Gordon in the morning: Like a Numan

Carl Stroud, who pops up from time to time as "Bizarre digital editor", is on duty today talking to Gary Numan. Numan has a sad:

If I meet anyone below 25 who knows who I am, there's a 50 per cent chance they only know me through The Mighty Boosh. I'm very aware of that.

For people who are actually under 25, I should probably explain that The Mighty Boosh was a TV programme back in the middle of the last decade.

It's unclear if the sample size of 'people younger than 25 who know of Numan' is large enough to give any statistical significance to this finding; it's interesting that Numan doesn't say what the other 50% know him for.

Numan has just recorded with Battles, which he says was difficult to decide to do:

He explains: "I felt badly out of my comfort zone. I've never worked with bands. I've always worked on my own.

"The idea of collaborating with anyone else was quite daunting. If Battles had any trepidation in asking me I can assure you I had more after agreeing to do it."

Always worked on his own. Never collaborated.

Then what was he actually promoting when he went on Number 73 with Bill Sharpe out of Shakatak, exactly?

You could also mention the Little Boots thing he did for 6Music last year, or his work with Nine Inch Nails, I suppose. It's great that Numan and Battles have come together, and they're making a wonderful sound, but why must Gary constantly pitch everything as if it is larded in significance?

Gary Numan: Can we just forget the past?

You know what Gary Numan really hates? Bloody nostalgia, that's what:

"Some people seem to want to keep reinventing the late 70s and early 80s and I don't get that at all. It's been done quite well already so let's keep trying to move forward."

Exactly. Let's move forward and forget a past that's been done quite well already.

Of course, this is the same Gary Numan who has just been touring his 1979 Pleasure Principle album around Australia and New Zealand.

Gary Numan: Me, I disconnect from UK

You'd have thought a chap like Gary Numan, who made his fortune picturing a post-apocalyptic world of electronic friend rentals, car-dwelling survivors and people wearing second-string branded jeans, would have been in his element over the last couple of weeks.

Turns out not, though: Numan is hitching up his skirts and fleeing England for America.

It's understandable, though: Numan lives in one of the riot hotspots, Waldron. Yes, just forty miles as the looted, lit bottle of four star flies from the nearest bit of rioting.

Numan is insisting that his sleepy home village is something of a gangsta's paradise, though, cracking the door open enough to squeak to the Argus:

“We live right out in the country. It is very rural and there are no big cities. You would think it would be the most peaceful place in the world and it is very pretty and relatively affluent. Yet the other day my wife was walking down the High Street and a bunch of kids between 12 and 14 were telling her what they would like to do to her. She had my children with her. You’ve got to be kidding.”

Yes, slightly boisterous teenagers. One incident with cheeky kids, and Numan is sat in the saferoom, Remax on speed dial, plotting his escape.

His neighbours are a bit bemused:

Father David Charles, the priest in charge of All Saints church in Waldron, said: “There’s only a couple of hundred residents and they are mostly retired. If there are any gangs roaming about I’ve certainly missed them.”

To be fair, the single incident Numan could think of was probably in nearby Heathfield rather than Waldron itself; perhaps outside The Cushion Warehouse or in the shady precincts of The Wealden Talking News.

But can central Sussex stand to lose such a significant member of its population?

Wealden District councillor Dick Angel said: “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of him, so it wouldn’t be much of a loss. I think it’s absolutely astounding he could say this.”

Gary Numan, Councillor Angel. You remember: the bloke who crashed his plane. Was going to shoot anyone who didn't like the Royal Family. Owner of the most famous hair weave, for a while. Surely you recall?

So where is Numan off to? He's going for a quiet life in Santa Monica:

“America clearly has its own problems, but Santa Monica is great. It has beautiful beaches and the Pacific Ocean. There is not one bit of trouble and not one surly or aggressive person there. Everyone is friendly.

You ask the teenagers there for directions and they are polite and helpful.

“Do that here and you are as likely to get stabbed as you are to get directions. The fact is the English are pretty miserable.”

Yes, that's right, Gary. In fact, it's a fact that satnavs were only invented because of the greater than 50% likelihood that asking the way in Britain would get you stabbed. It was the only way to stop the bloodshed of the late 1990s when thirty or forty people would be stabbed at every poorly signposted junction each week.

The Argus helpfully points out that Numan's view of Santa Monica might be based on poor research:

A comparison of crime statistics for the two areas shows that for the last available month Wealden had 30 incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour, compared to 317 offences recorded for the city of Santa Monica.

The American city recorded 14 assaults with a deadly weapon compared to none in Wealden. There were 16 counts of grand theft auto, compared to zero vehicle crimes in Wealden.

Santa Monica's Wikipedia entry actually has its own section for gang activity. Wealden's entry doesn't even mention crime.

Goodbye, Gary. Good luck in your new home.

Embed and breakfast man: Gary Numan and Nine Inch Nails

For no real reason, let's just enjoy Gary Numan joining Trent Reznor to run through Cars at a London date in 2009:



[Buy: The Pleasure Principle]

Gary Numan doesn't like critics

You know, some people call Gary Numan pretentious.

Isn't that true, Gary:

People say I'm pretentious?

They do.

Fuck off!

Uh, yes. That'll um... show them.

Actually, do people call Numan pretentious? Balding, plane-crashing, Thatcher-worshipping, royal-loving - all these things, yes. But pretentious? He advertised market stall jeans, didn't he?

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet: John Foxx & Gary Numan

It's a pity it doesn't end with Gary Numan saying to John Foxx "me, I disconnect from you", but other than there's much glorious about Thatcherite flying ace Numan talking to Foxx from the 'vox John Foxx in a Drowned In Sound brokered Electronic Pioneer meet-up:

GN: Why did you record Systems Of Romance in Germany?

JF: England was all Alf Garnett punk. It had gone from squalling brat to grumpy old man with nothing in between. The scene in Europe was much more rich and interesting. Held far more potential. No one in Britain at that time was making anything resembling the sort of sound I wanted, so Germany was really the only choice.

Me, I Disconnect From You

Gary Numan won't be reworking his old stuff, oh no, no, no:

"Me? Join in on the '80s revival? I'd rather eat worms. I've absolutely no interest in going back to the '80s.

"I was there the first time so it's got nothing new to offer. I've always refused to do anything connected to the '80s, any TV shows or retro tours, and I play very little old stuff at my gigs."

Gary Numan will, erm, complete his tour playing through his 1979 album Replicas in its entirety, building on the success of the tour of material from the Telekon album.