Gary Numan - Savage tour

**Valen** · 03-19-2018

I saw Gary Numan perform recently on a revival of the BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test, and was impressed at how good his new material sounded - a sort of post-apocalyptic mix of prog and industrial. I then picked up his current album Savage and enjoyed more of the same vibe, and decided to snag a ticket to see him on tour.

I'm relatively new to Numan's more recent stuff, having only listened to him briefly in the 70s when I was a wee boy watching Top Of The Pops, but I'd guess some of you guys on here will be more familiar with his career?

In which case you might be interested in my blog review of last week's gig in Edinburgh:
https://momentstransition.wordpress....16-march-2018/

I was very impressed with what I saw and heard that night.

**rcarlberg** · 03-19-2018

Listening to 30-second samples on iTunes, I have to agree. Nice stuff. Surprisingly nice.

Splinter (2013) sounds just as good.

**JAMOOL** · 03-19-2018

yea - Splinter is excellent, it's up there with Pleasure Principle and Replicas for me. Savage is great as well, maybe a half-step down, but still a highlight.

the thing with those two albums (as opposed to the other goth/industrial albums he's been doing since 94) is that they feel in line with his early material in a way he hasn't really captured beforehand. I like what he's been doing for the last couple decades but until recently his work has felt very "on-rails" to me. these latest two are a lot more exploratory and feel more widescreen and cinematic. great stuff.

**moecurlythanu** · 03-19-2018

Savage is an excellent album, not far off his best stuff. I sprang for the digibook edition. Btw, his daughter guests on "My Name Is Ruin." Check it out on YouTube.

**iguana** · 03-19-2018

numan is someone who i have been wanting to (finally) see live for a long time. i well remember this one from when i was a mere ten years old and it has remained a firm favourite since:

PS: yes, that's billie currie of ULTRAVOX on keys … in case you were asking. i grew up with a lot of numan's stuff and i applaud the resurgence in public acclaim that he has been enjoying within in the industrial / electronica / dark wave scene:

in the mid80s (post “berserker”) he had a little project with bill sharpe from funksters SHAKATAK:

an icon who went to hell and back.

**Zaragon** · 03-19-2018

It will be 20 years ago this May that I saw Numan on the Portland stop of his 1998 comeback tour. A friend of mine at the time — a fellow maximalist and huge Numan fan — interviewed him for Plasm magazine, but the piece was never published. That concert was the event of the late '90s among local scenesters, some of whom reminisce about that evening to this day.

According to my erstwhile friend, Numan has received death threats for his lavish stage presentations, presumably by unhinged ChriBa zealots. A few other tidbits from their discussion:

• Numan found Kraftwerk "too clinical" and didn't consider them an influence. Concurred. One could argue that the German act's most tonally rich recordings predated their mid-'70s image change.
• John Foxx was "too late with his solo albums" to compete commercially. No. 'Metamatic' was released between 'The Pleasure Principle' and 'Telekon.' As Web 1.0 synthpop connoisseur Al Crawford stated on his long-deleted site, the "robotic" personae of Numan simply captured the UK public's imagination more than the "anorexic hairdresser" image of Foxx.

Though I admit to being unfamiliar with Numan's post-mid-'80s work, I consider him one of the leading lights of TriMax Autumn. Telekon remains in the top 0.01% of some 1,025 albums that I've assimilated, rated, and ruby/amethyste-appraised from 1980.

Here is a video that features Numan in quintessential mode among his musical kin:

Though not formally declared, the video is rather overt about which three acts comprise the holy trinity of coldwave.