The 2002 Telly Tour

With all the interest generated by the Sugababes version of "Are 'Friends' Electric?" came a number of television appearances by Gary. The V.Graham Norton Show had him on after he had got back to the UK after his short holiday in Mexico. In that interview, he seemed a little out of place in some way. It may have been because he had only been back from a long flight the day before and had gone straight to the studio with his band to work on the version of the track that they would perform at the end of the show or just because Gary was a bit nervous about the show itself. It is a show that doesn't really take itself too seriously and sometimes brings up embarrasing things from its guests past - where Gary is concerned, there would have been plenty to go at there!
Anyway, he didn't really give a good impression, not knowing when his album was due out, putting his old stuff down (again) whilst trying to promote an album full of old stuff. When the second guest, Terry Venables, came on and he and Graham Norton started talking about daft wigs, you could almost see Gary squirming in his seat as if he was expecting something...

On 27th June, the digital TV station, Sky News Active, ran an interview with Gary on a repeating loop for apparently the whole day. It seemed to have been recorded in a park in a city, with the public going about there day to day business while the woman interviewed him on a park bench. Surprisingly, Gary seemed much more at ease with this arrangement and gave some really good, intelligent responses to a better range of questions. There were clips from his videos for "Rip", "Call Out The Dogs" and the Dream Corrosion live video as well as bits of the Sugababes.
He spoke about being influential and being influenced himself by lots of kinds of music, being dropped by Eagle Records and how it has become a regular thing for him to lose record deals, and how pleased he is that "Rip" had become so popular with Kerrang! viewers.

On 7th July, the BBC show "Heaven And Earth" showed an interview recorded at Gary's house. Again, he came across very well, appearing much more comfortable. Interviewer Alice Beer asked him about his refound popularity, his struggles through the 1980s and '90s, his near death experiences in his flying exploits and whether this made him rethink his view on religion or not. They also talked about his love for his wife, Gemma, the sad loss of their unborn child and the song that was written about it, "A Prayer For The Unborn". Gary had to explain that he wasn't really praying at all, but having a go at religion. She had obviously not read the lyrics or heard the track!
Of course, the show is loosely based around religion so it was inevitable that it would be brought up, but Gary did not alter his obvious no-God feelings just to cater for the programme, which I think is a good thing. It would have been awful if he had come on and tried to compromise his belief/non-belief just to try to fit in with the show.

On the whole, the last couple of weeks have seen very good Numan appearances and I can't help but wonder whether he has been getting a bit of help with how to present himself in interviews. I don't mean that as a slur on him, just an observation. For the past couple of years, when he has been on TV he has always seemed to put himself down in some way. Recently he has still been rather humble, but has been a lot more interesting and I am happy about that. It reminds me of years ago when I used to look forward to the next time he would be on with enthusiasm rather than apprehension. After all, if he puts himself down, does he not also put down his fans in the process? I hope this improvement continues.