Success came relatively quickly to Gary Numan, when his single ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ rose to the top of the UK charts in May 1979. Without a chorus and clocking in at nearly five and a half minutes, it was an unlikely a hit record as you could imagine.
Its parent album, ‘Replicas’, released the month before, went to number one in the album charts, as did its successor, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, released only a few months later. This album featured what is perhaps Numan’s best known single, ‘Cars’. He went out on a national tour to promote that L.P. yet still found the time to write and record his next album, ‘Telekon’, released in September 1980, which also reached the number one spot. Three chart-topping albums and a national tour in less than eighteen months! It’s a hell of an achievement, matching the The Beatles’ first three album releases no less.
Numan crowned off this period with three shows at Wembley arena. Not surprisingly, the twenty-two year old was burned out and he announced that these were the last dates he would play.
He continued to release albums, though – and, in fact, returned to playing live quite quickly – but his career shifted into a slow decline, despite the high quality of albums such as ‘Dance’ and ‘I, Assassin’. The constant mockery by the press and Radio 1’s steadfast refusal to play his singles meant that by the late eighties, Numan had mislaid his artistic vision as he struggled to write the kind of songs he thought people wanted to hear.
In the early 90s, though, encouraged by his wife, Gemma, and inspired by Depeche Mode’s ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’, Numan decided to write the kind of album that he wanted to hear. The result was ‘Sacrifice’, which was an unarguable return to form, a trend he sustained on the subsequent albums ‘Exile’ and ‘Pure’.
1997 saw the release of a double album of Numan covers, called ‘Random’, with artists such as Damon Albarn, The Orb, Pop Will Eat Itself, and Republica paying tribute to Numan’s songs. Around this same time, acts like Nine In Nails and Marilyn Manson were including Numan covers in their live sets. Suddenly, Numan, long scorned by the British music press, underwent a critical revaluation. Over the last fifteen years, Numan has released a further five albums, including his new release ‘Intruder’. The albums have achieved higher and higher UK chart positions, with 2017’s ‘Savage (Songs From A Broken World)’ reaching number two.
Throughout this time, Gary has continued to tour, with his concerts attended not only by the die-hard ‘Numanoids’ from his early successes but also a whole new generation of fans. Next year, it looks as though, forty-one years after his ‘farewell’ concerts, Gary will return to the stage at Wembley Arena. It has been an incredible career, forged by both Numan’s musical talent and his tenacity and determination to succeed. In an hour long conversation for The Art of Longevity, Gary tells lifelong fan and Electronic Ears presenter Fenner Pearson, all about it.
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