BIOGRAPHY
PLEASE READ THIS FIRST
I DID NOT write this biography. I found it on another web site, and after reading it, I knew it said everything that needed to be said. It was written by Steve Malins of Q magazine, who has written extensively about Gary Numan, including sleeve notes on many of the re-issued CD's. If Mr Malins should see this page, and object to my using it, he need only e-mail me and I will remove it.
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The cycles of fashion and influence take some strange turns, but none more bizarre than in the case of Gary Numan. In the last couple of years there has been a growing groundswell of interest in Numan's pioneering work from very different musical genres. He's been namechecked by Nine Inch Nails and The Rentals, his songs have been performed live by Beck, Smashing Pumpkins and Hole; he's been sampled on hip-hop tracks and by the original Chicago house and Detroit techno scenes; and had cover versions recorded by Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson.
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So who is Gary Numan? He first beamed into the UK post-punk scene in 1979, scoring No. 1 albums and singles with his new "Machine Music" -- the metallic sounds of synthesizers and rhythms of drum machines -- and an alien glamour mixed with a hi-tech, futuristic live performance. At the time he was misunderstood and vilified by the reactionary music press for opposing the grey conformity and proto-slacker, guitar-based stagnation that the punk scene had degenerated into, and for becoming the first 'new' alternative star of the Eighties. However, hindsight has proved the validity of his kick-up-the-ass end of punk, and with a career spanning 20 years and over 20 albums, he's still enthusiastic about pop music and has the same motivation and principles he always had. Now, in the era of The X-Files and post-grunge USA, people are looking for new directions and picking up on the original Numan blueprint -- sci-fi paranoia with a dark, gothic, alienated twist in the lyrics, wrapped in an alternative pop coating.
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At the end of the '70s, Gary Numan, a 20-year-old ex-punk from west London, was virtually alone in seeing the possibility of a "synthesiser star." In late 1978, Beggars Banquet released Tubeway Army's self-titled debut, mixing electronics with post-punk guitar and solid, no-frills drumming by Gary's uncle Jess Lidyard. He immediately created a fresh, garage-electronic style, but by the time the album came out, he was already back in the studio. He recorded the follow-up, Replicas, in three days at Gooseberry Studios in London, utilising a stark synthetic sound for most of the tracks. The album's first single, "Down In The Park", announced this radical change of direction, but no one believed that the alienated, rhythmical drone of the follow-up, "Are 'Friends' Electric?", would elbow its way to the number one slot. Within weeks, Numan was posing on Top Of The Pops in harsh white light, bringing a touch of showbiz camp to the clipped, motorik repetitiveness of the song. From that moment on, he was simultaneously branded "hero" and "villain."
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When "Cars" and The Pleasure Principle album both topped the charts in autumn '79, he put together a complete package of song, promo video and aloof stage image which would act as a catalyst on a new wave of suburban no-hopers who broke through a year or two later -- Human League, Depeche Mode and OMD all benefited from Numan's success. Nevertheless, his detractors continued to attack him as "pretentious" and "bombastic." This was a little unfair, as his mixture of neon-tubed futuristic chic and pansticked android posing were born out of a strange combination of shyness and a passionate commitment to showmanship. Over the next two years, Numan scored more hits with "We Are Glass" and "I Die You Die", as well as a third successive number one album, Telekon, which featured an increasingly opulent sound built out of synths, piano, strings and guitar. Then he announced his intention to give up live performances and made a melodramatic exit with three lavish Wembley Arena shows in 1981. These farewell shows effectively ended his reign as a multi-million selling popstar, and he took time out to enjoy the rags-to-riches trappings of money, Ferraris, sponsored racing cars and, of course, his own aircraft.
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On his 1981 album Dance, he explored sparser, more ambient textures, but for all his idealism about creating a completely fresh sound album by album, the press weren't ready to encourage a millionaire in a Bogart-styled trilby - his latest "image". The gangster headwear partly acted as a way of covering scars from a recent hair transplant, and the sight of Oxfam-suited clones wandering down the High Street was too much for the cynics to take. His last albums for Beggars Banquet, I, Assassin ('82) and Warriors ('83), adopted fluid funk styles, and he had more chart success with "We Take Mystery", "Music For Chameleons", and "Warriors". Although most casual observers knew little about Numan's new releases, they were certainly aware of his activities away from the pop scene, in particular his adventures as a pilot. A much publicised round-the-world solo flight in his own plane was initially aborted when he was arrested in India on suspicion of spying. Although he eventually achieved his ambition, the newspapers had lost interest and his return was hardly acknowledged.
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He did, however, make the news after he made an emergency landing on a road due to engine failure. His bad luck continued when he was charged with carrying an offensive weapon after queuing up at a hamburger stall with a rounders bat. The next decade witnessed a gradual decline in his sales as he preached to the converted, releasing a new album on his own label every year and touring every autumn. Musically, the likes of Berserker, The Fury, Strange Charm, Automatic with Bill Sharpe from Shakatak, Metal Rhythm and Outland -- the latter released through IRS Records -- combined bright, forward-looking pop with bizarre songwriting, vocal and production habits which can make a song seem original and entertaining one day and infuriatingly cultish the next. Although they continued to chart, in or just outside the top 40, they had more affinity with the glam-slamming funk of Prince than the British music scene. When 1992's Machine And Soul album followed the usual pattern and stalled at 42, Numan believed he'd reached an all-time low.
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Yet only three years later, the musical climate started to change in his favour for the first time in over a decade. This cultural backlip was signalled by his best album in years, 1994's Sacrifice, and several covers of Numan songs, live and on record, by Beck, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, Shampoo, Marilyn Manson and the Foo Fighters, who covered "Down In The Park" on an X-Files album. In 1995, Carling Premier lager was advertised with "Cars" as its musical backdrop, kicking off a chart revival which pushed the song back into the Top 20. A greatest hits compilation also peaked at 21 in spring 1996. Numan supported Pulp at V96 in the same year and wrote Exile, a return to the electronic chill of his earlier work.
STEVE MALINS