Gary Numan Digest Thu, 29 Apr 99 Volume 1 : Issue 533 Today's Topics: BBC Radio One CD Empty Bed Empty Heart Guitar Chords anyone??? I don't want to get off on a rant here, but... IRS and Dream Corrosion mp3 advice new /old fan New Anger found nottingham-songs Numan bass sound Numan Photos Numan songbook! Numan stuff Rock City missing encore track Sheet music and Re-Married a Human still searching for Paul Gardiner info .. why I love 'Metal Rhythm' ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 20:02:41 +0100 From: "Stephen Page" Subject: BBC Radio One CD To: For those of you not aware, Strange Fruit have released a CD called GARY NUMAN - The Radio One Recordings. This CD features the two John Peel sessions (which has been previously released on CD), however, it also features 3 live tracks (Me, I disconnect >From you, Metal and Down in the Park) that were recorded at Wembley Arena in November 1979 at the Year of the Child concert. I got my copy at HMV but am sure other outlets should be able to get it for you. The catalogue number is SFASCD081 Hope you are all well Stephen - A Proud member of Boys Like Us "I like romantics, but I don't like Stephen" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 13:21:08 -0700 From: Gregor Torrence Subject: Empty Bed Empty Heart To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) >> That Empty Bed Empty Heart song sound's like it's from the Dance or >> Telekon session's. I call your attention to the instrumentation: 1. The bass that comes in later is fretless. That rules out Telekon, since Paul Gardiner was a fretted kind of a guy. 2. There is saxophone. That rules out Dance and Telekon, since sax made its brief first appearance on I Assassin. >I know there are people who know exactly which instrument Gary used on >each track, and which synth he was using. The main synth on this track is the one that goes "Da-dum Da-dum Da-dum Dah da-da-da-da-dah-dum." It is a German made synth called the PPG Wave, And the name sake of the "Wave Team" of Mike Smith and Ian Herron. If you're a synth freak, you'll recognize the hard digital quality of its sound. Almost every synth sound on Berserker, The Fury, and Strange Charm comes from this synth. It is especially good at making those metallic or 'tubular' sounds like at the beginning of A Child With The Ghost. (And the beginning of most every track on The Fury, for that matter). The modern day descendant of the PPG Wave is the Waldorf Microwave. But, although my gear-headedness would not let me mistake EBEH for a track from the Telekon sessions, I can hear a definite Telekon or Dance like quality to it. Maybe similar to I dream of Wires' first half, or I Sing Rain. It has the sad mood, and perhaps most similarly, it has no drums. A real rarity among Gary's songs. In fact, I often get an odd sense when I listen to one album that I think reminds me of an older album, or seems to foreshadow a later album. Mostly I chalk it up to dozens of albums all created from on person's creativity. Gregor. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 23:07:41 -0700 (PDT) From: offshore@netbistro.com Subject: Guitar Chords anyone??? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi everyone! Well, I'm really JEALOUS of all you people who saw the Nottingham show. How can you sleep at night, knowing that I'm here with only Dark Light to console me? ;) As you all know, Numan sheet music is hard to come by. So anyone out there who has worked out early stuff like Dream Police, etc... on guitar, I'd be grateful if you could e-mail me a few chord arrangements. I'm having trouble "playing it by ear" myself (just a beginner) I particularly want the chords to "JO THE WAITER" !!! So any help would be greatly appreciated. :) Thanks - BasicJ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 17:57:32 -0400 From: "Warren, Sam" Subject: I don't want to get off on a rant here, but... To: "'numan@cs.uwp.edu'" To begin, I should say I'm not a music biz insider, simply a consumer. But I wanted to address the issue of the same material being released over and over and over... Rod Reynolds (who *is* a music biz insider, and for whose presence on the Numan Digest I am grateful) says: >Even Cleopatra isn't keen any more on the Numan catalog... or singles >packages or rarities or covers albums... they told me "enough with the >Gary Numan". And who can blame them, really? I mean, there have been compilations and reissues from both the UK and the US, and we (the fans) have had to buy all of them because of one or two tracks that were previously unavailable or because someone just decided to remaster an old album and now it sounds astoundingly better than ever. I understand that that's the way commercial enterprises work, but I never wanted two (or three) copies of every album (I don't have the room to store them). So if Cleopatra feels their catalogue of Numan material isn't selling quite as well as they had hoped, perhaps it's due to the fact that people don't want to buy the same recordings over and over (from Beggars and Eagle and IRS and Numa and whoever else wants to make a buck)? On the other hand, I have been anxiously awaiting a release of Ghost on CD. But Rod (and I don't mean any offense to you, I know it's not in any way your fault) tells us that that one won't be out until *after* Strange Charm, Berserker and Machine & Soul, all of which I already have! I know my moaning and groaning won't change anything, I guess I'm just venting my frustration (I hope I don't get flamed by people explaining to me that it's Gary's and the recording companies' right to charge whatever they want however many times they want for the same product offerings - I do understand commerce). It just seems to me it would be wiser (in terms of sales expectations) to release the things that are not yet available on CD (I wonder why we couldn't get a b-side compilation?) before revisiting old releases anew. >I had several ideas for rare b-sides (in fact I had some remastered >for the project) but they were rejected by Gary himself. Did he give any reason? Is he planning to release them himself, or did he feel they were inferior songs? What would make him nix the whole idea? Is there some copyright problem? >I think they are waiting for the new album for a boost in energy (and >sales). The way I understand the music industry, it seems to me there can't be much of a boost in sales until radio stations (or MTV/VH1) start playing Gary's music. He's had tons of press in the past year (not to mention tons of product ;-)), and he's still not charting, right? So if I were him, I would try to patch up whatever bad feelings I had with Djs the world over. I do believe Whitney Houston's version of I Will Always Love You was only a phenomenal hit because it was programmed 24 times a day all over the world. The more you hear it, the more you want it... I'm sure I just don't understand the business, but what I do understand is how foolishly I have been spending money on the same things over and over again. Yes, it's my choice whether or not to buy, but what I find most infuriating is that I have to wait soooo long for the stuff I'm really hungry for. And I haven't even begun to address the rumours about how CDs may wear out after a certain period of time, or that CDs will become obsolete when DAT (or minidiscs) takes over! Lord help me, I've got over 2,000 discs and I honestly don't want to start from scratch all over again! So I guess you can see where my frustration comes from! ;-) Sam ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 10:59:21 GMT0BST From: "James Chapman" Subject: IRS and Dream Corrosion To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Many thanks to Rod Reynolds, who is doing Numan fans a great service with all this info sent to the digest, I think it's great that he lets the fans know what's going on! In digest #532, Rod wrote: > A few months ago Gary announced on his web site that the IRS albums were > coming out. No dates or locations... and we know he has the tendency to > jump the gun a bit... > I remember reading this just after I'd located a Metal Rhythm CD that I had been previously mssing and cursing about it, since I thought a reissue would have better sound quality and bonus tracks. To have Metal Rhythm with "I Don't Believe", "Children", plus the William Orbit remixes, and any different single mixes, and Outland with "Shame", "Icehouse", "Tread Careful", "AFE Renegade remix", "My World Storm" 12" remixes.... would be a dream. At least MR is one of the best sounding Numan CDs I have. > Even Cleopatra isn't keen any more on the Numan catalog... or singles > packages or rarities or covers albums... they told me "enough with the > Gary Numan". The three new re-issues are coming out ('Strange Charm', > 'Berserker' May 4, 'Machine + Soul' May 25), and I'm working (slowly) on > 'Ghost' as they're in no hurry for a third double live album. I wouldn't > hold my breath for 'Dream Corrosion' as in my opinion the cover art is > horrible and the sound quality even worse. > Couldn't DC get remastered to make it sound good? I really like the setlist of this album, but IMHO it doesn't hold a torch to White Noise and Dark Light because of the sound quality. I'm not bothered about the artwork, yes it does suck but I wouldn't care if it was plain white paper with "GARY NUMAN - DREAM CORROSION" on it as long as it *sounded* good. Or won't remastering it be much good? I don't know, I've no idea on the technical side of things :-) Cheers, James ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 18:12:44 EDT From: RTEJon@aol.com Subject: mp3 advice To: numan@cs.uwp.edu My solution for issuing an mp3 of dubious legality would be to offer it in 64k encoded format, which will make it sound about like a good Real Audio file and roughly comparable to FM stereo. This way it sounds about as good as a tape on most people's computer speakers yet the file is less than CD quality and doesn't really cost anybody anything. And if someone else takes the file and plays it on commercial radio, I'd leave them responsible for royalties... Jon Lester ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 00:45:58 -0400 (EDT) From: archangel333@webtv.net (Xavier Garcia) Subject: new /old fan To: numan@cs.uwp.edu dear members: my name is xavier, living here in sunny florida. i'm 34 years old, a computer instructor, occultist, book collector, musician(play everything from drums to piano, but specialized in jazz guitar), advent collector of record albums, and homesick for late 70's early 80's music. The first time i "saw" gary numan was on the CARS video on MTV. i never really paid much attention to him, since i was to wrapped up in other musical genres(such as ac/dc, black sabbath, etc..). last years release of the film "DARK CITY" with garys song made me think about his talents, i mean "really think" a few months ago i walked into a borders book store browsing through the CD department, and found out that gary had released all his recordings completely remastered( i'm a big fan of older mediums being revamped/remixed/repacked / and, of course, remastered). i always knew that garys music was more than just "an oddity" of sorts,(blame MTV for that) but he put so much effort into his music to produce "originality" that sadly lacks in todays music. garys musical ventures and explorations were always ahead of his time. it is only natural that more and more people are turning back to discover jewels that have always been beneath the remains. as the months went by, i continued to always glance at the numan section, not really knowing if i should purchase it or not. well, this past saturday, i bought " THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE" thinking this, his first "solo effort", should reflect the man behind the genius. well,...i had no idea how great his music really was(and is). the first track, "AIRLANE" with its mix of just bass,drums, keyboards, and voice made me realise that i have literally lost so many years of listening pleasure, and it was always in front of me. in any event, i do hope that someone can direct me into the right path as far as what progression of albums(what order should be heard), to get the maxium effective. as a final note, i'm wondering if anyone out there have seen the similarity between gary and peter gabriel( as far as showmanship is concerned). this topic may have already been discussed previously, but thought it was worth mentioning hope to hear from u all soon LOVE IS THE LAW,LOVE UNDER WILL xavier777 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 19:01:21 GMT From: mhoram@relia.net (Curtis A Gibson) Subject: New Anger found To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Greetings all, It's me letting everyone know that, thanks to the help of the list, I found a copy of New Anger (at GEMM -thanks especially to whomever emailed that to me, I lost the mail.. grrr). I appreciated all the responces. Curtis History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells "Can't=20 you remember anything I told you?" and lets fly with a club. --John W. Campbell ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 10:26:38 +0200 From: "Ingo Weinard" Subject: nottingham-songs To: hi everybody, when i saw the setlist on the AFE tour site, i was very disappointed-that the songlist is quiet allways the same = every tour or show. Everybody is happy when gary plays a new (old) song like TRACKS-but = where are "Crash" "Complex" "Aircrash bureau" "Converstaion" "Prophecy" "Seed of a = lie" "Warriors" "Face to face" "She cries" ? and and and and and.......... Gary has so many good songs-he should change the hole setlist!!!!! Realy, i do not understand this! The playing style is far to guittar = stylish. Where is the only NUMANELECTRONICA?????? In the press and meanwhile in the musicbuisness he is a god of synths. = He should take profit from this. The next image (and record) must be very SPACY. In that way, a lot of = young people will like him because it is Zeitgeist to be Spacy. Look all that raves and dancesound = like-prodigy, underworld, orbital and so- If gary is very spacy and electronic again he will have a big success-i = swere you For the year 2000 i prefere the leatherlook more than the gothic style. The problem in my country with that gothic style is, that you stay in a = corner-that means that=20 only special magazines(with very few readers) recognize you! GARY must be SPACY again because he is an A L I E N !!!!!!! your's Ingo=20 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 16:22:37 EDT From: STUSSY666@aol.com Subject: Numan bass sound To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello everyone, I'm Erich, one of the list lurkers. I've been a Numan fan for about 5 years now(I'm only 16 right now, I haven't had much time). I've been trying to figure out how to get my bass to sound like the bass used in Berserker and Ghost. Frankly, I'm stumpted, I know that the bass used on both albums was a fretless, but I think there was some kind of effect pedal used that I can't figure out. Any help would be just great, thanks in advance, -Erich the bewildered bass player ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 19:53:37 -0400 From: Ken Bryant Subject: Numan Photos To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello All! I'm in need of lots of Gary Numan photos for my web site. Please, if you have any, send them to me. If you took the photo, I will certainly give you credit! Thanks! Ken "The Numaniac" Bryant _____________________ Gary Numan tribute site: ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 18:49:16 +0400 From: "tiktokman" Subject: Numan songbook! To: "Digest Numan" Hark, oh Global Village Idiots, The Official Gary Numan Songbook; brilliant idea! I've always thought that there should be available to us Numanesque connoisseurs, a big, bold, black-bound, colourful coffee table book that contains ALL Gazza's songs as illustrated by his fans, interpreted with all forms of visual arts (including computer graphics) and sculpture, like that famous one on the Beatles which is chockablock with great pictures and lyrics. It could even be organised as a competition supervised by Beryl ... ? I'm sure most Numanoids would both contribute and buy a copy, so there's already several thousand guaranteed pre-sales! But at what cost dear citizens? It's worth a thought folks! Kirk out. TikTokMan Still keeping a very low profile in Moscow And still a proud member of Assholes Like Us ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 03:38:17 +0100 From: "Antonio" Subject: Numan stuff To: "Gary Numan" > From: hartlaub@falcon.tamucc.edu > > I recently purchased the single reissues of Beserker, The Fury, and > Sacrifice. Two bonus tracks off of Sacrifice, "Play at God" and "Metal > Beat" are two of Gary's coolest songs, but no lyrics are included. I can't > quite get all of the lyrics - anyone know a website that might have the > lyrics to these songs? Thanks. Lyrics to every Numan song I can find the lyrics to, including 'Play Like God' and 'Metal Beat', are on my site at http://www.goffboi.freeserve.co.uk - just click on the picture of Gary on the front page and ou're there. If anyone has lyrics to anything I'm missing, (Live At The Roxy and one or two b-sides like 'Shame' and 'Icehouse'), I'd be very pleased to have those lyrics! This project is as complete as I can get it at the moment. Antonio ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Apr 1999 20:44:37 +0100 From: brian@berserka.demon.co.uk Subject: Rock City missing encore track To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Various bodies mentioned the missing song from the end of the Nottingham gig- it was 'Bombers'. Mind you, I might have been at a 'doppleganger' gig as everyone's been saying how good the sound/lights/songs/were. The sound was crap (muddy and the keyboards distorted), the older songs being more listenable as they generally had higher pitched lead lines than the newer stuff. There were more lights pointing at the audience than at Gary. From what I could make out of the 'new' song it was a dirge only equalled by 'Absolution'. Okay, so it was a one-off gig so it's not going to be perfect, the' new' track could be unfinished and Rock City is a shed and still I wouldn't have missed it for the world (great to hear 'Tracks' getting an airing) but don't get carried away with the 'blind following - Gary can do no wrong' bit. You might think I'm being a shit but when people don't speak up you get albums like 'Machine and Soul'! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:31:17 +0100 From: Mark Subject: Sheet music and Re-Married a Human To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi NickiNu Thanks for replying m8, > Another question re: I Nearly Married a Human P2. It was the second B-side > track of DITP 12" (BEG17T). Do you need the service ? was the other track. Good song ... one of the Lads on the list here said he may be able to put it up on his web site for us, but i've been unable to connect to ths site :(( i never have seen a 12" DITP yet, i wonder how many more Old Numan songs i _did'nt_ hear, - i used to have the, what is referred to as The Roxy' that was good too,.. bought it from a T-shirt shop on Blackpool Promenade years ago ... but i lost it ! > This is one of my all time fave covers....Reflection of Gary in window with > moon behind. There's not much to shout about that track though as it's only > difference was a simple murmuring of the title line. I'd be surprised if > it's not on one of the dozens of compilation CD's somewhere. > NickiNu Yup, it _is_ the best cover IMHO too, weird isn't it, when the reflection of Gary in the window has his hands together, whereas Gary, in the room, they're not. nice touch Gary ... actually my Brother pointed it out to Me ! - I. N. M. A. H. is such a beautifully haunting song, i _needed_ to hear the part two version :)) Thanks .. take it easy .. Mark ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:29:59 +0100 From: Mark Subject: still searching for Paul Gardiner info .. To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hi All ... I Am Still Appealing for Anyone Who Has Any 'Paul Gardiner' Information, As mentioned in previous postings to the list, i am building a web page dedicated to the Main Man himself. please e-mail me if you can help, I like the Paul Gardiner anecdotes in 'Praying to the Aliens' - there is no need to re-produce these, nice though it would be, - i dont want Gary or anyone telling me off ! I was in contact with one of Paul's friends a while ago, but tragically, Lost his Phone number (typical eh?) If you have any recollections, or comments, or any Paul related info, it would be great to hear from you. Thanks .. Mark. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 00:22:56 -0500 From: Valerie Iglar-Mobley Subject: why I love 'Metal Rhythm' To: Terrence Thoman Dear Terrance and numanoids all, I think I expressed my gratitude here some months ago to James Chapman for running the album survey. If I didn't, thanks, James. I was gratified to see 'Telekon' nab top honors among the fans; when someone creates a masterpiece, it deserves recognition as such. But I also enjoyed it to see how my rankings differed from everyone else's, and one of the most notable ones was that I love 'Metal Rhythm' while others don't. One of the main reasons I love that album is because, as I've posted before, I really feel that that one, not 'Sacrifice', was the beginning of his current sound. Here's why. 'The Machine' of course is the classic Gary. Jim "the machman" Napier has called 'Replicas', 'The Pleasure Principle' and 'Telekon' "the trinity" of Gary albums. Gary was the singular pioneer of the New Romantic sound, and that music is closest to my heart. The early 80s were a promising time for musicians; punk had blown the doors wide open, and we had a flourishing of freedom for individual styles. Just think of the imagery of Adam Ant, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, early Madonna, even early Michael Jackson, and you can appreciate that the styles of the time were much more adventurous, artful, and free. But it had to end. Under Reagan and Thatcher, the decade became a time of extreme reactionary thinking, conservatism, and conformity. The New Romantics were quickly replaced by repressed hair metal bands. Madonna and Michael survived by becoming fascistic parodies of themselves... the rest went underground. "The Joy Circuit"-- Gary's finest song, and the pinnacle of 'The Machine'-- even there you can hear that period coming to a close. Sorry, King Rich, it had to end. "Rewind, cry, well it's somewhere to go." 'Dance', 'I, Assassin' and 'Warriors' are Gary searching for what comes next. They're arguably his most experimental albums. For a while, he found a sound with his Numa albums, but they were not quite what he was to become. They were more aggressive, but still full and round in their sound, still tinged with feeling. 'Metal Rhythm' was Gary finally finding the sound that would promise his survival of the 80s. It was darker, faster, angrier, more aggressive, less vulnerable. "No more opinions," Gary adamantly declares, "I'm back in harness." Indeed. If we're honest, I think we have to admit that all his albums since share a commonality that the rest of his albums don't have. True, 'Outland' has rhythms that verge on danceable, 'Machine + Soul' was ruined by Kipper's taint, and 'Sacrifice' and 'Exile' are more closely related to each other-- but all of those have a quality that sets them apart from the rest of Gary's oeuvre... and groups them together. I'll admit, I was slow to picking up 'Metal Rhythm.' 'The Fury' had really disappointed me, so much so that I had completely passed on 'Strange Charm.' (Yes, guilty.) But nonetheless, 'Metal' was the album that brought me back into the fold. Its production is clear and crisp (something I had come to take for granted and now look back on longingly), its rhythms are intricate and imaginative, its lyrics are on the edge. I love the intros to "America" and "Cold Metal Rhythm". Even the single ballad, "Don't Call My Name", goes beyond his other ballads in that it's his most sonically minimalist song-- it's a quieter quiet. I love this album. I didn't rank it higher on my list because 'Outland' is just even more so of all those things; 'Sacrifice' has such a brilliant text; and 'Berserker' is beautiful both musically and visually. And, well, 'Telekon'... ah, 'Telekon.' 'New Anger,' the US version of the album, is pretty much the same album. The songs "Devious" and "New Anger" are supposedly remixes, but pretty much imperceptably so. The songs "Hunger" and "Young Heart" were left off and "Child With The Ghost" and a remix of "My Dying Machine" were added in their place, I suppose because the studio heads thought they would make the album more appealing to US tastes. The remix of "My Dying" fits in with the rest of the album pretty well, but "Child With" sounds out of place. The original album is definitely worth trying to dig up a copy of. Eagerly looking forward to Gary's 20th. lots of love to all, Benjamin Iglar-Mobley --proud member of the Boys Like Us * * * "Cold metal rhythm takes me back to god." ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ****************************** _______________________________________________________________________ _____ ____ ____ _____ _____ / \ | | / \ / \ / \ / \ | |-----| |-----| | |-----| |-----| | | | G | | A | | | R | | Y | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-----| |-----| | |-----| |-----| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | N | E | W | S |=====| | | | | | | | & | | | | | | | \_____/ I | N | F | O | | | | is produced and distributed by Derek Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To reply to the messages in this list, mail to: numan@cs.uwp.edu If you want to be removed, or someone wants to be added, you can mail to numan-request@cs.uwp.edu ----------------- The Gary Numan Digest is brought to you via Datta Production and Development, 905 97th Street, Kenosha, WI 53143 USA datta@cs.uwp.edu and computer resources courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Parkside and Datta Production and Development. 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