So, the long wait was over. Gary Numan back on Britain's premier pop music show with a current single that wasn't a Cars re-release. Alright, it was on the TotP2 version of the programme, not the prime time BBC1 original and the songs He did were actually old ones anyway, but it still felt like a bit of an event, so, I booked a half hour off work and got home early so that I could watch it. The big question is - should I have bothered?
The first song of the show was a live version of "Are 'Friends' Electric?", apparently at the request [or possibly demand] of the show's makers and no doubt because of the recent Number One hit from Sugababes which used the music from it. After a bad performance of "AFE" on Graham Norton's show recently, I was hoping for a much improved version. Unfortunately, I was to be disappointed. His voice was not very clear, the keyboards were SO out of tune that at times I was convinced that this must be the new "Les Dawson Mix". I mean honestly, you'd think the band could do better after all these years. The mix of the entire track was done in a way that I believe takes away what made the song so special in the first place. Personally, I don't want to hear a "grunged up" version that sounds more like His newer albums. I like the song with its synths being as dominant as they are on the Replicas album. A few years ago, I would have been embarrassed by this performance and would probably have tried to make excuses. Nowadays I just laugh and wonder what went wrong.
"Rip", the last song of the show, came in a lot better in my opinion, despite the fact that I never rated it as one of his better songs. It was performed better without any obvious cock-ups and was a lot more enjoyable to watch. I wished that they had showed that one first because I could imagine a lot of viewers switching off rather than watch another one of His poor efforts. I am totally unconvinced that He actually sings the chorus part of the track however. This is partly because it is so clear and close to the recorded version and partly because half the time He was miles away from the microphone!
It's good that Steve Wright now acknowledges how good Numan always was, even after years of slagging Him off... Never one to jump on the bandwagon that man eh? Twit. [Pronounced with a very heavy Midlands accent, y'know, Birmingham or Wolverhampton - no offence to people from those areas!]