Date: Thu, 2 Nov 95 01:00:03 CST From: numan@cs.uwp.edu Reply-To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #171 Gary Numan Digest Thu, 2 Nov 95 Volume 1 : Issue 171 Today's Topics: ADMINISTRIVIA "Dance" * NU-Zone Update * * NU-Zone Update - More * A Lurker speaks!!!!! Auction!!! Berserker re-release... Digest itself + album ranking Donald Pedder's post Gary Numan Digest V1 #169 Hammersmith 1996 date moves Numan FAQ Version 2.0 NuWAVes update NuWorld Update Recent Numan Singles on 7"? Response to Donald Pedder Sacrifice - Annoying? The Numan Revival? What is a fan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 15:14:20 -0800 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: ADMINISTRIVIA To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Could the following people please email with me your location info for this months Gary's Questions: Martin Wagner Victor Gannon (Ireland) Paul Fay (Ireland) Manish Soni I'd like to know which city/town/village, State/Province/County and Country you live in so Gary can see where these questions are coming from. Please remmeber to include this info when emailing me with your questions for Gary. Thanks, Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 95 18:18:18 EST From: Nigel Day <100675.1253@compuserve.com> Subject: "Dance" To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Hello All Numan Digest Readers Seeing as the great man has made such a wonderfully diverse collection of albums over the years I have taken it on myself to do a bit of "aural studying" and am going to have a bash at having a bit of a Retro session on each one over the course of the next few months. Read if you want, if not ...well you know where the scroll bars are :-) Also I think this might be a great way of starting up a train of thought amongst fans, or people who otherwise might have remained quiet and on the side lines. What do you think about the album that I have written about ? Does it have any special meaning to you? Are there any stories surrounding the album that you would like to share with the rest of us? Etc Etc The list could go on and on, but first..... I sat down and looked at each of the albums and was immediately drawn to one that I don't play that often, yet the one that is quite possibly the wierdest ,yet most original of the bunch; namely "Dance". Listening to 'Dance" is certainly a strange experience. It sounds nothing like "The Pleasure Principle", "Replicas" or "Tubeway Army" and doesn't even begin to hint at what was to come in later years (With the possible exception of I Assassin). I guess the roots of "Dance" are kind of there in "Telekon"; certainly with things like "Remember, I was vapour" or "The Aircrash Bureau", but to be honest I think that "Dance" really is an album in it's own right. One single , although I am still surprised that "Crash" never made it to the 7" format (Does anyone know of any Foreign single releases off of this album?) "She's got Claws" still sounds as bizarre as hell 14 years later. It is also one of Gary's most original singles ever (Great promo vid as well) I remember the day I bought "Dance" quite vividly. Rushing home to stick it on the turntable of our rickety old Hi-Fi and being totally bemused by what came out of the speakers. With "Slowcar to China", for instance, I almost felt that I was listening to a Japan album :-)...and it seemed to go on and on and on and.....It was almost a relief when the more typical Numan tracks "Nighttalk" and "A Subway..." came on. Both remarkable tracks, does anybody know of any live versions of these??? I can't think of any off the top off my head. And then "Cry the clock said", previously previewed to all those lucky individuals who saw Gary play at the Wembley Arena in '81. By now I was beginning to feel most bemused. There was certainly a huge gap between this music and "Cars" !!!!!!! I guess nowadays "Slowcar..." and "Cry..." could almost be classified as Ambience. I would like to know where the albums title stems from as the only Dance I could imagine anyone doing to most of the tracks would be the dance of the dying fly !!!! Maybe this is an example of Gary's humour :-) Of course , as with all great music, both "Slowcar.." and "Cry..." do grow on the listener and in fact end up as being two of the most original pieces that Gary has recorded. As I said earlier, 'Night Talk" and " A Subway called you" immediately stood out as Numan classics, thus making side 1 of this new album something of a stunner. Side 2 on the other hand remained a little bit of a disappointment. Not because the music therein was poor, far from it, but simply because compared to the "avant-gardishness" of the first side, it came across as sounding rather plain. No "Slowcars to China" here. However there was the wonderful lost single "Crash", the wonderful not-lost single "She's got claws" and the almost wonderful, haunting "My brother's time". What do the rest of you think of " Stories"? Personally, I think it sounds like a Soft Cell template ( although they probably copied Gary) . "Boys like me" would be fine if it wasn't for the rambling woman trying (and failing) to be seductive all over the track !!! " You are, You are" also would be great , but the production seems to slip a little on this one, and it ends up sounding more than a little flimsy. And finally "Moral". If there was any sign that Numan wanted to tie up and lay to rest the ghosts of his past, then it was here in all it's aural glory !!! A fine attack on the talentless Steve Strange and his acolytes, and a familiar tune thrown in for good measure, 'Moral" is a marvellous way to close an album. Not a bad supporting cast either :-) Mick Karn, Roger Taylor, Jess Lidyard (Back in the fold again), Nash the Slash, and Numan stalwarts, Chris Payne, Cedric Sharpley, John Webb and poor old Paul Gardiner making his farewell appearence. How could Gary go wrong with that lot behind him? !!!!! Then there are the "outtakes"...."I sing rain" ( Horrible !!!!) , the absolute class of "Exhibition" ( Why wasn't it on the album?) and "Stormtrooper in drag". I still can't see how " You are.." made it to the album, and " Exhibition" got left off, but there you go . So there you have it: " Dance" , an album without a tour, but an album of contrasts and great ideas. Like I said, if anyone has any "Dance" related stories, let's hear them, and for those of you who haven't played it for a while, get it out, dust it off and tune in !!!!!! They don't make 'em like this anymore :-) Next month I shall be casting my beady ears over the mess that is ......"The Fury" Any comments on anything I have said would be gratefully received either via the Digest or personally. OD Replica. "Here the business always rings twice" ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 95 19:09:53 EST From: Subject: * NU-Zone Update * To: Now seems like a good time to update you all on the NU-Zone web site. Updates are still being made virtually every day and so the sight is now massive! Here are details of all the features: 1. News. Updates on news and gossip in the Numan world. Some comes from Gary, some comes from the Digest, some by email and some by phone. 2. Singles. Full listing of UK singles on 7", 12" and vinyl. 3. Albums. Full listing of UK vinyl and CD albums - including studio, live and compilation releases. 4. Picture discs. A full listing of UK picture discs - 7", 12", album and CD. 5. Videos. A full listing of UK commercial videos and also a list of promotional videos and where they can be found. Also includes nine large colour images from video boxes - right back to Gary's first. 6. Songs. A complete listing of all Numan tracks (excluding remixes and live work). I now make this 302 tracks! 7. Gallery. A changing collection of Numan images. Currently we have eight fan pictures from the 1982 US tour. Each picture includes an appropriate song line from the album of the time. 8. Tours. Every Numan gig - now including the seven OMD dates. This listing is hanging proudly on Tony Webb's (Gary's father) office wall. 9. Biography. This will ultimately be a full Numan biography. For now, it runs to 12,000 words covering up to 1985. The target is 50,000 words. Various images are included - such as rare record covers. 10. Information. Miscellaneous information such as Fan Club details, credits etc. 11. Home page. A home page for me. Complete nonsense. Things being worked on now are home pages for GN2 (Numan cover band) and Gemma (Gary's girlfriend). The biog also needs some more effort and the news is ongoing. The final news on NU-Zone is the number of hits we are getting. During the period 30 Sep - 22 Oct, 541 hits were recorded on the front NU-Zone page. This is much more than I was ever expecting and I think shows how much interest in Numan there now is. Enjoy! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Matthew Holbrook http://www.county.net/machman/numan.html machman@county.net ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 95 18:34:43 EST From: Subject: * NU-Zone Update - More * To: Just a word on another couple of updates to the web site. The news page is currently carrying two very interesting pictures. The first is a picture from the Cheltenham disco which shows off the light show very well. The other picture is a grab of the lager advert featuring Cars - great for non UK websters. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Matthew Holbrook http://www.county.net/machman/numan.html machman@county.net ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: 01 Nov 95 16:29:57 EST From: Colin Edwards <100025.463@compuserve.com> Subject: A Lurker speaks!!!!! To: Numan Digest article Numan 96 Tour Some thoughts......... Thought No. 1 - Some sort of get together for any digest subscribers fortunate enough to get to see Numan next year is a must. Good luck Andy on arranging something, count me in! It would be great to see some of our non-UK based subscribers next year. I personally will be going to the shows at Southampton, Guildford and Hammersmtith, and would be happy to meet others or even try and find a convenient hostelry!!! Set List - like others War Songs is my favourite track on I Assassin, and even though it has been tried before live, with variable success, I would love to see it next year. Other tracks I would like are Somethings In The House (favourite from Tubeway Army), Metal (a favourite from the first few tours, sadly missed), and how about the Bombers/Remember I Was Vapour/On Broadway medley (not so sure about this one!!). There are many others but I need a bit more time to come up with my definitive Set List. I will work on it. Lurkers As someone who initially posted a few items on first joining the group, and then through work pressure had to catch up on over 30 digests in 3 weeks, I would sympathize with both sides of the argument. It is great to feel part of the group by contributing, but then again if I've nothing useful to contribute I am more than happy just reading other postings, on many and varied topics. I must however take exception to items such as the 'Manifesto' which seem to try to be controversial for the sake of it. Another digest I used to subscribe to was regularly full of items such as this, and these in particular don't go down too well this side of the Atlantic. I cancelled my subscription to that digest. So rather than postings for the sake of satisfying the wishes of a few active contributors, rather than for newsworthy reasons or well thought-out questions, I would prefer the silent majority to remain so. Digest Merchandise. This is a brilliant idea, something to really impress the other UK fans at the next tour, and could well spark a lot more interest in the digest over here. How practical is it to arrange payment, delivery etc. to non- US based digest members? I for one am definitely interested in at least a T-shirt. Plaudits. Special thanks to Derek, for the excellent Gary's Questions initiative. Although some of the answers are already known by longer-term fans, and particularly UK fans, it is great to have some of this stuff repeated, it is easy to forget some of this stuff. Gary sometimes incorporates the digest questions in his UK phone line questions, so keep them coming. But one important thing to bear in mind, is that Gary is extremely busy, and if the major deal comes off is likely to be even more so. Therefore it could well be that if he is absolutely inundated with questions, he may lose interest in participating in this. I trust Derek to show restraint in this matter, and hope that previously answered questions can be avoided by steering the questioner to the FAQ maybe? Also thanks to Matthew Holbrook for his and the forthcoming NuWorld WWW sites. Matthew's efforts since joining the group have been phenomenal (must be lots of spare time working for Computer Shopper eh!!!!!!), and the NuZone site is well worth a visit. I really look forward to NuWorld though, and hope that Gary can keep the momentum going on his site as well as Matthew does. How about someone who has accessed all the sites writing a review for the digest? 'Cars' Advert This could either be great news or bad news depending on who you are. I'm sure Gary really would like to make it big again. I'm sure some fans would like to see Gary where we know he belongs. However, there may be some downside to any possible upturn in Gary's career that may arise from the exposure created by the ad. Should Cars be rereleased? It has been out at least 3 times over here already, and does not really reflect what Gary is about these days. If it is rereleased and becomes a hit, Gary has a dilemna. Would people relate to the new material straight away, after a 16 year gap between the creation of Cars and any single from the Exile project? What would Beggars Banquet like to do? Would IRS leap on the bandwagon? This could lead to a large amount of material appearing over a short period of time, and over exposure to older material would blur any new Exile material, and possible 'kill' any revival before it started. Also Numan as the latest craze could lead to problems getting tickets for shows, unless you are a Fan Club member, and would the Fan Club still continue to be such a friendly, fan focused organisation (it could easily be swamped by new members). This could all be premature though. There is no news of any intended Cars rerelease yet, and it may never happen. At the end of the day whatever happens has to be in the interest of Gary, and what the fans would or would not like to happen is of little significance. As long as the music is not compromised then I for one will be happy whatever occurs. Fans I consider myself as a fan of the following.......Gary Numan and Arsenal Football Club. Only these two items have direct influence on my life, family matters aside, and developments in either require decisions to be made. A new Numan tour is announced and I immediately abandon other plans that may clash. Numan singles and albums are the only ones that I will proactively seek out. I never buy any other artists material on the day of release, and often only buy it months later. I rarely go and see other artists live. Artists such as Ultravox, Simple Minds, OMD, Depeche Mode, Human League etc. have come and gone in my appreciation, whereas Numan is still there. Every Numan product, single, album or show is special to me, and never disappoints. Ok, some are better than others, but even the slated Outland (which I quite like) has its merits. Dark Sunday is a particular favourite, and the imagery and lyrics of this album have a place. Maybe we have all been spoilt by Sacrifice, and long may it continue, but don't be so negative about earlier efforts often produced under extreme pressures. Machine and Soul is not my favourite album, in fact I rarely play the whole album these days, but I Wonder is a superb track, and would feature in my top 20 easily. Enough said, I'll leave it at that. Finally..... Has anyone got Numan related GIFs, BMPs etc. that they can provide. I do not have access to a scanner, but would love to have some of these to use as 'wallpaper' at work and at home. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 21:39:10 -0500 From: GYMnIF@aol.com Subject: Auction!!! To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello! Welcome to my first ever auction. In order to be fair to everyone, I have a few rules for bidding. Minimum bid is $20 on each item. Auction closes at 9 pm PDT November 17. Email your highest bid in confidence that at no time will I reveal the highest bid to anyone, only the current high bid, which will be $5 over the second highest bid. For instance, if someone bids $20 on an item and someone else bids $50, the current high bid will be $25 in favor of bidder #2. If nobody else bids, bidder 2 will get the item for $25, even though he bid $50. This enables someone to bid higher and not necessarily have to pay that much to get the item. I will NOT run up bids in order to get a better price. There is a matter of trust involved here. I trust everyone to make bids in good faith, and I hope everyone will trust me when I say that I will not play games or be dishonest. Winning bids do not include postage. (I only have ONE of each item available.) Thank you! #1 Original Berserker UK full album on Cassette NUMAC 1001 9 tracks, EXTENDED mixes. #2 Original Strange Charm UK Full album on Cassette includes 'Time to Die' which is NOT on the CD. #3 Radio Heart NBRL1 LP UK #4 The Fury NUMAX 1003 Pic Disc LP w/ins UK rare label mispress, album plays the Fury, but picture is actually of Your Fascination #5 Strange Charm UK Full length CD #6 Exhibition 3" CD Single from Japan. It came out the same time as the 3 Asylum sets and has the same artwork. This is basically a 5 song sampler from the Asylum series. Cars ('E' Reg Model), we take mystery to bed, i'm an agent, complex, trois gymnopodies. This item is extremely rare. #7 All Across the Nation CD single NBR 1, black cover, 4 songs All Across the nation (ext), (radio mix), River, All Across the nation (instr) that is it for now! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 02:41:27 -0500 From: dolivier@communique.net (David Olivier) Subject: Berserker re-release... To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Not to sound like a broken record or to jump the gun... BUT! Concerning the Berserker re-release: if/when it becomes "available", where can we expect to find it...? I do not want to miss it this time around... In other words, I would like to NOT have to wait for Tower to stock it and then realize I missed the boat... Thankx - dolivier ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 95 21:49 +0100 From: 051082957-0006@t-online.de (Th. Dieckmann) Subject: Digest itself + album ranking To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello everyone out there! After having read several Digests now, I have to admit that I am really impressed to see what is going on. It is not only that all this happens because of Gary, it is also that I think lots of people have found brilliant words to describe how this platform should work. It is nice to see such brilliant contributions from Donald or Joey or Derek to name just a few here. I think this helps to create a worldwide place we all (and Gary if he wants to as well) can be proud of. However, to escort this statement here is a something to discuss as well: The discussion on "this album is better than that" makes me wonder. As far as I know, an album consists of several songs and the songs are the music, which made us all Numan fans or Numanoids or whatever you may call it. So what is a good album? Have all tracks to be absolutely super brilliant? How do you compare albums? Do a ranking for every song and then calculating an average value out of it? So why complain about an album, when it might as well contain brilliant songs? I can find some weak points (at least to me) in all of Gary's albums, but I can find absolute highlights in each as well! So I would never complain about the album as a whole. Furthermore, something that makes being a Numan fan so special is, that Gary's style IS CHANGING from album to album! He really is an artist, so he should have the freedom to do whatever he likes. We might give a feedback on what he has done rather than giving a direction of where he should go. That's his decision. And as a fan for half my life now and with no real disappointments in all these years, I know his decision will be good. Looking forward to your comments, Thomas ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 12:58:32 -0600 (CST) From: Amy E Logsdon Warner Subject: Donald Pedder's post To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I think you're on the mark as far as where critiques, etc. need to be directed and where (or to whom) they do not need to be directed. Regarding lurkers, I am one. I usually feel no need to write, mostly this stems from the fact that unless I have a specific question I usually can't remember titles of songs and how I feel about them so it can be difficult to respond to questions. I read the Digest at work and therefore cannot walk over to my Numan collection and browse thru it til I find an answer. If I feel strongly enough about something then I will post, but as far as what I'd like to hear in concerts, etc. I would like to hear *anything* the man wants to play. I guess I'm more interested in the overall picture than the details, not saying this is better or worse than the reverse. I appreciate all the work Derek, Matthew and the others (bad memory again, sorry if I've deleted your name) have done for the Digest and it's readers. I would like to be comfortable staying a lurker without feeling that others are irritated with me for not posting, while not being overly sensitive I find it a bit disturbing that this issue has been addressed for a few digests now. Amy P.S. After all of that, I do have a question, but can't remember the songs so it will have to wait.... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 21:35:29 GMT From: leslie.bunder@cityscape.co.uk (leslie bunder) Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #169 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Sean said: > > I went to Cardiff, Bournemouth and Wembley. A very high % of the > people attending the shows I saw were Numan fans. It was extremely > funny to see a large proportion of the crowd bugger off each night > when Numan finished and the support Gary got, I thought, was > tremendous. Happy days .......... > > Later, > Sean. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > email : sean.francis@psemail.ps.net > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Well I actually went for OMD and was surprised to see Numan support. Anyway, at Wembley Arena the audience must have been around 2,500-3,000 of which I reckon there were around 500 numan fans there at most. Heard the Numan set which was pretty appalling, he went all Heavy Metal and it just failed badly! Also the sound quality was dreadful, so maybe it wasn't Numan's fault after all. But there was some sad heavy metal guitar played by the lead guitarist trying to by all Guns n Roses. Oh, well just IMHO! Leslie >------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- Leslie Bunder can also be reached at: LBunder@aol.com "The Journey Is The Reward" - Steve Jobs, founder of Apple ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 95 18:34:41 EST From: Subject: Hammersmith 1996 date moves To: Below is a story I've just released to the NU-Zone news page: The Hammersmith date of the 1996 tour has had to be moved from Saturday 6 April to Sunday 7 April. This is a move forced on Gary because the Hammersmith Apollo had previously booked a musical that will not now finish until 6 April. Gary and his family are very sorry for the obvious disappointment this will cause many fans - but they stress that they have no control over this kind of thing. They are attempting to schedule another show for the Saturday. This problem is the reason that Fan Club tickets for Hammersmith have not been despatched yet. These should now be issued some time from mid November. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Matthew Holbrook http://www.county.net/machman/numan.html machman@county.net ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 18:15:13 EST From: "Kay Teel" Subject: Numan FAQ Version 2.0 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu This is an announcement that the revised version of the FAQ (Version 2.0) is now available: FTP: cs.uwp.edu or mirrors.aol.com Web: http://www.netway.ab.ca/numanoid/numanfaq.htm or http://www.netway.ab.ca/numanoid/numanfaq.txt E-mail: E-mail me (teel@is.nyu.edu) if you want an ASCII text file (28KB) sent to your e-mail address. Revisions were made to the Biographical, Collaborations, IRS, CDiscography, and Contact Addresses sections. Some of the revisions include corrections and comments Gary made himself! And please note that the US Fan Club info given in the old FAQ was wrong. The new FAQ includes the correct info. My apologies to Ron Cole for not catching the error originally. As always, additions and corrections may be sent to me at: teel@is.nyu.edu. Additions and corrections sent to the Digest may or may not be caught by me, so best to cc: teel@is.nyu.edu just in case. --Kay teel@is.nyu.edu (despite what my header says) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Nov 95 07:21:08 MST From: numanoid@netway.ab.ca (Joey Lindstrom) Subject: NuWAVes update To: numan@cs.uwp.edu NuWAVes, as many of you know, is a collection of .WAV files designed to be drop-in replacements for the default system sounds that come with Windows and OS/2 - 34 of them in all. More are planned, but I felt I should address the negative feedback that I received in regards to the rather "clipped" sound that many of the samples had. The problem was lousy editing software. This has been rectified, the files have been re-edited, and are now available as NUMANW11.ZIP. Currently, you can find it at: via FTP: hobbes.nmsu.edu in the /incoming directory (subject to relocation) via WWW: www.netway.ab.ca/numanoid/nuwaves.html Future plans: 1) Re-record most of the current samples at CD-quality levels (16 bit, stereo, 44.1 KHz) for those of us with sound cards that can use it (and with the patience to download these huge files!) 2) Start some new sets of waves to complement the current set. I've had lots of feedback on this. A few Numan fans have written and said "awesome choices man!" (or words to that effect), although as I pointed out there've been criticisms of the editing. Cooler, though, has been feedback from people who don't have a clue who Gary Numan is, but downloaded NuWAVes anyways, and said: "totally radical dude!" (or words to that effect). Slowly but surely, we're bringing Numan back! If you've already got NuWAVes V1.0 and would like to try my settings under OS/2, here they are. The result is a rather eerie set of sounds that should freak out mothers, fathers, siblings, room-mates, and the occasional cat. Alarm Clock NUMAN1.WAV Begin Drag NUMAN14.WAV Closing Window (Animated) NUMAN16.WAV End Drag NUMAN9.WAV Error NUMAN30.WAV Information NUMAN11.WAV Lockup NUMAN18.WAV Opening Window (Animated) NUMAN19.WAV Printer Error NUMAN25.WAV Shred NUMAN22.WAV System Shutdown NUMAN8.WAV System Startup NUMAN21.WAV Warning NUMAN9.WAV Enjoy!! /--------------------------------------------------------- / Joey Lindstrom / numanoid@netway.ab.ca ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 95 19:10:08 EST From: Subject: NuWorld Update To: I'm still testing Gary's NuWorld site. I thought that digest subscribers might be interested in the following snippet from the front page: "The NUMA RECORDS link takes you to the home page of Gary's Numa, and Salvation record labels, where you are able to browse through the entire catalogue of CD and video releases currently available, which is probably more than you think as many previously deleted items are now being re-pressed. Every thing on show is available and there are instructions on how you can order any of the CDs or videos listed." So, it looks like The Fury and Strange Charm might not be that far away. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Matthew Holbrook http://www.county.net/machman/numan.html machman@county.net ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 14:21:39 -0500 From: HAPPYSHEEP@aol.com Subject: Recent Numan Singles on 7"? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu The last Numan single I saw to have a 7" was the poster pack of "Cars 93"-- have there been any 7"s since then??? Specifically-- Machine & Soul Like a Refugee Are Friends Electric (Generator) Dream Corrosion (live ep) A Question of Faith Absolution Dark Light (live ep) Please help!! This should be an easy question, and yet I can never seem to get a definite answer... --HappySheep ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Oct 95 13:25:39 MST From: numanoid@netway.ab.ca (Joey Lindstrom) Subject: Response to Donald Pedder To: numan@cs.uwp.edu This is in response to Donald Pedder's essay on being a fan. While I agree with many of your points, Donald, there's one I must take issue with. You state, quite clearly, that a "fan" does not criticize the artist who he/she is a fan of. I'm sorry but I cannot agree completely with this statement. I could agree with it if it were to say "a 'fan' does not criticize in a manner other than constructively". Let me elucidate. Let's take, for example, the song "Emotion". As we all know, this is not the most popular song amongst Numan fans, nor is it one of Gary's favorites either. In fact, some outright nasty things have been said about it. I've yet to see anyone in this forum DEFEND the song - it is almost universally considered to be one of Gary's "least noteworthy" works, to put it mildly. Now here's the thing: yes, we're fans. Yes, we (the hard-core Numanoids) are the main reason that Gary's still IN the flippin' music biz (I can't tell you how many people I have met that have some Numan records in their collection but haven't bought a damned thing in over a decade... and THESE people consider themselves "fans"... yeah, right...) But this doesn't give us CARTE BLANCHE to go postal on Gary over one bad song. But by the same token, I think we DO have a right to make our feelings known in a CONSTRUCTIVE manner. An unthinking fan would say "That song 'Emotion' was a complete piece of shit!!!" A thinking (and feeling) fan would say "That song 'Emotion' didn't work well at all, for the following reasons..." This isn't to say that we should suddenly become "politically correct" - God knows I rank THAT particular concept right up there with slave labour camps. What I'm saying is that we should treat this forum as if Gary was reading it daily. He does not at present do say... but that could change one day. And one day he might discover the back-issues and go skimming through them as well. Now if I were Gary, and I read "'Emotion' was a complete piece of shit", I'm not going to react well. I'd probably feel shame, embarrassment, anger, and resentment. But if I read a comment that takes me to task over the song and points out why the song doesn't work (for the fans), then I'm going to: 1) Not get angry about it 2) Not feel ashamed about the song, which will allow me to: 3) Read the comment for what it is and maybe take the CONSTRUCTIVE part of the criticism to heart the next time I start putting an album together. Now step back from this "theoretical" situation for a minute and look at the last three albums.... Outland.... gets blasted by critics and fans alike... Machine + Soul... ditto (though not as vehemently). Gary takes the hint from fans who are all shouting for him to "return to his roots" and comes up with Sacrifice, a magnificent blend of the best of the last two albums, a large dose of "Telekon", some dashes of "I, Assassin" and "Dance", and a fair number of new ingredients mixed in for good measure. Folks, you'll attract more flies with sugar than with vinegar. Both the "unthinking" and "thinking" fan had the same message to transmit, but only one will get through. The "unthinking" fan is typically closed-minded and isn't going to be open to new ideas, new approaches, and therefore by definition cannot really be said to BE a fan. As you've defined a "fan", Donald, we are much more than a group of people who appreciate Gary Numan. It goes WAY beyond mere appreciation, but with that territory comes an acceptance of ALL that that artist has to offer. Including new stuff that may tread vastly different ground than what went before. No matter how "good" or how "bad" I find Gary's various studio albums, I can name AT LEAST TWO songs from EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM that rank among his very, very best material. Yes, that includes "Outland" ("Heart", "Whisper", and "Dream Killer") and Machine + Soul ("I Wonder", "The Skin Game", "Machine And Soul"), and also Strange Charm ("My Breathing", in my opinion STILL his best-ever song, and "Strange Charm") and even The Fury ("Call Out The Dogs", "God Only Knows"). My choices for "very, very best material" will, of course, differ from yours, from Derek's, probably from almost everybody here. But the point here is that while I too wasn't AS happy with Outland and M+S as I was with much of his earlier work, I took them at face value and looked at what was really there. Having said THAT... I still reserve the right to make my feelings known about what I did NOT like about these albums. For example, I don't think covering "U Got The Look" was a particularly good idea. Gary's got a great (some would say "grate") singing voice but it was eminently unsuited for that song (conversely, though, the "wailing female vox" were PERFECT for this one). Read that to say: "Gary, next time, please pick a song more suited to YOUR SINGING STYLE". If Gary ever reads this comment, he now has the option of accepting or rejecting my advice, at his own discretion. I haven't slagged him, I haven't made him feel like a sack of shit, I've told him what I think about this song and what I think COULD IMPROVE THINGS NEXT TIME OUT. His opinion may differ of course. And so might yours, and so I come the long way around (again) to my real point: discussions about what DOES work and what DOES NOT work are the main reason why quite a few of us came here in the first place. As I've said before, I've learned to look at a lot of Numan's material through several other sets of eyes (ears?) because other fans have posted their perspectives here. In turn, I have offered my perspectives here and have received quite a bit of mail from folks who've read my comments, most of which have basically said "y'know, I never quite looked at that song in quite that way before, thanks for posting that!" (I should add, though, that I've taken more from the Digest than I've given back in this respect). I've said here before that "Dance" and "I, Assassin" were, in *MY* opinion, not even close to Gary's best work... and run smack into a veritable wall of resistance from folks who consider these to be among his best. Since then I've learned to appreciate these albums more than I did... hopefully, I've managed to get at least one other person to appreciate "Outland" and "Machine + Soul" more than they did before. If even ONE PERSON succeeds in changing another person's mind on even one song, then ALL the debating we've ever done on this topic has been worthwhile. /--------------------------------------------------------- / Joey Lindstrom / numanoid@netway.ab.ca ------------------------------ Date: 29 Oct 1995 18:07:12 GMT From: John_Thobois@atlmug.org (John Thobois) Subject: Sacrifice - Annoying? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I recently picked up the Extended Sacrifice. The highly repititious drum loops are a distraction from otherwise excellent tracks. Rarely, do I find myself able to make it completely through the album. Are the drum tracks mixed the same on the regular version of the album? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Oct 95 13:35:22 MST From: numanoid@netway.ab.ca (Joey Lindstrom) Subject: The Numan Revival? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu It's quite interesting to read in the last Digest about the resurgence of popular interest in Gary. Very encouraging to say the least. As far as a North American record contract is concerned... well, if Gary can GET ONE, the next step SHOULD BE - a North American release of "Sacrifice". As I drive my taxi around the city of Calgary, I pick up a LOT of people from a LOT of different backgrounds with a LOT of different musical tastes. Lately I've taken to playing "Sacrifice" a lot in the cab, and it has become a hands-down bona-fide HIT amongst my customers. "This music is cool, who is it?" "What station is this? I thought all Calgary radio stations were crap!" "This is like club music, only it's good!" "Can you make a tape of this for me?" (I decline and point them to a local import record store) I've read many similar stories here in the Digest from others who've encountered the same phenomenon. NON-NUMANOIDS ENJOY THIS ALBUM! (And hey, so do the Numanoids, so it's a double blessing!) Maybe that's something we as fans can do to help Gary out. PUSH SACRIFICE! Push it on your local club deejays. Push it on your local radio station programming directors. Push it on your friends. Push it on your dog, cat, hamster and canary. It's not like you're peddling Amway here folks - Sacrifice sells itself. Even my room-mate, who DETESTS anything that even remotely FEELS like it might be "dance music", enjoys most of Sacrifice (though not all of it... "A Question Of Faith" being a notable example). If we can drum up a few pockets of strong interest, THAT MIGHT BE ENOUGH to help push through that "big North American record contract" that Gary's trying hard to get. But do try also to push SALES of the album. If Gary can show some strong sales figures to accountants, that'll go one HELL of a long ways towards achieving this goal. /--------------------------------------------------------- / Joey Lindstrom / numanoid@netway.ab.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 22:21:30 -0600 (CST) From: CORY@netins.net (Cory Nyberg) Subject: What is a fan To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) First a bit about why some of us are lurkers. Or, actually why I in particular am usually a lurker. I don't have the time. Half the time I don't even have time to read the digest let alone write in. This has to be true of some of you out there. I don't have an internet connection at work so when I actually make time to log in and return mail from friends and download that cool image from the WWW someone told me about I don't want to think about what I would write here. Thank god many of the rest of you have the time or I would go insane. Thanks to all the regular contributors for giving me my Numan fix. Now, on to this bit about fans. I think half of what Donald notices in these critical posts is a matter of syntax. I for one would never presume to tell Gary what to do, but I also would probably phrase it in a way that it would seem like I am doing just that. Instead of formulating a sentence like: "I really enjoyed the analog synth used in the earlier albums and would not be unhappy if that were to recur." I would probably say: "Gary should use more analog synth like the stuff I REALLY liked." Let me demonstrate by using Donald's own words ( sorry Donald :-) ): > When I first started posting, I made a few SUGGESTIONS (nothing more/nothing >less), BUT, a few people got up in arms because they FELT they I was coming in >and trying to TELL people what to do (which I wasn't). This illustrates NICELY >the point I am making here. It also brings up a side-point. Always read a post ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >a FEW times before posting/replying. Have you REALLY said what you want to say? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >Have you really READ what the other is trying to say. Never post something ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >without re-reading a few times, and never reply without re-reading a few times. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >I've seen a lot of angst over rash emails. This particular email has been sent >over a day since I FIRST wrote it - to make sure I'm comfortable with what I've >said. (That may look like a mess!) I am certainly NOT picking on Donald here so please don't take it that way. My point here is that it is very easy to slip into a syntax that looks like an order when actually it was a suggestion or a critique. I know people have picked on Donald before (remember the BOLD TYPE discussion and the remix/edit thing ;^) ). I am not doing that here as I agree with what he is saying. Arguments usually happen because someone did not understand the original post or did not phrase their response very well and said something very different from what they meant. Which gets me back to why I don't have much time to post. I don't have the kind of time I want to make my point as clearly as I want to. Enough said. I'm praying to the aliens, Cory Nyberg cory@netins.net ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************