TV Archive DVD - 1979

 

The year when the storm broke and in the time that it took to record a two track session for the 'Old Grey Whistle Test' and a mimed Top of the Pops performance a nervous young man from West London was propelled from obscurity to rock star status.

That nervous disposition and absence of a learned stagecraft was something of a double edged sword in that it contributed to an otherworldliness that his new fanbase grasped with enthusiasm whilst offering his critics (i.e. the music press) an arsenal of ammunition to use against him in subsequent interviews and reviews.

There is no escaping from the fact that the TV footage of Numan was compelling to watch, irrespective of whether you believed that he represented the future of pop music in the 1980's or whether he was an imitator who was not worthy of the task of cleaning Ziggy's high-heeled boots. The fact remains that Numan, through his meticulous insistence that he and his band be projected in TV appearances in a very particular manner with nothing left to chance, genuinely created something new for the record buying public. He dictated the camera angles, sage settings and lighting to such a great extent that hammered home the visual impact that he was intending. As an early adopter of the idea of music video, Numan used this new medium additionally to it's full advantage and once again in doing so only added to this idea of musician as pioneer.

Numan has had a full and varied career which is great, but for many the footage collected here is what it is all about. 

DVD Image: https://we.tl/t-G3hYxODQoOUm6L3Y

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-tiQSWtdjzfZhpOBR

Gary Numan TV Archive 1979 to 2003

 

Some years ago there existed a file sharing site that went by the name of 'Punktorrents'. As the name suggests, the focus of this site was punk rock in all of its various forms. However, punk is a difficult term to pin down and how would Numan get a look in on such a site? For sure the 1978 version of Tubeway Army comfortably fitted the punk bill, but from 1979 onwards? Well there's always 'New Wave' or perhaps better still in the UK at least 'Post Punk'. Anyway, luckily a very extensive collection of DVDs was posted on the site that very comprehensively documented many of Gary Numan's TV appearances from 1979 through to 2003.

Sadly, 'Punktorrents' ran out of money and disappeared taking a wealth of fantastic unofficial material with it, including the aforementioned Numan DVD collection. The compilations were the handiwork of the person(s) behind the Dead Heaven site that seems to no longer be active. So whilst it is not possible to specifically thank the creator of this collection. I am happy to offer then a home on this 'Listen To The Sirens' site as they are too good for the fanbase to lose. I will be putting them up in the coming weeks starting with 1979 today.

New Order City Hall Hull 16th August 1984

 

I never really got beyond 'Blue Monday' with New Order. The song is great and whenever I hear it I am propelled back to drunken nights in Brighton's Sister Rays nightclub. 'Blue Monday' at 8 minutes or however long it was was a bit of a marathon for the inebriated unfit! The other thing of course that I associate 'Blue Monday' with is the hilarious Top of the Pops appearance where the band broke with protocol and insisted on playing live, which in the end did little for their prestige but at the same time created some precious footage! Bernard Sumner was not quite the full ticket on the day for whatever the reason.

Later on I very much went further back and developed a strong liking for Joy Division.

The trials and tribulations of Joy Division/New Order are the stuff of legend, real tragicomic stuff.... Spinal Tap with synthesizers if you will! Each of the former members of Joy Division (Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris) have written about their time in the two bands and I would recommend them all if you enjoy a rock 'n' roll tale or two. Also recommended is Peter Hook's 'Hacienda: How Not To Run A Club'.

This is quite a nice recording of New Order, by this point re-established (post Joy Division) but not yet elevated to the arena status that would come in the next few years.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ZusCbx1CbeYfWeTV

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-6tJXSfA41B6GBBrj

Gig Review - Tubeway Army/The Skids 'Last Bastion' White Hart Acton (Sounds 8th July 1978)

I was very happy to come across this particular gig review this evening. This was the infamous gig that almost stalled a career before it started. The night out in West London when Dunfirmline's Skids supported Tubeway Army at The White Hart in Acton. As I recall, by rights The Skids should have been topping the bill as they had been hitting London quite hard in the summer of 1978. Who knows, had the running order been reversed, then perhaps musical history may have taken a different course. Had The Skids headlined and therefore been on stage at the point that fighting started in the audience, would they have managed the situation differently. I cannot vouch for the other members of The Skids, but Richard Jobson was by all accounts quite handy in fight situations and maybe he could have deescalated the altercation. Had Tubeway Army supported, it is possible I suppose that they could have packed up and been half way home by the time that trouble flared.

As it was, little did the band know as they plugged in to their amps that night that this would be the last gig that Tubeway Army, the punk band would ever play. This gig looms large in the Numan story in that it galvanised Numan into action. No more punk gigs played in the back rooms of pubs to audiences more focused on blood letting than anything going on on stage.

New Musical Express (24th June 1978)

Last Bastion Flyer (Summer 1978)

New Musical Express (24th June 1978)

Sounds (24th June 1978)

Sounds (8th July 1978)

Sadly, in what I believe is the only live review of the band to appear in the mainstream music press, all the focus in terms of Tubeway Army’s performance is focussed in the violence that marred the gig. No mention is made at all to anything that the band played which is very disappointing. As mentioned in Paul Goodwin’s book ‘Tubeway Daze The Untold Story of Tubeway Army’ it is very difficult to chart the evolution of the band through 1978. This is a real loss to the music fan as 1978 was perhaps Numan’s most prolific year as a songwriter, as borne out by a number of archive releases in the 1983 and 1984. It’s a rule of geometry that it takes at least two points to draw a line and unfortunately there is no second point in Tubeway Army’s live fossil record! The one point that we have is the ‘Living Ornaments ‘78’ set (from a gig on 21st February at London’s Rock Garden). In the 3 or 4 months between appearances in Covent Garden (Rock Garden) and Acton, how had the set changed I wonder? Numan acknowledges his propensity to change the band’s set through the regular introduction of new songs. At the time of the ‘Last Bastion’ gig Tubeway Army were about to record the first album, begging the question (for me at least) did the Acton set include material that would go on to be on that first album? Of the non-released material (i.e. the singles) played at the Rock Garden, only ‘My Shadow In Vain’ made the album cut.

The upshot of Numan's first retirement from playing live was the the majority of the material on the Blue Album/Tubeway Army was never heard live as it appeared on record. The revamped versions played on the '79 tour are fine versions, but by the same token so are the originals.

Ever the dreamer, I have a proposal for Gary. This year there have been many events to mark the 50th anniversary of punk. However, second wave bands such as Tubeway Army and The Skids came just that little bit later. So here’s the plan. A special one off gig to take place on 28th June 2028… ‘Last Bastion 50’ (venue TBD… The White Hart still exists but may be a tad small!). Gary and Richard come together once again (The Skids are very active on the live scene at the moment) to recreate that gig 50 years ago…. albeit without the fighting (I don’t think that the ‘Ealing Skins’ are much of a force to be recognised these days). Order of appearance to be decided by the toss of a coin. I think it’s a sure-fire winner! Well as I said I can dream...

Can You Help?

 

I have just looked through the list of Numan recordings that I have still to post and it runs to about 125. That's OK, but there is obviously far more out there from a career spanning 49 years, 1000+ gigs and counting. If you have gigs that I don't have listed and would like to contribute, please contact me. Preference would be to have files in a lossless format.

Once again I will stress that the 'Listen To The Sirens' site does not make any money from the unofficial material posted. No do I buy or sell recordings. I am just a fan who has had a long standing thing for those old bootleg cassettes.... when the official releases just weren't enough!

The Dome Brighton 3rd June 2012

 Here's something that I posted on my other music blog back in 2012 when I was accompanied to the Dome in Brighton by my son, Rudi, then aged 14.

This was something of an anniversary gig for me. The last time I saw Gary Numan in Brighton was in 1984 at the same venue on the 'Berserker' tour. On that night, as tonight, he opened the set with the same 'Berserker' and just for a moment I am left standing, thinking what on earth happened to the intervening 28 years!! One difference is standing to my left in the form of my son Rudi, who at 14 is just one year younger than when I was here in '84.

The Dome is slightly different nowadays. In 1984 it was mostly seated, as well as I remember after taking a backward tumble during the opening song as the cinema style seat closed up on me!

Tonight I was here mainly to see some old friends and for Rudi's sake. He is now into the industrial music scene and this is the general direction that Numan has moved in over the last 10 years or so.

High points of the evening for me were 'That's Too Bad' and 'Bombers' (regular visitors to this blog will appreciate that early Tubeway Army mean a lot to me).

'That's Too Bad'

The Dome Brighton 3rd June 2012

A very poignant moment came with a rendition of 'Love Needs No Disguise' (a Dramatis track for which Numan guested on vocals) which was dedicated to Ced Sharpley, Gary's long standing drummer, who suffered a fatal heart attack recently. For this tribute, another couple of early Numan stalwarts, namely Rrussell Bell and Chris Payne, were invited onto the stage.... yet more echoes of 1984. They were later to return to the stage for 'Are Friends Electric?' and thus the evening drew to a close.

'Love Needs No Disguise'

The Dome Brighton 3rd June 2012

Once again, since the mid-90's (when Numan massively reassessed his career  and managed to get it back on track) I left the gig reminded of what a pioneering musician he was both musically and visually.

'Absolution'

The Dome Brighton 3rd June 2012

Oxford Academy 13th March 2008

 

With the brilliant punk rock outfit Tubeway Army reinvented with new musicians and a completely new sound by virtue of a chance encounter with a hired synthesizer in Cambridge Studios, Gary Numan started to change the post punk musical landscape. Setting his earlier sci-fi tinged writings to music with 'Replicas' he took the listener into the dark and sinister, dystopian place within his imagination. This was a world occupied by thought police, AI prostitutes and rapists, somewhere between where Orwell's '1984' and Dick's 'Bladerunner' (a film adaptation of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) meet.

FLAC: http://we.tl/QUYHC5sGsw

Artwork: http://we.tl/gKrfLxHiGK

01. Replicas
02. Me! I Disconnect From You
03. Do You Need The Service?
04. Praying To The Aliens
05. We Have A Technical
06. I Nearly Married A Human
07. Down In The Park
08. The Crazies

01. When The Machines Rock
02. Only A Downstat
03. The Machman
04. It Must Have Been Years
05. We Are So Fragile
06. You Are In My Vision
07. Are 'Friends' Electric?
08. Band Offstage
09. Cars
10. Everyday I Die
11. A Prayer For The Unborn

Rrussel Bell and Billy Currie soundcheck in Guildford

The Touring Principle 1979