Post by neilcrud on Jul 29, 2007 16:42:58 GMT
Gary Numan
Liverpool Academy 27 / 7 / 07
Liverpool Academy 27 / 7 / 07
(review by Paul Scouse)
Today was my birthday, I’m getting old and so too is Gary Numan but at least he still got his hair! I’m not a massive Numan fan though I can put my hands up to owning all the early hits when he was at his peak in the mid eighties over 20 years ago, yes it’s that long ago, I’m getting old. Still it was a night out and a ‘Nu’ experience as I’ve not seen ‘live’ the man who is today widely regarded as one of THE frontrunners / inventors / godfather / icon etc of electronic music.
Numan 1st burst onto the scene with white face heavy eyeliner and massive keyboard sounds with his original band ‘Tubeway Army’ scoring massive hit with ‘Are friends electric?’. Almost immediately after the No 1 smash hit the band were discarded Numan became solo. ‘Cars’ was the next hit quickly followed by ‘We are glass’ and the album ‘The pleasure principle’. He faded from public view away after the album ‘Telekon’ to persue his interest of flying and spent his wad buying small airoplanes.
It was some years later before the comeback (perhaps he was skint) and though now he may be getting on a bit and chart success a distant memory Numan has retained a massive fan base which was evident here at the Academy.
Going upstairs into the venue I could hear an almost football style chant of ‘Nooooooooman, Nooooooooooman’ sung exactly to the tune of Joooooooooonebug, Jooooooooooooonebug. No Crud, Sync or Gintis here tonight though as they were drinking lager, eating pies and getting refused entry to pubs in Chester, serves them right for not wishing me all the best on the celebration of my birth!
Support DJ ‘Ade Fenton’ was on stage as I arrived, but I can’t say I took that much notice as I fought my way to the bar only to be charged £2.70 for a can of bitter, robbing scouse bastards! (I’m a local!)
Numan hit the stage about 10 ish with a line up featuring drummer, 2 synths / keyboard players, guitar and bass. No white face or special suits these days and the sound is darker and heavier which I certainly to my taste. Can’t tell you the playlist though as I didn’t recognise much of it but it did feature tracks from the ‘Pure’ and ‘Jagged’ albums. My ears sprung to life and I recaptured my youth when he played ‘Down in the park’ from the early Tubeway album ‘Replicas’, pity someone was out of tune though. Numan knew it too and was visibly frustrated with this and a few other technical hitches. He also played a great version of ‘Friends’ from the same era. Highlight of the set was inevitably ‘Are friends electric’ I loved this heavier guitar version. I expected him to encore with the other hits like ‘Cars’ etc but he didn’t do it so I was slightly disappointed.
The masses of Numanoids worshipped the man and he rightly has respect for what he’s achieved but for me personally I thought the performance was disjointed and I certainly wouldn’t put it down as one of the most memorable gigs I’ve seen. 6 / 10 is the scouse gits verdict on this one!