Happy birthday today to one of my greatest inspirations - Mr Gary Numan.
Why Numan, and not Bowie, Roxy, or Kraftwerk - his own acknowledged biggest influences? I was actually too young to appreciate the coolness of any of them. At the height of their powers in the mid 70s, my world revolved around Top of the Pops, glam (especially Queen), and the emerging "New Wave" and disco sounds.
It was in 1979, after the brief flurry that was Punk had died down, and at a similar time to my obsession with Blondie, that I stumbled upon a performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test by an unknown band called "Tubeway Army". I became absolutely hooked, and I didn't really know why...
Numan's stark, steely presence - like some kind of "space elf" - and his mournful robotic vocals fascinated me. I bought every record (single and LP) he produced, went to see him at the Colston Hall in Bristol on his Telekon tour in '81, and began to model my look and tastes around this new alien synthesizer-driven world of his creation. In night classes, I used his iconic White Album image [above] to screen-print T-shirts, and I craved a diagonal-buttoned jacket like his.
Little did I know at the time how much of a musical sea-change was just around the corner in his wake, with the rise of the Futurist/New Romantic movement I came to embrace. His song Jo The Waiter ["Held me close, behind the door marked 'Gentlemen'"] became a bit of an inspiration during my coming out, too.
His appearance on the music scene ruffled a few long-established feathers. David Bowie famously wanted Gary Numan off the set of the Kenny Everett Show on which they were both scheduled to appear, saying that he didn't know that "cloning was part of the 80s". Miaow. But it was through the "Numan influence" that I, and many others, came to rediscover the ground-breaking music of the original 70s pioneers via our local "Bowie/Roxy nights".
A largely unrecognised legend these days (except perhaps by Richard X), but one dear to my heart:
Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb, 8th March 1958)
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