Missing In Action (UK Music Press 1994)

This piece that appeared in a UK monthly music publication, I cannot remember which now kind of sums up the situation as it existed in 1994. A man at the bottom yet looking up.

Gary Numan The Marquee London 28th October 1993

 

Living in Kilburn in 1993 I was a regular visitor to the West End of London. By this point, the famed Marquee Club had relocated from Wardour Street to Charing Cross Road. It was a habit of mine when passing the venue to nip in to check out who was coming up to play. The music press would only carry information a week in advance. On this occasion in Mid October I was surprised to see flyers for Numan in the foyer that were advertising a gig at the end of the month.

I picked up some flyers (wish I could locate them today!) but honestly didn’t give it much further thought. By ’93, such was my dissolution with Gary’s musical direction of the past couple of years that not even the prospect of seeing him in such an intimate setting in a legendary London venue was sufficient to get me through the door. In my defence , it later transpired that Gary had a similar opinion of his musical output on 1993 as I did!

Needless to say, having made this decision not to go, two weeks later I was kicking myself as news filtered back to me in the days after the gig that this really had been something different and a gig I should have made the effort to attend.

 

Gary it would appear had become reconciled with his own back catalogue. Material was played that night that had not seen the light of day for fifteen years and in some cases never* (* I could be wrong on this statement but can’t be arsed to check, but you get the point). With hindsight, this was a watershed gig. Whether fully knowing or not (and here I understand that Gemma had some persuasive input here) this new found relationship with old Tubeway Army material took him back to fundamentals, the essence of Gary Numan as an artist you could say. Going forward he would stop trying to pre-empt what the new record buying public wanted to hear, Prince covers, Brit-funk or whatever. Instead, he would take that original sound back to the fan-base. 

With the ‘Radial Pair’ soundtrack and ‘Human’ already taking him back to experimental musical scoring his career was about to get an unexpected second wind!

If a revamp of the live set was the first step on the road to musical recovery and credibility, the release of ‘Sacrifice’ the following year was the crucial second step. Still, even then I bypassed this release. It was only when a friend of mine, Angela, sent me a cassette recording of the album that I got to hear it. She knew that whilst my interest in Numan had waned over a number of years ‘Sacrifice’ had enough of the elements that made me a fan in the first place to possibly draw me back in. She was right. It was evident from a first listen that the Numan camp had thought long and hard about how to drag our man’s faltering career out of the doldrums.

It wasn’t just the moody soundtrack quality of the material either. The visuals were back on track as well. The album artwork gave more than a superficial nod to more prosperous times. Black was back in vogue (always a positive for me) and the album cover with the high contrast imagery brought the ‘Telekon’ era strongly to mind.

As vital as ‘Sacrifice’ undoubtedly was careers rarely pivot on one album alone. 1995 also saw something of a musical seachange in terms of new music. Enter ‘Brit Pop’, a loosely associated scene that once again celebrated guitar bands. Not as seismic as punk but certainly something in the right direction and very welcome for all that. Many of the musicians in the ‘Brit Pop’ vanguard were of an age that meant that they would have grown up listening to acts like Numan. Consequently, they respected elements of punk and new wave that they incorporated into their own music. Bands like Elastica and Blur commanded many column inches every week in the then still powerful music press in the UK. To their credit they were very forthcoming about where they drew their own musical ideas from and the name Gary Numan was often mentioned. His name was appearing in the press for the first time in years, and remember first time around the music press were rarely supportive of him and his music. This press attention did him no harm at all. Neither did a compilation album called ‘Random’ that features many of the new bands covering Numan songs.

The momentum was sustained, helped by the emergence of summer festivals that brought Gary Numan to the ears of a new younger audience who would not otherwise our ‘80’s wonder kid. 

Thanks to the original Dime Uploader (Harvey1).

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-exWF1dxvRL

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-CY4la6c8Dh

01. Intro
02. Machine And Soul
03. Outland
04. Me! I Disconnect From You
05. We Are So Fragile
06. Respect
07. Shame
08. Films
09. Down In The Park
10. My World Storm
11. The Machman

01. Noise Noise
02. Cars
03. It Must Have Been Years
04. That's Too Bad
05. Remind Me To Smile
06. I'm An Agent
07. Are 'Friends' Electric ?
08. Jo The Waiter
09. I Don't Believe
10. Bombers
11. We Are Glass

Gary Numan Electric Ballroom Camden London 15th April 2023

 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-O3eqHjLiz1

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-qwRtm7ubbm

Gary Numan Electric Ballroom Camden London 14th April 2023

 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-CmMYuhdeov

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-sm4f23c6J8

Gary Numan Electric Ballroom Camden London 13th April 2023

 

OK, so here is the first offering, gig number 998. Many thanks for Chatts for this share and the following two. Much appreciated!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-EuOBSPhbny

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VPoRU99kL1

Electric Ballroom Nos 998, 999 And 1000

 

Gary Numan reached a significant milestone recently with his 998th, 999th and 1000th gig. At first I didn't bother obtaining tickets. If I am completely honest, the 'industrial' Numan sound that he has  developed over the past 20 years or so now is not what equates to Numan for me so much. That is of course a completely personal view point as an acolyte of the '78 to '80 era material. That said, I fully appreciate the appeal of the revamped Numan and I for one could not be happier for the man. Anyway, I digress.

I took a ticket off of a friend who in the event could not attend. This was for the Thursday night (gig number 998) and I am glad that I did. I have been seeing gigs at the Electric Ballroom in Camden since the mid 1980's and it is a great medium sized venue. A strange choice for marking such a milestone, but given the fact that possibly the bigger event for Dad at least was the fact that his daughter was supporting. As such, the Ballroom offered her the opportunity to play to a supportive, good size audience without shattering the girl's nerves!

This gig certainly had better prospects for enjoyment than the last one that I saw Numan play at the venue in 1991. That was a gig very reflective of his years in the musical doldrums!

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the venue was heaving such that I struggled to find a good vantage point, even upstairs, not being fussed to fight my way through to the front. The gig though was very enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, I like much of the new material, but I loved 'That's Too Bad' and 'My Shadow in Vain' more!!

The following posts will include recordings of all three gigs.

In Your Face 2011 SHOWstudio DVD

 

Now, in contrast to the Berserker material, the songs that featured on the 'Dead Son Rising' album are for me very strong. Here is a short DVD that I put together back in 2011.

DVD Iso: https://we.tl/t-gn6Ov1tGza

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-DFz0188nvb

Edinburgh Playhouse 2nd December 1984

 

One from the Berserker tour in late 1984. I saw him in Brighton the following week at the Dome. As I remember, I loved the album at the time but with time, and an shifting in musical taste I would par the album down to a handful of good tracks and several mediocre ones. However, as I said this is a personal opinion based on my own musical taste. The title track, 'Cold Warning' and 'A Child With The Ghost' stand out whereas 'This Is New Love', 'Pump It Up' and 'The Hunter' are not so strong. At the time I remember some descent voiced regarding the inclusion of female vocalists. I'm not so sure that it worked so well myself. 

Berserker was not a commercial success, being the first Numan album to peak outside of the UK top 30. Gary was suffering from an ailment shared with many of the bands that emerged from the punk/new wave scene of the late 1970's. Music had moved on and become rather safe. Many of the acts that were enjoying chart success were puerile and utterly lacking in substance. In this environment Gary and many of his contemporaries struggled to stay relevant to a record buying public whose taste had shifted. 

Anyway enough of my views on the subject. Please enjoy the recording. Thanks to the original Dime uploader. 

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Ps3z2VjiBx

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ml2hWA54i7

01. Intro/Berserker

02. Metal

03. Me I Disconnect From You

04. Remind Me To Smile

05. Sister Surprise

06. Music For Chameleons

07. The Iceman Comes

08. Cold Warning

09. Down In The Park

10. This Prison Moon

01. I Die:You Die

02. My Dying Machine

03. Cars

04. We Take Mystery (To Bed)

05. We Are Glass

06. This Is New Love

07. My Shadow In Vain

08. Are ‘Friends’ Electric?