Friday 29 June 2012

it's all about Gary....

Now I'm not into the order of ABC (although I do have a penchant for a gold lame jacket a la Martin Fry but that is another story.....) so I will start with the letter G........for Gary....Numan. There is no doubt that GN is an absolute electronic pioneer, who paved the way for many during the 80's and onwards.  I remember being totally entranced by his Tubeway Army TOTP appearance of 'Are Friends Electric', he was so perfectly packaged and a breath of fresh air, and subsequently fell in love with his synth driven hooks.

Recently I went Back to the Future again, and me and my 'electric' friend Andrew, caught GN on his latest 'Machine Music' tour in Bristol, efficiently supported by Officers.  Concentrating on his key singles, GN has definitely not stood still in some electronic 80's time capsule, but has become something of a consummate industrial style rock god, the synths are still very much there but used to enhance the overall edge of his sound.


GN turned up the heat (quite literally - we were surrounded by sweating Numanoids in past tour T shirts - Gary apparently had asked for the air-con to be turned right down in the O2 so that the dry ice machine could do its thing and GN's chief sidekick Ade Fenton also later commented that the stage had become an ice-rink, anyway I digress...) with fine, driven performances of 'Berserker', 'Metal', 'Bombers', 'This Wreckage' et al,  alongside newer material such as 'The Fall' and one of my personal fave's of the night 'In a Dark Place' off of the Jagged album.  There was overwhelming rapture for a faithful version of 'I Die You Die' and the appearances of old bandmates rRussell Bell & Chris Payne, finally culminating with encore crowd-pleasers 'Cars' and a wonderfully stripped back 'Are Friends Electric' and with that Gary & his cohorts disappear into the Bristol night air.  Thank you Gary, it was a joy to watch....

1 comment:

  1. Saw him live for a second time when he played Perth last year. Excellent show.

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