Beggars Arkive Was it really forty years ago that I popped into my local Our Price record shop on my way home from school to pick up a copy of Tubeway Army’s “Are Friends Electric“?
Gary Numan
6 posts
Beggars Arkive Dance was a change in direction for Gary Numan after four albums where he explored dark, cold electronic music, and he obviously thought it was time to move away from that area. This being 1981, it was only now that a lot of other popular artists were just beginning to explore Numan’s minimalist synth sound for themselves, and suddenly the UK charts were flooded with bands […]
The Arkive/Beggars Banquet Gary Numan’s Top Of The Pops performance of “Are Friends Electric” was the Bowie “Starman” flashpoint for my generation (those creeping around the 50s age bracket). In school the next day we had many discussions about it, the weird music, the weird look, etc; it was like Kraftwerk but darker and, to be honest, just seemed alien to us. That performance changed lots of people’s […]
London 23 October 2015 Can you imagine how hard it was being Gary Numan in 1989? A decade earlier, shortly after “Are Friends Electric?” had been released in May 1979, Tubeway Army made their triumphant appearance on Top of the Pops, and the sound of a generational gasp could be heard all the way from Truro to Inverness. Punk’s white light had burned away so much dead wood, […]
London 7 December 2012 It’s cold outside… but nice and cosy warm in The Forum, where the throng of Numanoids, all wonderfully resplendent in black, have gathered to hear the music from the master. While the intro music plays the anticipation and tension mounts. Crys of “NuuuuuuMaaaaan!” ring out around the venue. Then suddenly the lights go out and a massive roar goes up from the crowd as […]
The Troxy London 2 April 2011 So nostalgia culture bravely forges into the ever more recent past. John Foxx ambles amiably on; I think people are welcoming, the odd chin wobbling in appreciation, but this is not a high energy crowd. I am used to hot venues, sweat dripping off the walls, a cloud rising off the mosh-pit. This, however, is the heat of the retirement home and […]