Gary Numan Digest Thu, 27 Jun 96 Volume 1 : Issue 239 Today's Topics: Cars played on PBS TV + some data Change Your Mind Change Your Mind video Gary Numan Digest V1 #238 Isolate Tour CD Love Needs No Disguise Video New (unused) vinyl spotted New song excerpts on NuWORLD Numan bootleg trades Outland T-Shirt offer Sharpe and Numan CD For Sale Sound Quality Thoughts on Metal Rhythm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 11:50:11 -0700 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Cars played on PBS TV + some data To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Parts of Gary's original version of "Cars" was used as background music for a segment on KPBS's "America on Wheels", a 7 part series on the auto industry in the USA. It was used when they were talking about cars going hi-tech in the 80s and 90s. Funny really, because "Cars" was released in 1979 in the UK, regarded by many as the nadir of US car quality, reliability and styling. This show will have been broadcast virtually nationwide giving Gary some rare US exposure. I wonder how many recognized it and said to themselves "I need to get that on CD somehow". Gary was not mentioned or noted in the credits though :-( I also looked at the Billboard Book of US top 40 singles in a store. "Cars" is Gary's only entry reaching number 9 in June of 1980. It was in the top 40 for 17 weeks wityh 5 of them in the top 10. Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 10:54:37 -0400 (EDT) From: legiond@erols.com (Shane King) Subject: Change Your Mind To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) There is absolutely no way that the bass sound on "CYM" is a real bass. It's possible (but unlikely) that the bass sound could have been driven by a real bass controlling a synth. Often when people do liner notes they will call something a bass even when it was a synth. But since it's playing a bass line, they call it a bass. The same holds true for "No More Lies". I'm not trying to sound like a "know it all", but as a keyboard player and former bassist, you'll just have to trust me on this one. Cheers! Shane ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 11:26:43 EST From: "Kay Teel" Subject: Change Your Mind video To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Yes, there is a video for Change Your Mind. I saw it on MTV when the song was released, and it's on a 1985 Sony compilation video tape, "Don't Watch That, Watch This." It's not too bad. Gary singing while a laser beam is sculpting a chunk of plaster to look like him... And Bill Sharpe is in it somewhere. (You can tell it's been a while since I've watched.) If anyone is desperate to see it, I am willing to make a copy of it for the price of a blank videotape + postage. E-mail me at TEEL@IS.NYU.EDU to make arrangements. I also have a copy of the Radio Heart video I can bung on the same tape, although my copy's quality is a bit poor (bad TV reception). --Kay teel@is.nyu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 04:19:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Scott Allen Abfalter Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #238 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Well, wouldn't you know it. Shortly after posting how disappointed I was that I nver received anything from GNFC my yearbok came in. Now I feel foolish for complaining. I still have not seen the video but I feel more content waiting knowing that someone somewhere is really processing these things. :) Dunno if I am overly fond of the gothic image of GN in the yearbook, I have always liked the 'I only look sort human' image GN has had over the years. But it fits in with his newest music better so I guess it is a good thing. I picked up the Berserker and Human CD's recently. I was happy to find out that the Berserker tracks were somewhat extended. Always a nice suprise when you listen to a familiar song and suddenly you are hearing new stuff. I really love the Human CD. I wish that "We Fold Space" was a full fledged long song, that is exceptionally cool. Scott Allen Abfalter ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jun 96 12:05:16 EDT From: BRAD DAY Subject: Isolate Tour CD To: Hello!!!! I was unaware that an Isolate Tour CD existed. Was this fan club only? Could someone please post or E-mail me a track listing and a short review? My real E-mail address is bday0000@aol.com Does anyone know when this CD will be reissued? Thanks!!! Brad Day Atlanta, GA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 08:51:10 +0000 From: Phil Marsh Subject: Love Needs No Disguise Video To: numan@cs.uwp.edu >No studio video was made of AFE (came before commercial videos) and I >don't think there is one for "Love Needs No Disguise". I am sure >there must be one for CYM but it is not part of any Numan collection. Woah, I get to inform Derek of something for a change! :-) Love Needs No Disguise did indeed have a video - a kind of fake live performance thing in front of invited fan club members. It may be on Newman Numan, I'm not sure - I may have seen it on a bootleg video compilation. CYM also had a video with Gary in his blue hair/white face image from 1984. White shirt, trousers and braces I think - Bill Sharpe looking like "Mr Fluffy Dice" man :-) (pmarsh@tpmde.ac.uk) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 09:06:51 -0500 (CDT) From: Chris Schumann Subject: New (unused) vinyl spotted To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I was at my local music shop this weekend and picked up Berserker, Absolution, and Human (right after somebody bought four of the Beggars' 2 CD re-releases), and spotted two items that might be of interest to mailing list completists. I saw The Skin Mechanic and Absolution on vinyl at this store. If you MUST have them, they are Let it Be Records on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis (call 612-555-1212 for directory assistance), otherwise, I'd be happy to pick these up and ship them to any of you, for price plus cost of shipping. Email if interested. Chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 15:08:18 -0700 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: New song excerpts on NuWORLD To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Two new song excerpts are now up on NuWORLD: "The Angel Wars" and "Dead Heaven". Like the others they are recorded at 8kHz making them worse than poor AM quality but you can get the idea of the songs. I have only been able to download about 30 secs of each so far out of over 1 min (maybe download time is restricted on my computer). They are again in the same vein as the other tracks but that I think is partly due to the sampling rate. The percussion comes through better than anything else and is very reminiscent of that used on "Sacrifice". Most of the other intrumentation is lost. "Dead Heaven" seems to have some of the haunting piano of "Deadliner" on it. In total now we have 6 tracks of the "Exile" sessions named from which the "Exile" album will be extracted. Absolution (will be reworked for the album) Prophecy Dark An Alien Cure The Angel Wars Dead Heaven Very strong song titles IMO. They definitely set the tone that Gary is creating for this album. Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 15:08:01 -0500 From: machman@interaccess.com (Jeff Tolva) Subject: Numan bootleg trades To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi all! I've slowed down a bit on bootleg trades these days so I thought I'd put out another message to see if anyone wants to swap Numan boots on tape. We've had many new members join lately too so I wanted to let everyone know of my passion for Numan boots. And before you ask: I do collect the legit stuff too :-) Gary's made more than a few dollars from me over the years ;-) I'm specifically looking for: 1) something from late 1980 (the later Teletour stuff) 2) anything pre-Feb 1980 (I guess this would be Touring Principle stuff if it exists) 3) 1984 Berserker concert 4) 1987 Exhibition concert 5) 1989 Skin Mechanic concert 6) 1990 Outland concert 7) 1994 Sacrifice concert 8) 1996 Premier concert I would certainly consider trading material from concerts other than the ones listed above, but I have something from just about all other dates from 1980 to the present. I've been trading boots for a while now... If anyone is interested, please drop me a note as to what you have to trade and I'll send you my list of boots. My list is a Word document containing all the tracks as well, but I'm told you can view my file even if you don't have Word. Jeff Tolva (The Machman) P.S. I also have quite a few interview recordings on tape which I'd be willing to trade for material as well. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 23:13:57 -0400 From: JARUTLAND@aol.com Subject: Outland T-Shirt offer To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I was wondering if anyone has tried to get the T-shirt offered on the Outland CD. (bottom right of the lyric sheet). I have tried two times and got a postcard back once that said that "T-Shirts are not available". I got no response the second time. I have never had the opportunity to see Gary live :( and don't have any T-shirts, sweatshirts etc. If anybody can point me in the right direction, I would be very greatful. I like to promote Gary any way I can (keeps fuel in his plane) and a few simple clothing articles might just get some good conversations going. Thanks, Andy Rutland JARUTLAND@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 09:58:33 +0100 From: econec@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: Sharpe and Numan CD For Sale To: NUMAN@cs.uwp.edu Check out http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ec/forsale.html Also other Numan stuff and new wave generally. ATB, Edmund ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 21:57:42 -0700 (PDT) From: Randall Wolf Subject: Sound Quality To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Thought I would stop lurking long enough comment on the sound quality issue from earlier digests, if you are one of those who believe those post's were slagging Gary's Artistic output then please do not waste your time reading this. many people do not know how screwed up your latest opus can get going from studio to packaged product, for one thing human's are involved which should be 'nuff said already, also different cd manufacturers use different equipment, but I think enough has been said about that so far (I am all for drug testing of mastering machine operators) I kept waiting for someone to mention one of the most common causes of your CD not sounding exactly like you recorded it and I have a quote from Electronic Musician Magazine to back it up from an excellent article on cutting your own CD in the March 96 issue: "DAT is the current format of choice for 2-track masters and accounts for probably 85 percent of all masters recieved by CD manufacturers. Recordable CD's and 3/4 inch U-matic (1630 format) account for another 10 percent." ~ "MASTERING TO 1630 Short for Sony's PCM 1630 digital tape mastering system - which runs on a 3/4 inch U-matic video deck." ~ "For years the procedure has been to convert DAT and analog master tapes to the 1630 format which is then used to cut the CD glass master. Advances in CD-R promise to eliminate the 1630 stage from the CD manufacturing process, but at present the 1630 is still a cost effective format for many manufacturers." reading the above shows that there is another processing stage where the artist is not involved, that is the fastest way to get poor quality product. If Gary wanted to master directly to recordable CD I understand he already has a MAC (Windows software cannot write the special sub-codes needed for CD manufacturing yet) so all he would need is a CD recorder (about $1000 bucks) and Digidesign's "Master List" software ($495?) and he can skip the DAT altogether. also the dirty little secret about DAT is that just about EVERY tape out there has errors for numerous reasons (tape dropouts etc.) of course this would not cause quality to drop across an entire tape. One last thing, I need some comments on an idea I have had recently, I kept reading about fan's spending major $$$ to go see Gary on his last tour and I thought if people would spend that kind of money to see him there, how much would they spend to see him HERE, I mean HEY GARY! NAME YOUR PRICE!, imagine 1-2 night's, New York city (or wherever) just us fans and Gary, I would even supply a guitar if he only wanted to do an unplugged show. how much would you pay? $200-$300? do the math, Gary seems to respond to cash (no offense meant) heck his brother even works for british airways, maybe he could get a family discount! I am sure there are fans with contact's for alot of the logistics matters like light's/sound etc and with enough support (insert $$$$ here) there is not a promoter out there who would turn their back on a quick buck for promoting someone who already has made a name for himself. this would be a great way to give Gary some more publicity in the states, and also looking at the roster of artists working on the tribute album this could not hurt the album (I would love to see Gary and Tori on the same stage together, maybe then MTV/VH-1 would wake up). Derek, feel free to forward this note to the man himself and any other person (promoter or otherwise who should see it) I have a hunch that once you set the ball rolling on something like this even us fans might not be able to get tickets (if DEVO can do Lollopalooza then Gary can too :-) ) I will see who I can get interested on my end. Think about it. Randall Wolf rswolf@earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~rswolf ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 18:00:47 -0600 From: paddygav@magic1.org (Paddy) Subject: Thoughts on Metal Rhythm To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) I remember hearing "New Anger" for the first time from a freshly imported 7", and not pickng up on the Robert Palmer thing until it was pointed out for me. What I did think was that the B was on the wrong side. I felt everything about "I Don't Believe" was vastly superior at the time (was it also the B of the US single?). Honestly, it is hard for me to be objective any more, as my opinions have been clouded severely by the two items that followed this (Outland + M&S), which I never cared for much at all. I rarely take this disc out of the box anymore. The track manuvering only confused me at the tender age of 20, and the addition of the Berserker tracks would have me scratching my head for days on end. I was just thrilled to finally have some Numan (any Numan!) on a disc when New Anger was released (Numan on disc was unheard of where I lived at the time), and I am sure I played the snot out of it. I've always been a little wary of all the back ground singering women, and there are examples here wher I think something a little different would have been nice. I suppose the harmonies aren't to my liking, or the mix of them , or something. The silver/black photography found on Metal Rythm was, for some reason, made in to a cyanotype, and instead of personnel listings inside, we get to read William Orbit's name. That was always a sore spot. On a slightly different subject, IRS was hustling Numan shirts in the Outland sleeve. Where are they now? Patski There is truth, lies, and that which is not mentionable. We either get all, or nothing. ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************