GARY NUMAN
Australian Tour March 2009
In 2009 Gary Numan will bring his full UK light show and electrifying live performance to Australia playing songs from his entire career from ‘Replicas’, ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Telekon’ through to ‘Pure and Jagged’. It will be only his second ever tour of Australia, his first being way back in May 1980, but as anyone who has seen him live recently will attest, it may be 30 years on but he’s got more energy than bands half his age and he is still at his elemental and exploratory best, revitalized and recaptured, and importantly, rewriting his reborn future.
Crafting seminal tracks like “Are ‘Friends’ Electric”? and “Cars”, Gary Numan ushered in a new era. His unique style captivated and inspired a legion of Numanoids. The sound of Gary Numan might not have been as he spent the early part of 1970’s absorbed by the energy of punk music. It was only by accident that Numan stumbled upon his electronic sound following a chance encounter with a Mini Moog synthesizer left behind in a studio. The result of this would not only drastically change the sound of his band Tubeway Army but also have ramifications still being felt through electronic music to this day.
In 1979 Tubeway Army released ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric’? which topped the U.K charts and sent their Replicas album to number 1? The album also featured ‘Down in the Park’, now covered by the Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson. The release of ‘The Pleasure Principle’ in late 1979 marked the first actual album release by Gary Numan and spawned the international hit “Cars”. The release of the ‘Telekon’ album in 1980 is considered the third of the Holy Trinity creating a “world populated with devotees as diverse as Basement Jaxx and Front 242” (Music OMH)
The weight of Gary Numan’s pioneering sounds are still felt today and his work continues to influence contemporary artists with Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, Fear Factory and many, many more all citing Numan as a huge inspiration. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor went even further and admitted to listening to ‘Telekon’ every day while recording his debut, ‘Pretty Hate Machine’.
Elsewhere his ground breaking electronic sound has been recognized by artists as diverse as the Basement Jaxx (“Where’s Your Head At?” samples “M.E”), Sugarbabes (“Freak like Me” samples “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?”), Armand Van Helden (“Koochy” samples “Cars”) and Plump DJs (Numan contributed the vocals for their track “Pray for You”). He has even recently been ‘immortalized’, by The Mighty Boosh, with constant references to his work and even some cameo appearances by the man himself reiterating how his pioneering sound and vision has transcended the generations and is still relevant.
No nostalgia act, Numan is ever-reinventing himself and continues to record and perform live. His 1997 album ‘Exile’ marked a distinct return to form and served as a good warm up for the 2000 album ‘Pure’ which prompted reviews like “Gary Numan’s richest, most powerful and most aggressive work in years” from Pop Matters. His most recent album ‘Jagged’ took things up yet another notch as he continued to hone his sound. ‘Jagged’ is considered by fans and some critics to be amongst his finest and included the anthemic “Haunted” … is it possible for him to get any better?
Just announced…
Civil Society is proud to announce Pivot will be joingin Gary Numan on his national tour.
Comprised of infamous Sydney based siblings Laurence and Richard Pike and accompanied by Perth electronic wunderkind Dave Miller, Pivot made history this year as the first Australian act to be signed to the UK label Warp Records with the release of their album ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’.
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