GARY NUMAN - 'The Pleasure Principle' Cover
NuWORLD - Gary's Official Site
Caring for Cats cat and kitten rescue - Gary is patron of this lovely moggie charity
|
GARY NUMAN BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Gary Numan, along with OMD, was the pioneer of British synthesizer music in the late '70s, with his still fresh sounding 'Are Friends Electric' and 'Cars'.
Originally Gary Webb, Gary Numan was born on March 8th, 1958, and replaced the Webb surname with Numan whilst looking through the Yellow Pages.
Numan's rise to the top was swift. Though his first two singles made little impression on the charts, in 1978, his first album, 'Tubeway Army', sold out in the same year.
In 1979, Numan had two UK number one singles - 'Are Friends Electric' and 'Cars', and two number one albums - 'Replicas' and 'The Pleasure Principle'. The latter being a remarkably inventive effort, and self-produced in a fortnight. A third chart-topping album, 'Telekon', followed in 1980, but Numan was not doing so well on the singles charts that year, and his career had already reached its highest point at the age of 21.
Said by some to be a difficult character, and an eccentric one, whose love of flying planes is the stuff of legend, it was not known for years that his personality had been affected by Asperger's syndrome (Gary Numan had been ridiculed by many at the height of his fame, being perceived as pretentious and obnoxious). But things are a bit different today, as that unearthly, futuristic electronic sound, allied with Numan's android-like vocals, have influenced many respected artists, including Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, and Nine Inch Nails. Sugababes sampled 'Are Friends Electric' on their 2002 UK number one, 'Freak Like Me'. In the same year Basement Jaxx had a hit with one of the most played songs of the 21st Century so far, with 'Where's Your Head At?', which featured a sample from the Gary Numan 'N.E.' late 1970s track. Numan's 'Cars' has also been sampled more than any of his other tracks, and reached number nine in the U.S. singles charts - his only U.S. top ten.
Gary Numan is now more at peace with himself, married, and the father of a small child. He's also more in control of his own career, and his legacy means he shouldn't find work in the music industry too hard to come by.
- Paul Rance, booksmusicfilmstv.com.
|
