) A31. Well, this is a bit confusing. The only photographs I have of the tour bus on that tour, which is also how I remember it, show a large greyhound size bus that has these amazing mural type paintings on the side of cowboys and indians. Horses, the desert, mountains, that kind of stuff. The Telekon bus wasn't mine I'm sure because I don't ever remember even seeing one let alone going around on it. Maybe it was rented by a group of fans to travel to the show but apart from asking other digest people I can't help much I'm afraid. ---- Philip Jacobson from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA asks: Q32. In one of your recent responses to a question, you mentioned you have a cat. My grandmother has always maintained people who have cats are a notch above everyone else. Anyway, I've decided I would like to name my next cat after your current one, so could you give me the name and perhaps a bit of his/her history? I would also like to thank you for hanging in all these years -- it has meant so much to so many of us. And pet your kitty for me too. :) A32. Our cat is called 'Nogbad The Bad' which I know seems a bit of a stupid name but it takes me back to my childhood. In England we used to have a childrens series made in that style where the backgrounds are painted but the characters in the forground are little cut out people that move by stop photography and smoke is always bits of cotton wool. Anyway it was all very English and very quaint and I loved it. It was called 'The Adventures of Noggin The Nog'. Noggins arch enemy was called Nogbad The Bad, hence the name of our cat. We call him 'Nog' or 'Noggling' for short. Nog is a grey Persian, prettier than most if not all other Persians. He was given to us by Gemma's brother as he was the runt of a new litter and the other kittens were giving him a hard time. He is a little bit smaller than he should be but he has more character than most people you will ever meet. I was never a great cat fan to be honest. Gemma persuaded me to try him out for a few weeks to see if I changed my mind. It only took about a day and I became cat mad. We are now registered with a local cat sanctuary and are hoping to take in kittens that have been rescued from cruelty and neglect. ---- Gleb G. Zverev of Moscow, Russia asks: Q33. In which countries have you performed live and where else have you been other than the USA and Greece? A33. I've played live in Britain obviously, USA, Canada, France, Belgium, Holland I think but I'm not sure, Germany or the bit that was called West Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The best place to find out about my touring history is Matthew Holbrook's web site called Nu Zone. Matthew has the complete list of every show I've ever done anywhere plus lots of other stuff although I'm sure that most digest people will already be aware of it. We've already used it ourselves to find out about old B-sides and so on so it's highly recommended. ---- I think that's everything. Thanks again Derek, Bye Bye Gary Numan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "THE DIGEST ASKS GARY" is a (still) new monthly feature where Digest subscribers can ask Gary questions via the Internet! Send your questions via email to Derek Langsford with a subject line of: Gary's Qs Please include your real name and the town/city, county/province/state and country where you are located. Please follow these directions carefully and don't post your questions to the Digest as that means more work for me :-( I reserve the right to delete and edit questions for content or length. Thanks to all for taking part, Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:24:45 +1000 From: Ashley Fletcher Subject: Concert Tickets To: Numan Digest This will be a quick one! I might go to England on holiday and I'm wondering how to get tickets to Gary Numan concerts from here in Australia. Looking at the tour dates the last one in London might be the most convenient. I remember reading in an old digest that people coming from overseas can get help with this sort of thing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Ashley (Australia) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 12:11:38 -0500 (CDT) From: "Jennifer A. Ritchey " Subject: Introduction To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello Numan fans! My name is Jennifer and I have only been a Numan fan for 2 years. My boyfriend introduced me to Gary Numan's music in the fall of 1993. I have since been exposed to just about all of his music, because my boyfriend has a rather large collection. I have also added Gary Numan to my collection of music, which ranges from Country and Western to Nine Inch Nails, U2, White Zombie, among others. I don't play any instruments, seriously-that is. I am a 22-year old, Texas student,(taking my last class for my Elementary Education Degree) and dancer. I use some of Gary Numan's music to dance to, unfortunately, all most people recognize is Cars. Thank you for adding me to the Numan Digest mailing list! jennifer ------------------------------ Date: 10 Oct 95 16:30:21 EDT From: Subject: Request for help To: Hello everyone, I'm in need of a little assistance. Firstly, if anyone out there is the proud owner of Images 1-10, would they be good enough to send me an email of the track listing on each? This will be very useful. Secondly, I'm missing Fan Club newsletters 21, 40 and 41 and year books 1986 and 1993. I would really love to at least get photocopies of these. Basically, the Numan Story that is building in NU-Zone would benefit a great deal from me seeing these items! I know some of the text is in past Digests, but I would like to see the real thing. Thanks to anyone who may be able to help. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Matthew Holbrook http://www.county.net/machman/numan.html machman@county.net ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 05:13:55 -0400 From: Scorbie@aol.com Subject: Terminate Numanoid. To: numan@cs.uwp.edu > From: MHDST4@vms.cis.pitt.edu > Subject: Isolate on vinyl > 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. Hand in your Numanoid Card this instant! You must buy everything and swear absolute loyalty this moment or be executed! Yeah, yeah, you saw it. WOW! We expect your resignation papers by the end of the month. NUMANOID 5. ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************