Gary Numan Digest Thu, 18 May 2000 Volume 2 : Issue 39 Today's Topics: church of gary numan Do you think Gary's music is pessimistic? Gary Numan Digest V2 #38 Gaz's profile Hope it's not too late last post mobile phone tune (2 msgs) Numan Rarities pessimism and joni mitchell. Pessimistic? TGND HAUI ERMG .YAE ..NS ...T The Authorized Biography What was this? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 22:42:35 EDT From: JColl81871@aol.com Subject: church of gary numan To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello, I am writing to each person who inquired about the Tribute CD - The Church Of Gary Numan: A Dark Celebration. The CD is being released this Sunday, May 21, 2000. You can purchase a copy by going to Welcome to the Church of Gary Numan!< /A> and clicking the Order Icon. I want to thank each and every person out there who has supported this totally independent, fan-based effort. I has been an incredible adventure making this Numan-approved tribute and I hope that everyone enjoys my interpretation of the music which has inspired me for 20 years. The Church of Gary Numan Video is being produced now and should be available next month. Thanks Again, Jim Collins jim@churchofgarynuman.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 09:55:25 -0500 From: Gerald Vick Subject: Do you think Gary's music is pessimistic? To: digest@GaryNumanFan.NU Yes. Of course it is........that's the only thing that got me through my teenage years was knowing that someone other than me could be in a similar mental state. Even though it has grown in time to become less pessimistic, I would have to note that I am usually in a mood when I listen (or if I'm not, I soon will be). I now have been a fan for 18 years (started listening when I was twelve circa 1982). I am glad to finally see his work becoming available in "backwoods Tennessee". GV ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 10:42:49 EDT From: Neffuri@aol.com Subject: Gary Numan Digest V2 #38 To: digest@garynumanfan.nu Wow, Ben poses a great question. But I am just too hyped and stoked right now to say anything negative. I just FINALLY purchased EXILE and I am wearing it out right now! It is excellent! The music may be somber but it makes me feel superior to all around me who are bending their minds into scrap iron listening to Bratney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. I always feel like Gary's music takes me away to a higher plane of existence, makes me feel like I am in a spaceship speeding toward some other dimension or like I am an assassin on a mission. (Warning for you technical people: Excuse my spelling, spell checker is not working and I am just too lazy to crack a dictionary today.grin) Anyway, I feel like Gary Numan's music is just better than all the rest and it makes me feel good. Thanks Kimberly Lifelong Fan ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 18:03:43 +0100 From: Jon Garland Subject: Gaz's profile To: What with a successful appearance on Jo Whiley's prestigious show (where Gary was labelled a 'pioneer'), the mock 'Cars' video on Jamie Theakston's Pop Quiz & then 'Koochy' in the top 5, Gary's profile is currently as higher as it has been for years & years. I think he did himself a lot of favours on Jo Whiley's show - he came over as modest & funny & seemed not to take himself too seriously. Does anyone know if Gaz is pencilled in for any festivals? That would help him maintain his profile over the summer before the album is released in October. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 09:34:14 +0100 From: luc.de_visscher@ch.Novartis.com Subject: Hope it's not too late To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Armand van Helden will appear on Top of the Pops Friday evening on BBC. 7.30PM UK Time 8.30PM Europe time. Luc De Visscher the Numan Factor, BELGIUM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 09:31:49 +0100 From: Matthew Tamea Subject: last post To: "'Numan Digest'" Blimey - don't quite know what happened with the last digest - how my post managed to get sent about a billion times I don't know...bloody computers! :-) Anyway, hope you all got the message!! Also, anyone got any photos from the April Shepherds Bush gig they can put on-line? I can swap you for honeymoon photos...yes, even *those* ones!!! Ta - Matthew PS - Paddy Vickers - what a nice chap!! :-) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 05:36:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Connell Subject: mobile phone tune To: digest@garynumanfan.nu Sometime ago someboby posted the address of where you could get Cars and Are Friends Electric tunes for nokia mobile phones. Anybody remember??? Thanks ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 05:35:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Andrew Connell Subject: mobile phone tune To: digest@garynumanfan.nu Sometime ago someboby posted the address of where you could get Cars and Are Friends Electric tunes for nokia mobile phones. Anybody remember??? Thanks ----------------------------------------------- FREE! The World's Best Email Address @email.com Reserve your name now at http://www.email.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 13:56:28 +0100 From: "Anthony M james" Subject: Numan Rarities To: Look what I found. ALL NUMANOIDS need to check this link out NOW !!!!! http://www.chubbie.f9.co.uk/transmissions.html Going by the track listing, this really is a TRUE rarites collection and not to be missed at all. This one one of the BEST Numan fan collections I've ever seen..... I know the guy concerned and he has done a BRILLIANT job of cleaning up all the recordings. Check it out !!!! NOW http://www.chubbie.f9.co.uk/transmissions.html Tony j http://www.chubbie.f9.co.uk/transmissions.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 07:45:42 -0700 From: awa Subject: pessimism and joni mitchell. To: digest@garynumanfan.nu ben inglar-mobley's comments in the last digest were right on. everything you've said, ben inglar, is a perfect analysis of one aspect the sonic experience of numan brings to the listener. i can't listen to him all that much anymore becuase sometimes those lyrics just hit a little too close to home. gary's lyrics are always about the dark side of any situation he's inspired by, like sexuality, betrayal, god, death, machines, but the music takes the lyrics elsewhere somtimes and that's when i like gary's music best. with very few exceptions (early ultravox, kraftwerk, the prince record "1999"), almost no-one has achieved what he has: combining extremely atmospheric, sexual music with fractured, sometimes oddly profound, definitely depressing, sometimes clinical and non-sexual lyrics. people try and have been trying to do what he does and very few can because they lack the quality of sincerity in his voice and lyrics and the absolute grandness of gary's melodic sense and his choices in sound atmospherics. some people have recorded individual songs that get to these places. for instance, the joy division song "isolation" approaches gary's transcendental side. i've come to the conclusion, though, that the combination of the music and lyrics function for gary personally as his lifelong therapy project. the other conclusion is that the music and lyrics are what gary hears at the peak of orgasm. i disagree with b i-m's statements about the music a little. his music has become sombre and foreboding (at the expense of all else) only with these last two records. prior to this--and especially in the first half of the '80s--gary experimented with a lot of different colors, sound-wise. when i think of these records, i think of music that didn't need an eno figure. he'd learned all that already just by being who he was. but right now, with his last two studio albums, he's stuck to one single set of colors (grey and more grey with a little red?). the performances themselves have disappeared into a little marching band of toy soldiers. both of these albums lack any random element in the rhythm track and in the bass track. i miss the awesome bass players and drummers performing with and reacting to the numan vibe. this is what gives the human side to the musical conversation. this was going on for me from the first tubeway army album all the way through "berserker." he needs to bring back the human element that was all over a track like "boys like me." i love the part at the end where connie goes, "is that o.k.?" and you hear people clapping in response to the question. that was perfect. where is that side of gary's personality today? "dance" and "i, assassin" were albums with a lot of humanity to them, especially in the actual performances the band and gary delivered. i think he's recording some great ideas nowadays that get pretty fleshed out in a live setting but i wish he'd commit some more interaction with other musicians to his studio statements again. there's something in common between what gary does on lots of his albums and what joni mitchell does on her album "the hissing of summer lawns." the lyrics are very depressing but the combined effect they have with the music is grand and beautiful, multi-layered. the performances the musicians bring to the whole thing, without a doubt, elevate the lyrics to new heights they wouldn't be lifted to otherwise. a song like "the boho dance" makes me cry involuntarily in the same way certain numan songs have done. maybe it's the sort of hurt detachment that she delivers in her voice, a deadpan attitude that she falls into, like gary always does, that really gets me. it's just a weird bunch of recordings with very attractive, oddball packaging. all those elements are pretty much what i like about gary numan. --a.w. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 10:13:14 -0500 From: Mark Hartlaub Subject: Pessimistic? To: digest@garynumanfan.nu Ben wrote recently: >>I want to pose a question I've been wondering about, at the back of my >>head, probably since I first got into the man. >>Do you think Gary's music is pessimistic? Absolutely; I don't think there's much question about it. "Please Push No More" is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. I agree with Ben that "You Walk in My Soul" is still not very uplifting, and I wouldn't play it at a wedding. I think many of Gary's best songs are about failed attempts at trying to connect with other people, whether in a romantic/sexual way or just in an intimate way. I think he's trying to make connections and feels inadequate and unable to become secure. I remember Gary once saying he felt more comfortable around machines. Although part of that is good copy to sell electronic records, I do think his lyrics suggest a comforting "sameness" about machines--a predictability--that you just don't have with people. I know some will disagree with me, but I see "Sacrifice" and "Exile" (and some earlier songs such as "A Child With a Ghost") as being about Gary's struggle to find meaning and happiness in life. Although he claims to be an atheist, he clearly isn't quite sure. Why else would he have claimed to have "[stood] outside and looking at a particularly beautiful sunset and said to God, 'Prove it. Turn the sky green, just for a second. You can't, can you?'" [Sacrifice liner notes]. I think he's looking and struggling for answers, as we all are. However, there's a lighter side to Gary in interviews and on NuWorld. I think being married may have changed him a bit, and I'm quite interested to know how fatherhood would change him if indeed he becomes a father. For most people, it is a life-changing event. -Mark "This wreckage I call me Would like to frame your voice" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 15:19:50 -0500 From: Val & Ben Iglar-Mobley Subject: TGND HAUI ERMG .YAE ..NS ...T To: The Gary Digest Dear 'noids, Does anyone else remember a contest run on NuWorld long ago, way back when Gary was still searching for a label for 'Exile' and still putting the (continuing) finishing touches on that album? I think the question was, "What is Gary's middle name?" and the prize was a demo copy of that album that he was using to try and drum up interest from the labels. Did anyone on this list win that? I and I imagine many others would love to hear what that demo disc sounds like. Would whoever won that disc care to burn some CDRs for your comrades? Just a thought. love, Ben http://home.earthlink.net/~iglarmobley * * * "The final proof that nothing's ever the same again" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 12:47:02 -0700 From: obscure@blueneptune.com Subject: The Authorized Biography To: Gary Numan At 1:00 AM -0600 5/11/00, digest@garynumanfan.nu wrote: > >Now to a question : I'm planning to get Biblioquest >International to find Gary Numan : The Autorized >Biography book for me, but it would help greatly if >someone could tell me WHEN it was published - Thank >You! Linda, Here's some info to help you find it: Gary Numan, The Authorized Biography by Ray Coleman published in 1982 by Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. Great Britain ISBN# 0-283-98876-2 Good Hunting Lisa -- _______________________ obscure@blueneptune.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 23:31:27 -0600 From: "Joey Lindstrom" Subject: What was this? To: "digest@garynumanfan.nu" , (Original message received via email) On Mon, 15 May 2000 22:29:40 -0700, Derek Langsford wrote: >Joey, > >What on earth was this in the last Digest? > > >>Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 02:35:43 -0600 >>From: MDaemon@garynumanfan.nu >>Subject: Welcome to the email system for domain garynumanfan.nu >>To: digest@garynumanfan.nu >> >>Welcome Digest (postings)! >> >>Since you are new to this domain there are some things you should know: >> >>Personal Information >>-------------------- >> >>Account holders real name - Digest (postings) >>Account email address - digest@garynumanfan.nu >>Mail Server - garynumanfan.nu [207.228.74.66] >> >>Message files are stored here - C:\MDAEMON\USERS\garynumanfan.nu\digest\ >>File attachments are stored here - >>C:\MDAEMON\USERS\garynumanfan.nu\digest\FILES\ >> >>POP UserName - digest >>POP Password - Contact your email administrator > >etc, etc. > >Derek > > > That's an embarrassing glitch. :-) My old email server, which was shaky at the best of times, decided that at this stage in life, it was going to crash every 4 hours - whether it needed to or not. So, I hadda replace it - FAST. And as a result, a couple of details got overlooked. :-) The new server creates these greeting messages automagically and there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off - and by the time I'd noticed it, even then it never occurred to me that one would be sent to the Digest (which lives on a different machine and has its own email service). Ah well, live and learn. :-) / From the messy desktop of Joey Lindstrom / Visit The NuServer! http://www.GaryNumanFan.NU / Visit The Webb! http://webb.GaryNumanFan.NU / / It's a good apartment because they allow pets. I have a Shetland pony / named Nikkie. Last summer Nikkie was involved in a bizarre electrolysis / accident. All her hair was removed except for her tail. Now I rent her / out to Hare Krishna family picnics. / --Steven Wright ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------- T H E G A R Y N U M A N D I G E S T is produced and distributed by Derek Langsford, Dave Datta, and Joey Lindstrom dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu, datta@cs.uwp.edu, Joey@GaryNumanFan.NU ------------------------------------------------------------------- To reply to the messages in this list, email: digest@GaryNumanFan.NU If you want to be removed, or someone wants to be added, email: digest-request@GaryNumanFan.NU ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Gary Numan Digest is brought to you via Joey Lindstrom and the GaryNUmanFan server Joey@GaryNumanFan.NU All of the opinions in this digest belong to the respective authors and do not necessarily agree with those of the Digest Producers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produced and distributed by Derek Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To reply to the messages in this list, mail to: digest@garynumanfan.nu If you want to be removed, or someone wants to be added, you can mail to digest-request@garynumanfan.nu --------------------------------------------------------------------------