Gary Numan at Manchester Academy

20th September 2003

This was the first Gary Numan concert that I had attended since the "Pure Tour" in February 2001. That makes it the biggest gap between concerts for me since I started going to see Him on the "Warriors Tour" way back in 1983. I have by my own admission become less interested at His shows over the last ten years or so and so have cut down drastically on the number of concerts and the distances that I am prepared to travel to see Him.

This does not mean that I was about to pre-judge the show in any way. Indeed, I was quite looking forward to it on the whole, with a few reservations in the back of my mind (small as it is). The "Exile Tour" (1997) I found rather boring, but the last two shows I went to were better, particularly the November 1999 one, also at the Manchester Academy. There was also the fact that the date of the show had a certain significance. It was 24 years ago to the day that Numan did His first major concert, "The Touring Principle", it was almost exactly 20 years since I first went to Manchester Apollo to see "Warriors", and it was almost 10 years since my favourite tour and concert ever, the "Dream Corrosion Tour", in particular, its final night at Hammersmith.

I remember Gary Numan announcing that there would be some new songs ready for this show, and this also added interest for me - after all, it's been over three years since His last effort. New songs at shows has been something of a raging debate in recent years on the excellent AFENET forum, with opinion divided about whether new songs are needed at concerts. I have a tendancy to fall into the category of wanting to hear new stuff, but this could well be my own fault for going to see Him in concert almost 100 times! Things tend to get a little over-familiar when you see/hear them so much.

Anyway, I suppose I'd better get on with the review before you both fall asleep...

As is rather too often the case with Numan shows, it was raining. Now I know that you can't blame Gary for that (unless it was His singing that caused it), but it just puts me on a downer before the thing even starts! Well, we got to the venue and joined the queue. Shortly after this, some blokes came out and made everyone move back for some unknown reason. We joked at the time that maybe Gemma (Gary's heavily pregnant wife) was trying to get into the building, but more of that later. We did eventually get inside and managed to get close to the front, albeit slightly further to one side of the stage than I would have preferred.

The first act of the evening was (I think) a four piece from Manchester, as opposed to the second act which was of course a hair piece from London. Didn't catch what they were called, but they weren't too bad as support bands go. I've certainly stood through a lot worse. The drummer was a bit of a head case who seemed to want to fight the audience for some reason. He even threw some cans into the crowd at one point. Maybe he was related to Liam and Noel?

It was getting on for about 9:15pm when the lights finally went down and the Numan intro track started up. It was a pretty damn loud version of "Hybrid" which played as the band took to the stage one by one, to be followed after what seemed like an age by the man Himself, Gary Numan. The crowd went wild as He strutted on and it reminded me a lot of years gone by when audiences seemed a lot more enthusiastic.

The first song proper was apparently "Pure" but Gary seemed as if He had forgotten the words as we couldn't hear Him. Part way through the song we realised it was actually a hybrid of "Pure" and the remixed version of "Friends", using the verses of the latter with the chorus of the former. It was a very loud, very powerful song. We could feel our bodies being moved by the pressure changes generated by the speakers. It actually made your hair shake. Still couldn't quite make out His singing though.

The second song was "Films", which was again belted out with some force. The singing on this seemed better, but that could be to do with its more familiar and rather limited lyrical content.

"Rip" followed, and unfortunately, it was back to wondering whether or not Gary's microphone was actually working. The funny thing about some of these "newer" songs is the way that you can't hear what Gary is saying for most of the track, despite Him being in close contact with the microphone and then the strong chorus comes along and hey presto! you can hear Him as clear as a bell, even though during these parts He is about three or four feet away from the mic...

Next up was "Metal". Aaaahaaaah! That's where you're wrong! It was actually "Moral" done in the new style, which was a nice surprise and a pleasant change.

Now, try as I might, I don't have a perfect memory, and can't say with any certainty the order of the following tracks. There may even be one or two that I miss, so I apologise for that. Written complaints should be sent the University of Manchester, as it's their fault for filling my head with loads of useless degree studies. As another famous bald man once said, "whenever I learn something new it pushes other stuff out of my brain".

Another surprise soon after this was "The Aircrash Bureau". I haven't been at a concert where this has been performed before and it was a real treat. Not that I think it's one of His best songs, just that it made a change. It was a powerful version and I think benefited from having some real bass guitar on it.

"Dark" came along, which I was glad about because I really like that song. Sadly, it suffered from poor realisation of singing again.

"Down In The Park" sneaked in there somewhere. Can't really say much about this one. It used to be a favourite but now I find it incredibly tedious.

"My Jesus" had the same old lack of voice treatment.

After about half an hour, Gary made a slight apology for interrupting the show before announcing something about being at casualty or having word from casualty and "I'm a f***ing Dad!". This was met with a great reaction from the audience and Gary looked really happy. Good luck to both Him and Gemma - and indeed to the baby, who's gonna need all the luck it can get with a name like "Raven"! Do they think they're in a Hammer Horror or something?

Numan was joined on stage by Rico to perform their recent hit single "Crazier". I don't know why really as you couldn't hear either of them sing apart from the choruses. It looked good though, especially with loads of guitars on stage.

Another great surprise came in the shape of "Complex". Although no violin/violas were present, it was good that this track resembled its original structure rather than being "grunged up" to fit in with the newer stuff. Some of the synth sounds were just excellent, although, unless it was planned to be that way, I did detect some cock-ups on the synth lines - not that I could play it any better of course, but them again I'm not a professional musician... I did still enjoy it though. I thought it would be one that might never get played again but I was wrong, as I sometimes am.

It was difficult to hear exactly what Gary said, but it was something similar to "this is the one new song, so make the most of it", just before He played His latest song. Well, I say song, assuming that He did actually sing in it at some point. I'm very much afraid that this is perhaps the biggest criticism of the whole night. The first and only new track in three years sounded like a "Pure" reject with half mumbled vocals and no discernable tune. If He brought out an album sounding like that any time soon it would definitely be His least impressive ever. With the comment before He played it, He seemed to be having a go at those fans who have complained in the past about the lack of new material, and I have to wonder whether He slung in an unfinished idea just to please them or whether He played a joke on everyone by including something so bad just so that no-one could say there was nothing new again.

"I Can't Breathe" was another moment when we didn't know if He was bothering to sing at all, apart from the bits where He was miles from the mic and you could hear Him perfectly!

In my opinion, one of the better remixes from the recent "Hybrid" album was the new version of "Bleed", so I was quite pleased when He did this one - until it came to the excellent shouting chorus when He didn't! Tons of thrash guitar, loads of attitude and overflowing with guitarists on stage it certainly was, but the new twist to the song was all but absent with the lack of vocals.

The heavy synths made a comeback in the remix of "A Prayer For The Unborn". I liked this version of it because of the noises but I think I like the original better - not that I'm criticizing it.

To say this was an evening of many surprises could be a bit of an understatement. I was astonished when the opening notes of "My Breathing" creeped out of the sound system. I have always loved this track but with Gary's apparent contempt for His "middle-years", I honestly never thought I would hear it at a concert again. I'm really glad that I did. One thing would have made it even better... T.J. Davis doing the backing vocals. Oh how I miss the good old days!

Gary and the band left the stage for a short time after this before returning for the encore. Another good track from the "Hybrid" album, "Ancients", was the first of four songs. Do like this track. Although co-written with someone else (Andy Gray I seem to recall), the song seems to have that distinctive Numan feel to it.

Of course, you can't have it all your own way, and sure enough things took a turn for the worse in the abominable shape of "Absolution". If Gary Numan was a cartoon show, this song would be His "worst episode ever".

Remind me to write to Mr Keating to agree with him that life is just like a rollercoaster. In proof of this, after the atrocity of the last track came the sorely missed "My Shadow In Vain", albeit in a slowed down version. Some songs I just never get sick of.

Now for those of you who have been paying attention, you'll have realised that there is only one song left to go and there have been two rather glaring omissions from the glittering musical career of the enigma that is Gary Numan. His love/hate relationship with His most famous track is an awkward one. He has said that although "Cars" did a lot of good for Him, it has also become something that could be the only thing that people remember Him for. They won't after this show - He didn't do it!

The final song of the evening was His first hit and number one single "Are 'Friends' Electric?". The first song that got me into buying music and a song that remains to this day one of my favourite of all time. My problem is that when He does it live, it barely resembles its original glory. It just doesn't do it for me as a thrashy, grungy, guitar-bashing track. And he didn't even get the words right, what little of them you could hear.

It's strange that I should now say that i enjoyed the show isn't it?
I can't really explain why. It could be that I hadn't been for so long, or the amount of songs I hadn't heard live before or for a long time. He seemed to put a bit more effort into His performance (visually at least) than He has in recent years. Maybe that had more to do with all the cameras that were recording the event for a possible DVD release - that's assuming that DVD is still a current format by the time He gets around to doing it of course.

Perhaps it is just because I have been a fan of Numan for such a long time that I find something to like even when there are obvious problems. In all honesty, the sound was absolutely appalling and for an artist of His experience this is unforgivable. There has been much said about poor sound at a lot of His shows over the last few years, but it is usually dismissed without ever being sorted out. People are called "Armchair Experts" or "No Life Bitchers", but at the end of the day, what is the point of going to a concert if you can't hear the artist singing? If it had been any other artist, I seriously doubt that I would want to go to see them again.

However, I must say full marks to Gary for doing the show when His wife had recently had their baby, especially after their unhappy experience of a few years ago. I have no interest in having children myself but I can imagine that if I did and our baby had just been born that I would probably want some time off work.