Gary Numan Digest Thu, 23 Jan 97 Volume 1 : Issue 299 Today's Topics: Calling Numan Experts Gary Numan Digest V1 #298 (2 msgs) Ghost Of The White Face Clown - Tribute Album - Update GN retail CD's in N. California Gumph J G Ballard Kenickie/Webb Live At The Roxy - 1977 Mpeg3 New Member Nu-Zone Now Not Tomorrow Prince covers Vic 'n' Bob wanting to find ...... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 11:02:19 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Calling Numan Experts To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Cars (E-Reg) & AFE was a double A-side in theory although as usual people only concentrated on one song, i.e.Cars. For the sake of absolute anal-retentiveness, the 7" single sleeve lists Cars as the "A" side and AFE as the "AA" side, but the label clearly shows AFE as the "B" side. Go figure. By the way, the 12" supposedly contained an alternate version of I Die:You Die (possibly the same as the fabled white label) but if there's any real difference I'm a banana. Bit like the "remix" of New Anger - people say they can hear the difference but i think it's a definite case of The Emperor's New Clothes. Ghost was indeed a fan club only release originally. When it arrived in the post, I was at work and forced my sister to open the package and describe the sleeve to me over the phone. I seem to recall she said Gary looked like a monkey!! It was only at the time of the CD release (1992?) that it became available in the shops. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 12:17:16 -0800 From: David Pipe Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #298 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) At 01:00 AM 1/19/97 CST, you wrote: > >Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:13:44 -0800 >From: "Dave G." >Subject: Retail cd's >To: numan@cs.uwp.edu > I would like to hear from anyone who knows >of record stores in northern California that have decent selections of >Numan recordings on a consistant basis . Any help at all will be greatly >appreciated ! > >Fred Geer When you're in San Francisco, check out the Virgin Megastore near Union Square. They have a pretty consistent collection in their Imports section. - David ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 12:58:52 -0500 (EST) From: LanceUFO1@aol.com Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #298 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi, my name is Lance from Daytona Beach, Florida. I am a huge Numan fan. I had a chance to see him in the early eighties, unfortunately I missed it and regreting it ever since. I wish he would come to the states. I'd pay anything to see him. My favorite album is Replicas. I played it so much it's inaudible. How and where can I get Replicas on CD or any of his classic LPs on CD. Please respond. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 01:14:28 From: "Joey Lindstrom" Subject: Ghost Of The White Face Clown - Tribute Album - Update To: "numan@cs.uwp.edu" I received a parcel in the mail today, from Mike Ditmore of NEC Records. It contained the last six copies of the "Ghost Of The White Face Clown" tribute tape (ten unknown bands covering nine Numan songs). I had a listen.... and while it's not exactly "my type of music", I find myself rather enjoying it. Anyways, the parcel included a letter stating that this is it as far as NEC goes: there is no more product, so if you were considering ordering a copy, forget it. I got the last of 'em with the instructions to distribute them "as I see fit". When I sent my order initially, I ordered two: one for myself, one for a good friend of mine. So I'm going to keep two of them. The remaining four... well, I've had WAY more than four people express interest in them, and if I am going to pick and choose who gets them, I'm going to make far more enemies than friends (yeah, like I've got any of those left... heh heh!) So the plan is this: I'm going to give them away to contest winners on my World Wide Webb site. Stay tuned to both the Digest and the World Wide Webb for contest details as they are finalized. The plan at this point is to have one winner per month over four months. There'll also be digitized sound samples from the album online to whet your appetite. BEYOND THIS: negotiations are still proceeding with NEC in regards to having the tape re-pressed, something that many of you have expressed a great deal of interest in. I and others would favour compact disc but that gets expensive and I'm not made of money. I've had offers of financial support regarding getting this done, and I've had several offers of assistance in regards to packaging, CD pressing, and the like. Bear in mind that I have ZERO experience in this industry so I'm taking things slowly and cautiously. I think we'll be lucky if we put this together inside of six months, and no decision has yet been made whether to go with tape or CD (or both). So, anyone interested in the tape (and you should be! Grin!) is invited to drop by the World Wide Webb (http://www.netway.ab.ca/worldwidewebb/) and keep an eye out for contest details, sound samples, and the like, and hopefully that'll keep ya tided over until we've got more copies to sell. And speaking of sales, the plan here is to sell on a cost-recovery basis only, meaning you'll get from me the price that I get from the suppliers (plus shipping). /--------------------------------------------------------- / Joey Lindstrom numanoid@netway.ab.ca lindstrj@cadvision.com / http://www.netway.ab.ca/worldwidewebb/ / "There's a reason 'Wheel Of Fortune' is on right after 'Jeopardy'. Once / you've been forced to choke down the foul-tasting tequila shot of your / own abject ignorance, it's nice to be able to bite into the refreshing / lime wedge of other people's incredible fucking stupidity." / - Dennis Miller ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:56:31 PT From: "Mark Stanton, Industrial Design & Visualization" Subject: GN retail CD's in N. California To: numan@cs.uwp.edu >This posting goes out to Numan fans in northern California. I live in >the Sacramento area , and I have found a couple of stores that carry >Numan cd's . The stores I have found however have limeted selections >(one or two cd's at a time). I would like to hear from anyone who knows >of record stores in northern California that have decent selections of >Numan recordings on a consistant basis . Any help at all will be greatly >appreciated ! > >Fred Geer If you live in Sacramento, you are already in the area of the best Numan supplier in all of Northern California - that I've ever found. The Beat, which is located somewhere around J St. & 16th or 17th is by far the best I've ever found. I drive over 2hrs just to check it out every once and a while. Suprisingly, San Francisco has pretty slim pickin's. If you want Numa releases (other than the recent re-releases), The Beat is it. Mark. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 10:07:00 GMT From: Matthew Tamea Subject: Gumph To: "'Numannews'" Hi Sean - nice to see you back on the digest again! How`s it been in America? >1. Was the Cars (E Reg Model) issued as a double A side with AFE ? Yes it was. Another winner in ensuring that the general public know that Gary has done songs other than these two! :) >2. Was the double vinyl album Ghost originally issued as a Fan Club only release ? Yip again. The post office were instructed to take particular care when delivering these but I think mine got trodden on by a postie with size 12`s cos the covers bent up. Arse!!! James Dawson wrote: >Does anyone have any idea if there will be another installment in the >"Asylum" series that would include Gary's later albums (namely, those that >were not included in the first three "Asylum" collections)? I very much doubt that this would happen seeing as all the albums that were sone when Gary was with Beggars made up the Asylum set. Anything after this preiod has been on Numa or IRS and so would have nothing to do with Beggars. I agree though - it would be good if something of the same quality, in both sound and looks, were produced, although there`s a limit I guess to how many times people are gonna buy something. If the sound were improved then I reckon a lot of people would want a replacement for free judging by some of the posts on here... Matthew ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 09:30:14 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@compuserve.com> Subject: J G Ballard To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" "I'll be you're exhibition of atrocity" - indeed. Gary isn't the only musician to pick bits up from J G Ballard. Joy Division wrote a song called The Atrocity Exhibition and The Comsat Angels took their name from a short story of his. However Gary, I imagine, is certainly the most prolific borrower of his words. I picked up the following snippets from The Atrocity Exhibition (I stopped at page 40): "The keys to a nightmare" "His presence exhausted Travis" "Was my husband a doctor or a patient?" (or something obscene??) "Festival of atrocity films" "We're all in the movies" (well some of us anyway) "Questions, always questions" "The impossible room" "A history of nothing" "A nervous bride" "Love among the mannequins" (puppets sounds better) "The great American nude" (smile) "This elegant bitch" "Coma was too shy" (Gary's sister?) "As she spoke in slow motion" Oh, and Coma is a major character in the narrative. Other things that come to mind are: "Possession of my soul" I suppose Gary could have got this from a number of sources but this line is in Edgar Allan Poe's "Manuscript Found In A Bottle". "Over The Edge An Edge In My Voice" - book by Harlan Ellison. Also many of Phil Dick's novels have provided material. Apart from book titles, the only one I can remember is that Dick refers to Echo Park in one of his stories. I believe this is a real place (in San Francisco???) but Dick's qoute was probably the source of "In Echo Park I pause for effect". Maybe before I die I'll compile a list of qoutes from his 60 or so novels :- { ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 10:31:56 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Kenickie/Webb To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Strange as it may sound to us enlightened souls, the record company probably didn't want the name Numan to appear on the single. I think the reason for this is vividly demonstrated by NME's review of "In Your Car". They commented on the various B-sides, saying of I'm An Agent: "a robot-voiced futurist epic which gobbles up and shits out the entire shrivel-dicked 'romo' movement in about, oooh, five seconds". Anybody in the UK will be struck by the difference between this and any reviews of stuff that is known to be by Gary Numan. For example, in 1980, Telekon was reviewed (the album that Agent comes from) as follows:- "..a woefully dull and monotonous album, pompous in the extreme and exceptionally limited in its range of tempi and tonalities...". The relation between the music press in this country and Numan, at least in the early days, had little to do with music. They HAD to hate him since his success was a testament to their uselessness. These days, the press tend to be a little more neutral, but they would certainly never be as glowing in their praise if they thought Kenickie had done a Numan cover. The person who wrote the Telekon review prefigured this comment by saying "All non-musical considerations temporarily to one side....". He probably remains unaware of the irony to this day. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 11:04:54 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@compuserve.com> Subject: Live At The Roxy - 1977 To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" I'm sorry for posting so much today, but here's one I had to get off my chest. Many people will be familiar with the track listing for "Live At The Roxy", but how many know the REAL track listing. I was at a Numan disco around 1987/88 and Gary was there signing stuff. I took along my copy of 'Roxy' and from his reaction I would guess it was the first one he had seen. He kindly, without asking, scrawled on the sleeve correcting some of the song titles. Some of the changes were obvious, others less so. The correct listing (according to Gary) is: Positive Thinking Boys Blue Eyes You Don't Know Me My Shadow In Vain Me My Head My Life (don't think Gary was joking!!) That's Too Bad Basic J Do Your Best Oh Didn't I Say I'm A Poser (sic) Kill St. Joy I don't think it gets any more official than that! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 21:22:57 +0000 From: colin mc Subject: Mpeg3 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu As some of you may recall,a few weeks ago there was a discussion about the Gary Numan track "Metal Beat" which was available to download from the net. The file was in a format called Mp3(Mpeg3).I downloaded Winplay3.0 ,the program required to play this file,on playing the file I was amazed at the cd sound quality that was produced compared to the low sound quality of the 8 bit wave files you normally hear (Gary's site being a good example). The compression ratio in the program reduces a 30Meg file down to 3Meg while still being 16 bit cd quality! There are large amounts of Mp3 files that can be downloaded,from pop to rock to classical,and there are also encoders to turn a cd track into a Mp3 file. This way you could copy all your favourite tracks onto your hard drive ;) The Winplay program is available in Beta and complete versions,and the encoder L3enc is available as shareware. When will the Numan Network start to offer cd quality Mpeg sound clips to download instead of mono 8bit? What does the digest think? ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 08:50:48 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@CompuServe.COM> Subject: New Member To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Just joined the Digest. I'm 27 and live in Ruislip, West London. My girlfriend Michelle is also a major Numan fan. My sister and me saw Gary on his first ever Top Of The Pops appearance in 1979 (his 2nd TV appearance). Emma turned out OK but I got Replicas for my birthday a couple of months later and have bought every new album as it came out. I've seen each tour since Warriors (also Gary's 30th Birthday gig at the Flag in Wembley). Over the years I've collected a lot of the usual stuff (Photograph, the "Blue Album", Remember I Was Vapour 12" etc.) but I think the strangest record I have is a copy of White Noise from Finland (released on the Polarvox label for any sceptics). Other interests are physics, mathematics, philosophy & literature. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 18:33:05 -0800 From: real-one@ix.netcom.com (John Marques Carramao) Subject: Nu-Zone Now Not Tomorrow To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Dear Numan Digesters, I am pleased to report that Matthew Holbrook relates that he will be resuming work to get the Nu-Zone website moving again. Which is great news indeed. Let's give Matt some support here and lets show him how much Nu-Zone is missed and appreciated by us all. He's really given some thing special to us and we should let him know how much Nu-Zone is appreciated and missed, and that it's not just a one way street here. Let's not let the actions and deceptive lip service offered up by a few unscrupulous individuals deprive the rest of us of our Nu-Zone updates. You know the Nu-Zone URL, keep your eyes peeled for it's return, let him know you're glad it's back and let those Nu-Zone updates resume. Tell the others. Sincerely, John Marques Carramao The Joy Circuit - You Know The URL ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jan 97 11:05:52 EST From: Matthew Roberts <101360.507@compuserve.com> Subject: Prince covers To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Gary was keen at the time to say how much he liked Prince, (he also said he liked Janet Jackson & Jody Watley around then). It has transpired recently though (according to Gary "Memory Master" Numan) that he was pressured into a cover version by IRS. Apparently Prince was a compromise, which supports the idea that Gary actually did like him. I would guess (and I wait to be shot down in flames) that U Got The Look and 1999 were recorded at the same time to give Gary and the label a choice of tracks. Of course in the end IRS didn't use either of them, and Gary was glad of a spare track in 1992 to pad out Machine & Soul. I did hear a rumour around 1988/89 that Wendy & Lisa had said that Prince liked Gary's music..likely truth rating... ummm...35% ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:11:42 GMT From: dhughes@globalnet.co.uk (David J. Hughes) Subject: Vic 'n' Bob To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi all, Long time, no postings... Ok. Two of the Uk's most prominant comedians, Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, have released a new 'Christmas' video of their famous 'Shooting Stars' series. It's supposed to be too rude to be broadcast but, frankly, it's a bit tame and not all that funny really. Actually, it's a bit of a rip off. =A312 for 50 mins of video : but that's off topic... Anyway, the lovable duo have seen fit to produce a 'fun' version of 'Cars', namely 'Carts', which has our dynamic duo being dragged around in a kiddie's fun cart, the kind of thing you buy in Toys 'R' Us, backed by a truly crap version of 'Cars'. What's more iritating is that Gazza doesn't even get a credit. The authors of the terminally crap 'I'm a cider-drinker', as sung by Ulrika Johasen, get a credit. I'm only glad I didn't go out and buy this. Personally, I'd rather have my tongue stretched out on a gravel footpath and hammered flat with a steak mallet than listen to this again. It is painfully unfunny and it's not as if it hasn't been done before. How's that for a double negative... Cheers David ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 11:47:16 -0000 From: "upfront" Subject: wanting to find ...... To: hello, can anyone out there help me find out how i can get a copy of the book "decade". i cant find one. also a copy of micromusic,i work in a video shop & can't find one .i wan't another one my old ones knackered,iam gutted. ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************