Gary Numan Digest Thu, 21 Aug 97 Volume 1 : Issue 357 Today's Topics: apology, subliminal numan, random 3 Are 'Friend' Electric 2.0 Dollars vs. Pounds Gary Numan Digest V1 #356 Glasgow '97 Music Boulevard oops! Correction! Random Thoughts Single Of Choice Tia "Cars" version Why Jimi Tenor butchered Down In the Park Zine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 07:11:49 -0400 (EDT) From: SomaCrow@aol.com Subject: apology, subliminal numan, random 3 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello from the Silicon Valley! <> Doh. I knew I'd pay for making a careless comment. :-) All apologies - I realized that the Digest was automated but unfortunately I still made a stupid comment and I am sorry. Considering how carefully I edit each message I write to the Digest, I'm surprised I let that through. Mea culpa. Re the Jimi Tenor interp. I quite like the carousel thing that's going on in the beginning, but once it gets to the second verse, well... I don't like the way the vocals are redone. The tone of them just seems to me rather to take out the nuance of the lyrics. That's probably bollocks but those vocals just rub me the wrong way. :-) <> And I say unto thee... thou art absolutely evil. :-) (Gonna have to remember that one!) Does anyone respond to these record label people who write to the Digest? Perhaps it's the wrong place to write , but when labels such as Cri du Chat, etc. are interested in anything Numan, methinks we should support 'em! <> That's the way, subliminal influence. Perhaps the classic Numan tracks should be played at a very high frequency in waiting rooms, hotels, etc. Either people would suddenly go nuts for Numan again or dogs would wander about humming "AFE." :-) I have come up with a name for the proposed Random 3. Due to Gary's lyrical themes as of late and to our talent as performers, the fan tribute album should be called "Blasphemy." :-) Someone suggested "Sanctuary" but - Gary ain't Cher. :-) Now who's gonna do the artwork? Time to update Scary Numan (with repaired counter) - gotta take down The Plan and chide those who never got around to sending a card. :-) Love and napalm, Riana "Food, wine, a little personal abuse and the Universe going foom." - Doug Adams ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 97 08:19:00 PDT From: Scott Abfalter Subject: Are 'Friend' Electric 2.0 To: NUMAN Look at http://www.insoc.org (the Information Society web page). It mentions in a few places a song "Are 'Friends' Electric 2.0" including reference to a CD song collection that contains it. --Scott Abfalter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 13:57:58 -0400 From: Matthew Roberts Subject: Dollars vs. Pounds To: "INTERNET:numan@cs.uwp.edu" Mike T asked how to convert dollars to pounds for the fan club. My suggestion would be don't! If you send the fan club a check/cheque/money order/draft etc in dollars,= it will cost them to convert it to pounds {even if they had a US Dollar account, it would still cost them to "collect" the check}. It would probably cost about =A35 upwards if my memory serves me, so they'd probab= ly end up loosing money, unless you intend to order the entire back catalogu= e! The fan club might just accept it but I'm sure they'd be none too pleased= :-) I think you really have to go to a local bank and get a check (money order/draft??) in pounds. This might cost you a few dollars but it's eith= er that or upset Gary's mum! Matthew ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 00:46:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Kenneth S McGovern Subject: Gary Numan Digest V1 #356 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 08:55:10 PDT From: "William Wilson" Subject: Glasgow '97 To: numan@cs.uwp.edu HI! All, Just thought I'd drop a quick note to inquire if anyone is going to Gary's Glasgow gig,"The Crazies" will all be there and a great time is guaranteed!!!(Glasgow is one of Gary's favorite gigs). Anyone going along please drop me a line and we can arrange to meet up before the gig. be seeing you there then*G* William Wilson MUSIC OF QUALITY HAS NO FEAR OF TIME (PETE WYLIE,WAH!) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 13:40:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Shropie@aol.com Subject: Music Boulevard To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi everyone, Music Boulevard (http://www.musicblvd.com) have a lot of GN imports (mostly from the UK) and non-imports for sale. They also have Random for $12.99 and shipping and handling is free. I received Random in 3 days. Take care, Tania. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 97 08:21:00 PDT From: Scott Abfalter Subject: oops! Correction! To: NUMAN It's http://insoc.org, not http://www.insoc.org. That 'www' is just force of habit... Scott Abfalter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 17:02:12 -0400 From: Sean Francis Subject: Random Thoughts To: Numan Digest Hi Fellow Fans, A Brit abroad (in the US) reporting in on the Random release. My intitial thoughts were..........come back Techno Army, all is forgiven= ! But I think there are some good tracks. Here's a track by track commentary. Stormtrooper In Drag - St. Etienne. Oh dear, not a good opening. That dull beat we've all heard on a million techno/house (or whatever it's called) records. What a waste of time and= effort. We Have a Technical - Matt Sharp & Damon Albarn. Remember those really crap Casio home keyboards you could get years ago ?= Well, these guys must have a truck load. Singing in a cockney accent doesn't really do it for me either. Another good track trashed IMO. Peotry & Power - Gravity Kills. Gravity Kills are a 3 chord thrash band those vocal interpretations are limited to shouting. Really bad. I saw these fools supporting The Pistols= in Houston last year. Really really bad. Quite why Gary likes this lot i= s beyond me ! I Can't Stop - Peck Slip. Dull. Dull. Dull. Are 'Friends' Electric ? - An Pierle. At last a good effort. The whole tune played on piano and very nicely too= =2E Vocals not great, but a good effort. We Are Glass - EMF. Again not bad, nice interpretationi of the original melody. Well done lads. I Die:You Die - The Magnetic Fields. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. IDYD played on the banjo. In Seinfeld voice, "I don't= think so". = We Are So Fragile - Jesus Jones. I like JJ, so I'm biased. It's OK, but their own material is stronger tha= n their reworking of this Numan classic. She's Got Claws - Posh. I can't believe they got paid for this. Absolute garbage. M.E. - Earl Brutus. This is a difficult one as it's a song from my favourite album. = Errrmmm.... it's OK. It's a bit spacy, lots of twiddly synth effects and some guitar thrown in for good measure. But it lacks the soaring synth th= at made the original soooooooooo good. = Films - Underdog. Should perfection be left alone ? Films is my all time fave GN track so it's hard not to be slightly anti. But underdog make it very easy for me.= = These clowns have used the bass and drum track from Films and (c)rapped a= ll over it. Guys, why bother ? They even sampled some of the original vocal= , presumably as some hint at credibility. Awful. Completely lacking in talent. A disgrace. Me ! I Disconnect From You - Sukia. Yes, it's Casio time again and another classic track ruined. No substance= to this really. It just sort of limps out the speakers, apologies for itself then goes down the pub for half a shandy. Lame. Jo The Waiter - The Orb. Sample 4 seconds of echoy piano, loop it a million times, occasionally tu= rn on the drum machine and drone on like a dalek and you end up with this crap. Please leave the industry now, you are not cut out for this job. In= a word, moronic. I'm An Agent - Kenickie. A bit ploddy for my liking. Sung with no real passion, but it's OK. Jimi Tenor - Down In The Park. You cannot be serious Jimi ! Instead of going to a circus and sampling their God awful pipe music then whispering all over it, you could have stayed home, had a cup of tea and put your feet up for a while. Now wouldn't that have been better ? I also noticed that the Daleks make a guest appearance here too. It's all clear to me now. Dr. Who was not a Time Lord, but a producer. That console in his tardis was in fact a 72 channel digital mixing desk, the Daleks were a group of backing singers a= nd K-9 was a mobile drum machine. What am I talking about ? I don't know =2E...............! Moloko - Are 'Friends' Electric ?. Question, did Moloko bother to listen to the original ? Me thinks not. = Very irritating vocal style as well. And there's that Casio again. Remember I Was Vapour - Chris Holmes. Promising opening, but guess what ...........yes it's dalek time again. = Those daleks must have made a fortune out of their 'Numan sessions'. The= music is well put together, but the vocal side of things is just nonsense= =2E Metal - Towering Inferno. Musically very interesting. Not exactly a true rendition of the original,= but these folks make a good account of themselves. Well done. May I suggest you go talk to Jimi and Chris. I think they need the advice. Everyday I Die - Dubstar. Yeah, not bad actually. Good one. Well played, well sung and some nice effects thrown in too. Absolution - Amada Ghost. Listening to this it's difficult to believe that it's actually a Numan song. Sounds like a cocktail lounge singer crooning a sloshy love ditty.= But the gal's done well here. Replicas - Deadsy. The music backing to this is excellent. First class. But the vocal agai= n is the weak link. Why do we have to be all spacey yet again. It's almos= t the daleks, but not quite. Friends - Pop Will Eat Itself. Deep, throbbing and grungy. Oooerr. A great twist on the original, possibly my favourite track here. Very good effort. Are 'Friends' Electric ? - Republica. Again, the music is good, but the female singer is trying to do a cover o= f Toyah. And Gary had obviously met the daleks at this point. "There's a knock on the door, it's the dalek I left in the hallway". War Songs - Windscale. Oh dear. What happened here ? It sounds like the producer went out into= the street, gathered together a bunch of half drunk, bored and lifeless youths and forced one of them to drawl something into a microphone while the others tried to work out how some musical instruments worked at the back of the studio. We Are So Fragile - Bis. It was going OK until it turned into a reggae song in the middle. Possibl= y feeling guilty and a little embarrassed by this, Bis decide to put the "Cars" riff in at the end. Errrr. Wrong song guys. Didn't anyone tell y= ou ? Cars - Dave Clarke. Yeah, whatever. So, there you have it. The inner sleeve was completely lacking in any wri= te up on the God who wrote all these tunes to begin with. Why ? If you weren= 't a Numan fan you would hardly know that this CD had anything to do with hi= m. Except that the copy I bought had a small sticker on the cover proclaimin= g "Interpretations of Gary Numan". Big deal. I'm glad Gary made a few quid out of this, but this drivel won't get played much in my house. Over and out. Sean. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 09:57:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Micromuzak@aol.com Subject: Single Of Choice To: Numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello Numan Fans: Been a bit since I sent something to the digest but after reading the last issue, I had to stop and make comment. It was described and speculated that the new single may be something completely new, or Dominion Day. I must say, from my opinion and the musical flavor of the states, "Dead Heaven" would be much more suitable. -It has a melody and hook you can identify, remember and sing a long with. (Funny, it reminds me so much of Depeche Mode). In looking back over the single selections in the past, and still think better ones could have been made, but hey, there again, this is all but opinion. Here's hoping for great success on EXILE. To Paul Denman: Any chance of doing a Random 4? Titled: "Songs by people without DAT, but have made exceptional covers of Gary Numan material!" I've done plenty (22), it's just that they are not on DAT. Recorded on analog 8-track at home. Just a thought! Bye everyone! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 08:22:39 -0500 (CDT) From: Amy E Logsdon Warner Subject: Tia "Cars" version To: numan@cs.uwp.edu In reply to Dave Carlson's query of whether or not anyone else has heard the Tia version of Cars....yes, I have. Unfortunatley it is the song to which my aerobics class does the ab routine (as in abdomen, as in cruches, as in why aren't my abs cut?). When first I heard the introductory notes I got hyped thiking that they were actaully going to use the original version, alas... I have formed no warm fuzzy attachments to the Tia version, it's not bad, maybe a little interesting even, but it's not my favorite Numan cover. Amy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 97 08:13:00 PDT From: Scott Abfalter Subject: Why Jimi Tenor butchered Down In the Park To: NUMAN I think that the main problem with Jimi Tenor's rendition (emphesis on 'rend') is that is a completely different mood swing in the song. Tenor takes looks at the title 'Down in the Park' and makes it an amusement park. There is a definate _feel_ to Numan's song --and it ain't no amusement park. It's a nightmare world. When I listen to any of the numerous versions of Down in the Park --even Manson's odd version --I get the creeps. Tenor ignores the lyrical message of the song and misinterprets the title. For me what gets under my nails (and I assume others agree) is that Tenor _misses the point_ of the song. It's like when a great song is turned into elevator music. It's debased. For a counter-example take Pop Will Eat Itself'f rendition of 'Friends'. They actually listened to the lyrics and their music (particularly vocal delivery) really emphisises the message in the song. They 'got it' --Tenor did not. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 10:28:14 +0100 From: amchaffie@meto.gov.uk Subject: Zine To: numan list numan list I was sent a zine called "Bay Area Bands" through the post, from San Francisco, and this issue was all on Gary, including an exclusive interview recorded with Gary on the phone during the making of Sacrifice. It was much more candid and honest than any mainstream interview I've seen. He talked about Sacrifice, and also touched on the death of Paul Gardiner which I hadnt realised until now that it was suicide. I always thought it was an accidental OD. Highlights from the interview were the continual mistranslation of the word "bollocks" to "bullocks", and the following... Q - A lot of your lyrics seem to suggest a somewhat confused sexuality. Is there anything real to that ? A - Not really, certainly not now. When I started...the whole crows I went out with was very bizarre looking, but nobody as far as I know was gay. The only places we could go to where we didnt get beaten up were gay clubs, cos it was really laid back and you could look and dress the way you wanted and no one threatened you.I was seeing things a lot of people werent seeing and it built in me a tremendous understanding and tolerance for the gay scene. Q - What exactly happened to Paul Gardiner ? A - He was a lightweight drug taker from early on...and then he got involved with a rather strange crowd of people...he was on heroin by the end of the day. One day he just seemed to get fed up with it all and he killed himself. He injected himself inhis left arm I think, and he had a note pinned to his shirt just saying "Cremation please". That was it. No goodbyes, no nothing. I think the biggest problem with Paul was his wife. He had the most disgustingly shitty wife, who could have helped him much more than she did...bear in mind he's earning quite a bit of money at this time, so she's living quite nicely off this money, and we were rehearsing for a big tour and he's walking out the door, and the next thing you know a chair comes through the window followed by the wedding ring, and she'd say things like "If you don't come back I'm gonna shag the neighbour" When he got so bad that he couldnt play, the connection had gone. The only times I really saw him after that was when we'd invite himi on the tours to play a couple of songs and the fans would just go apeshit. What we were trying to do was keep him in touch and say "Look, this is all here waiting for you.Allyou gotta do his get rid of these arseholes, get rid of whats inside you, and this is all here" Q - What do you think of religion A - I hate it. There isnt one molecule of my body that believes in God.I'm not against people who believe, I'm against the things thathappen becasue of religion.. Did you here about the little boy over here who was murdered by 2 other children ? I know someone that was involved in that case, and what they did to him was unbelievably more horrific than what was reported in the press, and then people try to tell me that there is a god ?? So I dont believe in a god, and if there is I'm gonna kick the fucker in the nuts for letting these things happen. If there is a god then hes the most evil bastard Ive ever come across. It's all bollocks and I hate it. Actually I'll tell you something. If there is a heaven and I do get there and see he's for real I'll apologise.I'll say "Oh fuck. I'm sorry. I didnt think you were real" Anyway, if you want to get hold of this, the contact address is : Bay Area Bands Vol III, Issue 12, April 1995 1931 California Avenue Suite #3 Mountain View California, 94041 Tel 415 903 0561 Andy x ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************