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
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