Tubeway Days Nell's West Kensington London 21st October 2023

 

In my 43 year gigging career, I have in the main avoided tribute bands, although I acknowledge that such bands are a relatively recent phenomena. That said I did go and see a Jam tribute band at the Marquee in the early 1990's. They were called The Jamm and they harked from Boston, all the more surprising then that when they spoke from the stage it was a London accent that the audience heard, what's more they referred to each other as Paul, Bruce and Rick! Now my rationale for going to see such a band was that unfortunately I never got to see the bone fide Jam live, so at that time it was the closest that I could ever get to that experience (Weller in the early 1990's was assiduously avoiding anything even vaguely associated with his former band and From The Jam were some years down the road). So why then go and see a Gary Numan tribute band when Numan is still actively gigging. In fact I along with many in the small stage area of Nell's were at Gary's acoustic gig across London just five days before. The reason is that for reasons that I fully understand Gary Numan does not want to recreate the artistry of his earliest days. Even when he did the album tours of Telekon, Replicas and The Pleasure Principle in 2006, 2008 and 2009 respectively (and then repeated in a trio of gigs in London) it was different. No musician really wants to be seen to try to create something from their past in forensic detail. A tribute band has no such artistic dilemmas, they are free to play with the past as it is not their own.

So, on this night, Tubeway Days set out to recreate a date from the 'Touring Principle' with a faithful adherence to the set, the look and most importantly the sound of Numan's stage show as it was back in that first tour in 1979. In contract with the aforementioned Jamm, aside from clothes (ties, shirts and boots etc.) the band do not try to pass themselves off as Gary's then band. Only Chris Fielding, a.k.a. Gary Numan, has adopted the total look and I guess as the focal point of the band, that's OK... he makes no play to be Gary Numan on stage despite the look and the stage movements if you get what I mean.

The set looked great, given how scaled down from the original that it had to be and the sound that the band created could have been lifted directly from 'Living Ornaments '79' which was indeed the intention. Sadly I missed the OMD tribute act that would have completed the time travelling illusion.

With the original set completed the audience were treated to a handful of additional songs that were contemporary with Tubeway Army's 1978/1979 discography. They ended with a favourite of mine,  'Listen To The Sirens' which bowled me over!

So, as a huge fan of Tubeway Army I have heard more Tubeway Army (first incarnation) played live in one week than in 40 years: 

The Life Machine

Every Day I Die

Crime Of Passion

Jo The Waiter

Something's In The House

Bombers

The Dream Police

My Shadow In Vain

Are You Real?

Listen To The Sirens

Wow!