Numan News 2002

August 18th, 2002

Gary Numan is set to appear on Top Of The Pops2 this coming Wednesday, 21st August. In a session recorded some weeks ago, he played live versions of Are 'Friends' Electric? (at the request of the show, according to Him) and the single that was out at the time, Rip.
Apart from the recent showing of the video of I Die : You Die, this will be the first time he has been on TOTP with anything other than Cars since... wait for it... 1986!!! That time it was I Can't Stop and if my memory serves me correctly (which would make a pleasant change), none of his single releases have been on since then. Of course, Cars was on in 1987 and again in 1996 (an appearance which always makes me laugh) but I don't remember anything other than that. No More Lies was played on ITV's short lifespan TOTP wannabe which I think was called the Roxy in 1988 and He has of course been on other shows many times since, but this is the closest he has come to having new stuff played on a well known chart based programme. Alright, they do concentrate on old chart stuff rather than what is around at the moment, but it's good all the same. It's a bit of a shame that even the "new" song that he is singing is over two years old itself...

In a recent NuWorld update, Gary says that Artful Records want His new album ready for May 2003. HAAH! Good luck with that one! They obviously don't understand the way He likes to work these days, what with all the new studio equipment that He constantly seems to buy and fit without ever producing anything with, the all important mouse mats, learning how to do DVDs etc., He really can't be expected to find time to fit in what He actually gets paid for can He?
He reckons it would be the shortest time He has had to do an album since The Pleasure Principle. Don't know why He says that. After all, He used to have an album out every year for ages. It's getting on for two years since His last studio album was released, so it appears that if He is saying that this is the shortest time, then He must have absolutely nothing at the moment. It's one thing taking a long time to produce an album - many other bands also do this - it's another to produce it very quickly at the proverbial last minute after doing nothing for two years. Mind you, who am I to criticise? I still haven't redecorated our bathroom!

June 26th, 2002

Since the last update on here quite a lot of stuff has been going on, the most important of which has been that readers of AFE have been able to vote what they think of Numanarchy In The UK. You can find out more about this on the opinions page.
Another minor point of interest from the last three months has been Gary Numan reaching the top of the UK singles chart via a rather splendid reworking of his 1979 classic "Are 'Friends' Electric?" by The Sugababes. In actual fact, it had already been around for some time as a bootleg by some other band but I didn't hear that version so couldn't possibly comment.
This is the third time in as many years that someone has used a sample from a Numan song in a track that has become a top ten hit. To be honest, this is the first one that I have actually liked. Arnold Van Driver's "Koochy" was, in my opinion, complete rubbish, using as it did about six notes from "Cars" in a loop.
Last year, Basement Jaxx did something a lot more interesting when samples of "M.E." and a rather obscure bit of "This Wreckage" (mail me if you spotted it first time round!) helped their song "Where's Your Head At?" storm the chart. Still wasn't anything that I would part with any money for though.
With this in mind, I hadn't been expecting anything good about this "Freak Like Me" track. The thought that it was being done by a "girl-band" didn't do much to enthuse me either. The first time I heard it I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. It uses much more than a sample of the original, almost the full thing except for the 7.4 bits which I suppose most people would call the choruses.
The lyrics are entirely different and are taken from a song by someone else but I think it all fits together extremely well and is the first time I have heard a successful attempt at mixing Numan music with a type that is so different from his own. The video is also very good with the three girls being sort of vampires preying on people in nightclubs and in dark alleyways...
A bit of nostalgia here. The "Freak Like Me" single was number one in the chart on May 4th - exactly 23 years since "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was originally released.

Graham Norton

Following the single going straight to the top of the chart in it's first week of release - a novelty for Numan but sadly all too common these days - lots of interest built up around Gary. This led to him getting a guest appearance on the Graham Norton Show, a nightly chat show on Channel Four in the UK. It was here that Gary didn't really do himself any favours... As is becoming a bit of a habit with him, he went on and put down his early work and said it wasn't very good whilst trying to promote a new compilation album of old stuff! DOH!
He followed this by doing, quite simply, the absolute worst live version of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" that I have ever heard. That was truly diabolical. In his defence, someone did mention on the AFENET bulletin board that they were at the show and it sounded very good there, so maybe it was something to do with post production. His voice did sound awful though. I would NEVER have bought anything by him ever if he had sounded that bad.

The Exposure compilation album was released shortly after this and it is probably the only time I have seen his product in that many different shops (Asda, Woolworths, WHSmiths etc.) since 1980. I haven't bought it so I can't comment on the remixed tracks that are included.
Rip is being released as a CD single in early July and will be available as two formats, one having the video which has done so well on the digital TV music station Kerrang! It was the number one most requested video for a number of weeks and is apparently still in their top ten. Can't think why as it isn't a particularly good video at all, still, each to their own.

March 26th, 2002

Oh what an anniversary present! Since doing the update below, there has been another update on NuWorld and he lets rip at fans who express less favourable opinions about him. This is certainly not the Gary Numan that I have been a fan of for so many years. If anyone missed the comments he made, there is the bulk of them with added comments from myself on the Numan's Numanarchy Day Rant page. It gives a great look at Numan from a different perspective...

March 26th, 2002

Well there's quite a bit I haven't covered that has gone on in the past 9 months or so... There has been his Men & Motors show, the one off show, his split with Eagle Records, new contracts on the horizon, candklemaking, bread baking and stolen caravans - all very interesting I'm sure, but quite honestly, I have been much too busy to comment on any of that. First I got a new motherboard and processor, then I got a new graphic card, then a new sound card and that was only 'cos my old one didn't fit in the new board and then - Oh sorry, I'm beginning to sound like I'm making up excuses aren't I?

Gary announced a "Weekender" of shows a few months ago, one in Manchester and one in London, which are due to take place the first weekend in April. I didn't get tickets on the back of his statements on Nu-World that he would do new stuff 'cos I'd heard all that before. Low and behold, with under a month to go, he said he had been having problems with his studio and on and on and on and on and on - so now it seems highly unlikely that he will do anything different. What a shocker, eh? Comment on the AFENET UBB has been less than favourable to say the least but if anyone feels the need of a concert fix, I'm sure there will be one or two tickets still available at the usual outlets.

June 2nd, 2001

RIP VIDEO & US TOUR
Well, Gary has been on tour in the USA and a couple of dates in Canada and seems to have gone down reasonably well judging by the limited news that has been made available about it. Unfortunately, there has not been any official news on the NuWorld site since mid-April.
Apparently, Gary has also done a video for the song Rip, however, it isn't clear at the moment whether the song will be released as a single in the UK or US. Nobody I know of has seen the video on TV yet even though copies have supposedly been made available to all the MTV and VH1 channels at least in the UK. Hopefully, if it does come out as a CD single, Gary and Eagle will get their combined acts together and include the video as a track on it as so many other artists do these days. That way, we would at least have the opportunity to see it. In fact, I still have never seen Dominion Day on TV...

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