Gary Numan Digest Sun, 13 Jul 97 Volume 1 : Issue 347 Today's Topics: (2 msgs) Apologies, etc. Bitter Moon Dominic Phant (Sorry, Plant) Fan tape I Still Remember quick random thoughts Teenage Wildlife The World vs Mr Plant (and other stories) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 22:11:44 -0500 From: Michael Day Subject: To: numan@cs.uwp.edu ralphm@mindspring.com wrote... >Just about everyone I have spoken to who is not a Numan fan (in the U.S.) >and who were school age at that time said they remember 'Cars' from the >Skating or Roller Rink. I do also. Anyone else experience this also? (I >don't know if skating was (is) popular in other areas of the world.) Plus >besides 'Cars' being on the radio, the radio stations used to play the heck >out of 'Metal' too. I used to play 'Metal' at a campground jukebox because I made everyone listen to the '45 of 'Cars' so much that we all wanted to hear something different! At 10 cents a play or 3 for a quarter, I must have paid enough to buy the 45 RPM vinyl many times over. I bought my 1st Gary Numan Vinyl Album when I was 15 and it was only the 2nd or 3rd album I ever purchased. As most people that have purchased 'The Pleasure Principal', I loved it! I played it over and over. Somewhere, I'm not sure where, I still have it with me to this day. I was the only one of my group of 'friends that liked Gary. To tell you the truth, I still am to this day! For about 5 years after I 1st purchased TPP, I only had TPP and Telekon. I, still to this day, love both of them. I didn't know about Tubeway until 5 years ago and not about Replicas until last year. Tubeway was too punky for me except for "You Are Real". Replicas, I still haven't heard. But I'm trying to catch up. I purchased Telekon/I, Assassin bega154 from CDNOW.COM and bought 'The Fury', 'Strange Charm', 'Sacrifice'. Then the 'Dream Corrosion' Video and CD. All directly from Gary and Bythl Webb. I liked giving my money directly to the artist, rather than a huge record company. I certainly LOVE the music that Gary has created over the years. No one else that I have heard has put together music like he has. Seems strange to me that no one else has come close to the beauty of harmony from the floating and moving sounds that he has achieved thru mere analog equipment. I have noticed other bands that have used the Mogg (or whatever it was called) and always thought of Gary when I heard it. Once I even heard a portion of song off 'Telekon' as part of a documentary one time long ago (too many MOONs ago). ralphm@mindspring.com wrote... > Lastly, from the guy (me) who dared to ask Gary about his views on >God/Religion in a past Q&A, I have a couple of comments. > > Don't be too hard on Michael Day. He simply expressed his views and then >gave out a page where you could go for more info. I think this was about >the best way to handle this. There's no need for a long drawn out argument >about religion here. I feel you can say, 'I agree, I disagree' or throw out >your opinion in the digest, but anything more can be done through private >E-Mail. Thanks Ralph. I do believe strongly in The Lord Our God and have been having problems with trying to be a Numan fan lately and trying to be a good Christian and live my life like I've been recently reading about in the Bible. I know religion is not the topic of this group but Gary seems to be pushing us in that direction. I wouldn't even need nor want to discuss religion but it is dear to me and it is not to Him. >From what I've seen in Gary's lryics, and what I've learned lately from the Bible, I'm convinced that Gary already knows what I'm reading in the Bible about God. I'm very curious as to what made Gary turn against God the way he has. This is an open question I pose to Gary for him to answer. Gary states in 'Dark Sunday' from 'Outland' that... 'You lied to me and so I replaced God with a picture of my car'. My question: what was the lie? ralphm@mindspring.com wrote... > I just noticed Michael Day's E-Mail address and are you a Ham (Amateur Radio)? (KF9UG) I am, my call sign is KE4AIQ. I know to most people this sounds off topic, but I'll keep it on topic. Here goes. Does anyone else know if Gary is a Ham? I don't know if he is either. Yes I am a Ham. I have two computers that I leave on the air 24hrs/day and provide free service to the local Ham community so they can get on the Internet and send Internet email even though they may not have an local ISP they can connect with. It is the spirit of Ham Radio to give to others without receiving a financial reward. Just doing it is reward enough for me. I have recently added to the "Remind Me To Smile" site the Numan Digest that I receive from Derek. If you TELNET to kf9ug.centralnet.net from 3pm-9am EST or about 8pm to 1pm UK time, you can read the last few Numan Digests. Just login as gnuman, password whatever. I certainly don't wish to receive flames about my views. Please don't waste your time, you won't convince me nor I you. http://user.centralnet.net/kf9ug/music/gnuman/ mailto:numan@kf9ug.centralnet.net ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 22:42:20 +0100 (BST) From: Lawerence.Quigley@connect.ie (Lar Quigley) Subject: To: numan@cs.uwp.edu hi gary just like to say i think the Random album is brill, like all remixes of the tracks, What's happening with Random 2 is there to be one. Some songs I'd love to hear done on a random album, "I dream of wires" "My shadow in vain" "please push no more" "My breathing" "Call out the dogs" "Prison Moon" Anything off The Fury, Warriors, Berserker, I would have loved to hear a few of these remixed instead of 3 versions of "are friends electric" the best version is An Pierle, although i do like the other two and the two versions of "we are so fragile" Look forward to getting a copy of "Exile" Long Live Numania Thanks for all the wonderful music, you've given us over the years. Lar Quigley Dublin, Ireland. Any chance of ever playing a gig in Ireland? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 21:42:05 +0000 From: Michael & BethAnn Damrath Subject: Apologies, etc. To: Gary Numan Hello Fellow Numanites (this includes you, Dominic), I would like to briefly apologize to everyone on the Digest for contributing to our latest skermish. It's not often that someone can get a rise out of me, and the internet can make a person feel brave. Gary Numan's music has always been very important to me. I have very rarely over the last 18 years gone more than a day without listening to his music. I usually spin two or three discs per day. Throughout those years I have had to suffer through plently of critical comments about Gary's music. As a teenager, it used to upset me quite a bit. The popularity of an artist was generally perceived to be the measure of their musical quality, and the concept pissed me off tremendously. Nowadays the worst of the criticism is the "Gary Who?" and "Is that the 'Cars' guy?" variety-which I can generally handle quite well. But I honestly have a great difficulty handling criticism coming from the one place I felt 'safe', here amongst my fellow Numan Fans. I know that critical comments are to be expected, even here in the Digest. I could not help my reaction, however. I felt that Gary was being attacked at his home turf, kind of like a Iranian terrorist detonating a bomb inside the Statue of Liberty. I admit I over-reacted, and would like to extend my apologies to all of my fellow Digesters. With all the excitement in the Numan camp this summer, I have to agree with Alyssa Jaraba, there are just too many great things to talk about! Gary's film, his autobiography, Random, Exile, plus his many appearances and mentionings in the press. BTW, I see that we now know of one relatively famous face involved in the Kinsmen film (Rik Mayall), does anyone have any more details on this film? The plot? Is it based on a book? I am feeling rather ignorant on this topic. In response to Ralph Milam in the last Digest: > Does he think that openly speaking about anti-religion will cut > his sales or cause him to lose fans. I doubt it, because folks who are > Christians and are fans will still be fans, buy his albums, and go to > concerts. If you lived the way a true Christian should you would > rarely get to leave the house in fear of coming into contact with > something that you shouldn't be seeing, doing, or hearing. Better cut > off that Cable TV in your home. I won't get into my take on the Christian ethic here, my comment is about Gary's possible concern/embarrassment. Gary Numan expresses his very personal feelings about religion in his music, but he has made it very clear a number of times that he does not look down upon those whom have their faith. He has even stated that he has alot of respect and even envy for those people who beleive in God. If he indeed feels his way, I can certainly understand why he might get uncomfortable in public appearances when the topic comes up. Many people have a habit of mistaking a person's publicly stated personal feelings with an attack on a opposing belief (I have personally been guilty of doing this myself just recently). There is a perceived very fine line between the two, and the subject of religion is a volatile one. Certainly Gary should continue to write and sing about his personal demons. It is arguably the ingredient that keeps Gary's music as good as it is. Happy, content, well-adjusted people generally don't tend to make the most interesting music. He will, however, continue to receive flack for this particular aspect of his music. Sorry for rambling on... Keeping the faith, Mike Damrath damrat@earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~damrat ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 00:27:09 +0100 From: "Andrew Westwood" Subject: Bitter Moon To: "Numan Digest" >>Did anyone catch the Roman Polanski film 'Bitter Moon' on UK Channel 4 >>late Friday night? ...interestingly there is a short spell of Numan >>music in the middle...or is there? > >yes you're right, it is almost EXACTLY like Magic. >In fact it is the same, even down to the very subtle bassline, but >sounds like Gaz sampled a short loop of it as this version has other >stuff over the top in parts. So are you gonna put it to Gary or shall >I?!?!? > >Matthew Be my guest, Matthew, grill 'im! Considering how similar the drum loops sound on many of the Sacrifice (and it seems Exile) songs, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr Vangelis was inadvertantly a major contributor to Gary's latest works ;) There's another (tenuous) link, of course, in that Gary ripped those Bladerunner samples a few years back. Guess who wrote the score for that movie? BTW, since my e-mail software is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, does anyone know where I can pick up past issues of the digest (by FTP or WWW) on the same day as they are posted? (Please let me know by private e-mail as I can't depend on getting the next digest!) Thanks & regards, Andy ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 07:10:18 -0700 From: vickers Subject: Dominic Phant (Sorry, Plant) To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Dear Dominic, Now the rest of us understand that you are a dedicated fan. Your problem was, that your questions to Gary were written in "Shorthand". You knew what you meant by each comment, you knew what underlying assumptions were being made about your position. In a verbal conversation such things can be clarified, but in a written message it can be a mistake to word things ?carelessly? (please don't take offence at that word, none is meant). This e-mail is a wonderful invention, but it can lead us all to type the words quickly without first filtering them through our mental "hazard checkers" (those parts of our brain which check for possible mis- impressions and other hazards). Yours Numanly, Paddy Vickers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 21:56:10 +0100 From: dhughes@globalnet.co.uk (David J. Hughes) Subject: Fan tape To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello all, "William Wilson" wrote recently : > Just a short note to say that I 'LOVE' the idea of a internet >fans compilation tape of Gary's songs and call on other bands to follow >suit and contact Klaus with their support,hope we can get this project >up and running. The Tangerine Dream Digest recently compiled a tape based on original compositions by musicians on the digest. It was quite successful and eventually migrated to CDR. Needless to say, we contributed a couple of tracks and they helped sales a great deal. I'd be more than willing to offer my services to help this project get off the ground. Any takers? Cheers David T-Bass UK : Electronic Music T-Bass Design : Graphic Design Web Site : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dhughes/tbass.html email : dhughes@globalnet.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 06:56:27 -0700 From: vickers Subject: I Still Remember To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Stephen Catton asks whether anyone else has a copy of the charity single, "I Still Remember". I have 7" and 12" versions. The 12" has a bigger picture of the dog (Gary's own??) on the front. If there are any fans out there who have not got a version of this song, Gary wrote a completely new set of lyrics for the album song of the same name, based on the suffering of a neglected animal. Paddy Vickers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 19:03:12 -0500 From: Bookman Subject: quick random thoughts To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Just bought Random two days ago, and already I'm hooked on I'm An Agent and Republica's AFE. Those two songs rock! Most of the others are impressive, and the ones that are more similar to Gary's orignal songs seem to be my favorites. But again, all the titles are great. Hope this release brings to light to millions of non-believers that Gary is still very alive and well in the music biz. Bookman MT ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 06:35:00 -0400 From: Matthew Roberts Subject: Teenage Wildlife To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" This is a little theory of mine which no one will agree with. I was absolutely convinced of it when I was younger but now that I'm older it does seem a little tenuous. Let me just quote a few lines: "How come you only want tomorrow With it's promise of something hard to do... =2E..you break open your million dollar weapon Still you push your luck A broken nosed mogul are you One of the new wave boys Same old thing in brand new drag comes sweeping into view As ugly as a teenage millionaire Pretending it's a whizz kid world... =2E..Fingerprints will prove that you couldn't pass the test And there'll be others on the line filing past..." For anyone who had a deprived childhood, that's from David Bowie's 'Teena= ge Wildlife', a track on the 'Scary Monsters...' LP. Said track would probab= ly have been written in late 1979 / early 1980 (I assume) when Gary Numan wa= s dominating the media in the UK. And what happened on the one occasion Gar= y nearly met David? We all know that story don't we? Another track on 'Scary Monsters...' is 'Fashion':- "There's a brand new dance But I don't know it's name... =2E..It's big and it's bland Full of tension and fear... Fashion - Turn to the left Fashion - Turn to the right We are the goon squad And we're coming to town Beep-beep - Beep-beep" OK, there's probably no connection at all, but I thought I was being real= ly clever when I was about 16 and came up with the theory. And one things for sure - it's a million times better than that crap abou= t the hidden codes in the Bible (and think how much money the author of tha= t theory has made). "The Jews very clearly saw all futurity: but it is difficult to make out precisely whether by Jerusalem the prophets always understood eternal lif= e; whether Babylon means London or Paris; whether when they talk about a stately dinner it should be interpreted a fast; whether red wine means blood; whether a red cloak means faith, and a white cloak charity. It is the grand effort of human intelligence to understand the prophets. = That is why I shall say no more about it." Voltaire 1762 Who say's sarcasm is the lowest form of wit? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 08:56:51 +-100 From: Phil Marsh Subject: The World vs Mr Plant (and other stories) To: "'Numan Digest'" Will Dominic Plant please STOP going over and over the same bloody point in ever decreasing circles???!!! I can't remember reading "Dominic, if you don't like every single track off every single album you cannot call yourself a fan", so why must he insist on going on about the fact that he doesn't. I'm sure the number of people on the Digest who like everything Gary has done is very small (if there are any) - god knows he's written some crap over the years - so do stop going on about it. For the record, Dominic's original Q to Gary was probably more badly phrased than deliberately inflammatory (which is how it came across); but he's made his point, others have made theirs, so lets talk about something else, eh? For the record, "You Walk In My Soul"'s only redeeming feature is the music - the words would embarrass a school poetry competition. They may be heartfelt and an honest expression of his feelings, but the words make me cringe every time - he's written some good ballads over the years, but this ain't one of them in my opinion. All credits to Gary for getting samples of the Exile tracks on his web site incidentally - some of the tracks sound pretty good, Dominion Day being one, for example. Bit of a shame - listening to the snippet of the chorus, if it could have been released as a single (with a good video), it might have stood a chance - far more so than "Absolution" ever would have! Oops, there I go expressing an opinion again...bound to get into trouble now...:-) Phil ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************