1. Born Gary Anthony James Webb in March 1958.
2. An aspiring punk rocker, he formed his first proper band in early 1977 called Riot, which quickly changed to Heroin, closely followed by, for their third and final gig with Webb as a member, Stiletto.
3. Joined punk group, The Lasers, in the summer of 1977, championing a change of name to Tubeway Army, inspired by stories of roaming groups of thugs on the London Underground who would jump on a carriage at one station, relieve the terrified commuters of their money, then leg it at the next station.
4. Adopted a few stage names, notably Valerian, for early Tubeway Army gigs and their first single, intending it to sound βspacey and mysteriousβ (actually a flowering herb plant and a Roman emperor).
5. Worked in WHSmiths in a warehouse right up until the day Tubeway Armyβs first single, βThatβs Too Badβ, was released in 1978 on the fledgling Beggars Banquet label.
6. Numan had by now adopted the stage name βGary Numanβ, selecting the new surname while leafing through a copy of The Yellow Pages in the Earlβs Court offices of Beggars Banquet. He chanced upon a plumber called βNeumannβ, so, possibly inspired by the electronic krautrock band NEU! (with electronica a direction he was increasingly fascinated by), he dropped an βeβ and an βnβ and became Numan.
7. He later said he liked the dual meaning β βNuman β New manβ β and liked the quirky spelling as it emulated, to a small degree, the spelling of one of his early music idols, Marc Bolan (Marc with a βcβ, not Mark with a βkβ).
8. Sang the vocals on the song accompanying the ad for Lee Cooper jeans, βDonβt be a Dummyβ, but refused to sing vocals on the single when the ad became a success.
9. βDown in the Parkβ from the album the second album, βReplicasβ, was released as a traditional 7β single early 1979, with a limited number on 12β (a format still relatively uncommon in the UK).
10. It marked a change in direction, helped by the fact that whilst the songs heβd written were still punk-orientated, the band before in a recording session had left a synthesiser in the studio set on the biggest, phatest, bone-shaking analogue setting. Hearing the menace and resonance that could be achieved with the press of one key, rather than with guitars, Numan changed the whole tone of the album.
11. Second single from the album, βAre βfriendsβ electric?β took seven weeks to reach the Number 1 spot in the UK. A limited edition on picture disc became an early collectorβs item.
12. Itβs half sci-fi story (the robotic βfriendsβ in the hallway), half dig at an ex-girlfriend during the spoken sequences, βSo now Iβm aloneβ¦β
13. On the cover of βReplicasβ, in Numanβs non-symmetrical reflection in the window, tucked away in the bottom right-hand corner, outside The Park, is a man in a grey hat and trench coat. This is based on a ghost that Numan and long-time bassist and ally, Paul Gardiner, saw at a Piccadilly Underground Station.
14. When Beggars Banquetβs coffers swelled with money from the unexpected hits βAre βfriendsβ electric?β and the global follow-up success of βCarsβ, BB execs asked him what heβd like as βthank-youβ gift. He facetiously asked for a Corvette Stingray. They asked, βWhat colour?β It features prominently in the video for the 1980 hit single, βI Die:You Dieβ.
15. Numan retired from touring in 1981, claiming that he didnβt enjoy the experience as much as he thought he would, performing three final βfarewellβ sold-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981.
16. Following Numanβs abortive farewell, heβs performed well over 600 times, commencing with a US mini-tour in 1982, and returning to the UK for βThe Warriors Tourβ in 1983. Heβs toured or performed pretty much every year since.
17. Numanβs famous round the world flight of 1982 is generally perceived as a failure, with the general belief being that he experienced significant and regular crashes with the whole project ultimately abandoned. Whilst not without incident, and remember he was a co-pilot, they did succeed in the project and flight was completed.
18. Regardless of this perception that he couldnβt fly, Numan became a very successful and much sought after pilot for aerial shows and wartime recreations in the mid-1980s where his plane was decorated in the style of a Japanese fighter plane.
19. Fiercely patriotic (for example, while his contemporaries were namechecking Bowie, Kraftwerk and Ultravox!, Numan cited Elgarβs βLand of Hope and Gloryβ as his favourite song in a music magazine profile), he decamped to LA in 2012 where he continues to write and produce and is name-checked and sought out by modern artists and producers, finally recognised as a true innovator.
20. Gary Numan is the ever-present and strangely reassuring spectre that hangs over Martin Downhamβs novel, Remind Me To Smile β The Life and Times of a Teenage Numanoid.
We have a book you might enjoy Remind Me to Smile. This autobiography, by Gary Numan fan Martin Downham, is a unique brand of observational humour and is packed full of references to a time when Fine Fare, Betamax and Kenny Everett were all regular household names and Gary Numan was at the forefront of the synth revolution.
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