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....

Electro/Indie passion.....

Ever since I can remember, music has been an absorbing, all-consuming passion and it has punctuated all my memories, I have tried to walk away from it sometimes but it always sucks me back in!!!.....when I was very young, Scott Walker and Beethoven notably, permeated the walls of my parents house, then when I acquired my own means in my teens, of playing music, it was under-the-covers covert listening to Radio Luxembourg etc and of course the inimitable and wonderful John Peel on Radio 1.....like it was & is for so many others growing up in the late 70's/80's era, Peel well and truly sowed the seeds of what has become pretty much, my life long love affair with electronic and indie/alternative music in particular.

This blog is intended not just to be a retrospective of those artists who I feel have contributed (in my 'dark-centric' opinion!) so much to these genres but to highlight the new and emerging talent...so let's light the fuse...............