I guess there aren’t going to be any spoiler alerts seeing as it’s billed as Gary Numan plays ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Replicas’ and with no support bands the Tramshed is full to bursting a solid hour before Numan is due onstage. It’s not often a venue is this full on a school night although it’s a long time since anyone in here was in school judging by the looks of it.
First things first possibly the worst merch I’ve ever seen with just a triangle with Gary Numan across the top and dates on the back for £30 a pop anyway, gutted I wanted a Numan shirt. Negatives aside I’ve been really looking forward to this for a while after snoozing on the acoustic tickets last year. I wouldn’t be making that mistake again and as the band ambled on stage the sound was nice n loud and spot on – No gremlins in the machine as we were treated to ninety minutes of synth/rock-heavy Numan and two albums from the peak of his powers.
I must admit I do love how he’s found the balance of guitars on what were synth-only records (or mostly synth, especially the Pleasure Principle album. Memories came flooding back and its still hard to compute how old these records are but this is a format I really like and most importantly it really works. Old classics were elevated to something special and Numan looks and sounds fantastic.
Of the early set tunes ‘Me I Disconnect From You’ and ‘Praying To The Alians’ sounded awesome. The energy from this band is terrific ‘You Are In My Vision’ sounded energised and snotty but it was ‘Airlane’ followed by the magnificent ‘Complex’ that stole the show for me and tagging ‘Down In The Park’ and ‘Machmen’ thereafter took me back decades.
Sure the encore is next-level fanboy stuff and hearing ‘Cars’ pipe out through the synth is still a magnificent intro but the bass and drum punch is what drives the song on and this electric shortened version was a joy leaving just ‘Are Friends Electric’ to sign off a wonderfully entertaining night. He can keep doing these album sets it’ll never disappoint but I do think he’s kept himself relevant and contemporary and the set he turned in at Rebellion a few years back was magnificent and another reason why I’ll always support Gary Numan. Maybe next time play somewhere bigger and at least give us some breathing space.
Day three of Rebellion 2022, and just like in previous years Saturday’s bill leans perhaps a little heavier towards the Oi!/streetpunk/skinhead side of punk rock, especially in the Empress Ballroom, and that’s exactly where we start today catching the revolutionary sounds of Italian Oi! outfit Los Fastidios. A few songs in though and we’re distracted by the appearance of our old mate Gaff lead guitarist with Desperate Measures NZ and Rich Ragany & The Digressions. He’s not been to sleep since the Measures closed out the Empress in the early hours and I can’t help but think he’s never left the building following what he describes as “perhaps the band’s best show ever!” I’m ashamed to admit I missed this set, due to my lack of sleep the previous night, but as usual Gaff is cool about it all heading for the nearest bar to keep the celebrations going.
Getting things back on track we make our way to the front of the Empress for what appears to be the final gig from Devon’s finest streetpunks Arch Rivals who really are back in Blackpool for one last round. It’s an emotional affair for sure played out to a crowd who really do not want to see the quartet leave the stage. But after a set packed full of terrace anthems, leave they must, and as ‘The Crowd’ brings things to a close its easy to understand why frontman Mike Brands struggles to hold it together, such is the fantastic send off the lads are afforded by the Empress faithful. Let’s hope they can get back together soon, eh? Oi! Oi! Oi!
Next up, it’s time for some Chaotic Dischord over in Club Casbah. Now, this is the band we all aspired to be back in 1983/84 as we were all as equally as shit as they were musically with one band that my old mate Darrel Sutton put together (long before he was playing with Trigger McPoopshute and System Reset) designed specifically to have people walking out after just 2 or 3 songs. I’m pleased to say that with Chaotic Dischord nothing has changed in that respect and after just 3 songs (during which I’ll admit I’m pissing myself laughing) culminating in ‘Who Killed ET? (I Killed The Fucker!)’ it’s all over for me. Yes, it really is a joke you know….
And with that in mind we briefly pop our heads around the folding doors of the Pavilion to catch some of The Gonads set, Garry Bushell openly taunting the locals with a “Blackpool Boys We Are Here” chant that segues almost perfectly into a song our Woking Oi! correspondent was dying to hear, the legendary ‘I Lost My Love (To A UK Sub)’. Perfect half time entertainment for Charlton Athletic fans everywhere.
The reason we have to leave The Gonads set early is that the anticipated crowd for The Bar Stool Preachers second set of the weekend up in the Almost Acoustic stage in the Spanish Ballroom is probably going to test that venue’s capacity to the maximum. So, getting in early doors we manage to get a prime viewing spot for what has to one of the real highlights of the weekend. Playing with a reduced kit drummer and a keyboardist led on the floor to help get around the stage’s rules of what can be included as “Almost Acoustic”, frontman TJ McFaull plays an instant trump card by ensuring the front rows are only made up of young fans and their families. Admittedly his wise words on the realities of trickledown economics (that proceed the song of the same name) are well over the heads of his band’s latest fan club members, but that doesn’t matter one iota as the pure delight on their faces as they get to dance and sing with the band is a total joy to behold. Thankfully the band’s signature tune does get played today, and as the lads say goodbye to everyone one last time before heading off to tour Europe with The Interrupters, I’ll say it once again. “Watch these boys fly….”
Something I wish I could do myself as due to the massive crowd up in the Spanish Ballroom I manage to miss over half of Last Resort back in the Empress Ballroom. Still, I get in in time for a new tune called ‘No Man’s Land’ followed closely by the immense ‘Never Get a Job’ before Roi and the lads rattle out the classics ‘King of the Jungle’ and ‘Violence in Our Minds’ from their legendary 1982 debut album. Look, I know they have Lars Frederiksen within their ranks these days but I still can’t help but miss the monstrous Les Paul chug that Beefy used to bring to the Last Resort sound, and I really never thought I’d be writing this…yet again.
It’s at this point in proceedings where stage clashes were always going to shape the rest of our Rebellion Saturday as up next in the Empress is the tribute to Mensi, something I would love to hang around and sing along to, but when we also have IOW skinhead all-stars Grade 2 playing over in the Pavilion at the exact same time, and their third album ‘Graveyard Island’ pretty much helped me through multiple lockdowns, there’s only one place I’m going to be. Having previously witnessed Grade 2 supporting The Interrupters, the band that bursts onto the stage at Rebellion is unrecognisable from the largely static trio that had failed to impress me in Bristol SWX a few years prior. Their tour with Social Distortion has certainly helped the lads with their stagecraft, but it’s the quality of the songs from that aforementioned album that really is the difference this time around. ‘Tired Of It’, ‘Murder Town’ ‘Bowling Green Lane’ are all delivered with ruthless efficiency and I’ll defy anyone not to be impressed with this mob right now. Grade 2 are another one of the absolute highlights of Rebellion 2022 and along with The Bar Stool Preachers it’s reassuring to know that the future of punk rock (in all its various sub-genres) is safe in these guy’s hands.
Staying put in the Pavilion for the UK debut of Mick Rossi’s Gun St it’s great to see that we are not alone in having enjoyed Slaughter’s return the previous evening and Mick and gang have assembled a very healthy-looking crowd to entertain with songs new and old, plus the odd cover like ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ thrown in for good measure.
With an 8:30 curfew on entry to the RFest stage it’s at this point in proceedings that we leave our Woking Oi! correspondent to pick up on matters in the Empress whilst me and Dom head off to the seafront for some proper goff (double eff copyright Jimbob from Pizzatramp) action in the shape of Peter Hook & The Light and Gary Numan.
I really hadn’t been impressed with the sound at RFest when we caught up with The Undertones just 24 hours earlier, so tonight, we pick a spot nearer the stage and thankfully everything is crystal clear, Peter Hook delivering a wonderfully gloomy set on a glorious summer’s evening with Joy Division’s ‘Dead Souls’ being a particular highlight. As for Gary Numan, tonight is largely the same exceptional arena show that I witnessed on the opening night of the tour in Cardiff University back in April, albeit it’s now honed to perfection with the more recent material still taking precedence over any trip down memory lane, and the fact Numan continually mixed the set up throughout the ‘Intruder’ tour (tonight is the final night) is really why I’m here instead of watching the bands in the Empress. Playing to within a few seconds of the strict 10:45 curfew the fact that he chooses to encore with ‘The Fall’ from 2011’s ‘Dead Son Rising’ album and not say the likes of ‘We Are Glass’ or ‘Films’ (both of which he had played in Cardiff) shows just how happy and confident Gary is within himself right now, and for me this is easily the set of the weekend. Glorious stuff!
Heading back to the Winter Gardens, it’s the first time this weekend we have to queue to get back in, but as Cock Sparrer have just finished their set in the Empress that’s totally understandable, as this new Conference Centre entrance merges straight in with the traffic from the Empress and as a result could very easily lead to overcrowding. Anyway, a short wait in the cool night air never hurt anyone, and apart from my glasses steaming up when we do pass the Empress that’s thankfully the only inconvenience I experience.
Meeting up with our Woking Oi correspondent in the Arena he’s full of stories about how emotional the Cockney Rejects set was with the band now starting to wind down on touring from this year onwards and how Cock Sparrer once again delivered a killer headline set that has perfectly set up their two fiftieth anniversary shows in London’s Roundhouse in just a few weeks’ time. Which RPM will hopefully be covering too. Bosh!
With The Chisel being one of our must-see bands of the weekend, that’s the reason we are all in the Arena, and having witnessed them deliver an explosive set just a few months earlier in Le Pub in Newport I was half expecting the dancefloor to turn into something resembling an MMA event…BUT…it just never happens. Maybe it’s the fact that where we are standing the sound is so poor that it takes me three songs to actually recognise a song, and then it’s the title track from the band’s stunning debut record ‘Retaliation’, or maybe it’s the fact that it’s chucking out time in the pubs and having been on it most of the day, many (myself included) are just so tired all they really want to do head back to the hotel for some much-needed shut-eye. Who knows? But it’s the latter we choose to do and as such forego the chance to watch Bob Vylan’s upgraded set in the Empress at around 1 am, which turns out for many to be the event of the weekend. Ho hum!
As we walk back to our hotel near Blackpool’s south pier shooting the breeze, it’s the sound issue in the Arena that makes me missing Bad Nerves’ set on Thursday not seem quite so bad, and as Sunday would soon prove this wasn’t to be an isolated incident either.
It’s the opening night of Gary Numan’s long awaited Intruder UK Tour, and this time around its one of his largest in decades, not just in the number of dates (19 in all), but also the venue capacities (the tour sees Gary making a long overdue return to Wembley Arena).
It certainly doesn’t take a genius to see why Numan’s stock is on the up right now, he’s released two of the best albums of his 40 plus year career in the past five years, and in ‘Intruder’ the latter of those two albums, perhaps the best album he’s done since his initial late 70s/early 80s heyday, and it’s one that easily breezed into my RPM albums of the year list for 2021. I guess that’s also why Sky Arts are in the house tonight filming for an upcoming documentary about the enigmatic singer/songwriter, someone who helped influence a whole generation of bands worldwide during his 20 plus studio album career (including collaborations and Tubeway Army that is).
Not least tonight’s openers Divine Shade, a French trio who Gary himself seemingly picked for the tour just so he could see them live. They play darkwave, mixing the traditional industrial/electro sound of the likes of The Young Gods and KMFDM with a hint of early 90s dance along with the occasional blast of Killing Joke vocal intensity. They go down very well indeed with those in early doors, and whilst I’d only caught a few snippets on YouTube before tonight I have to admit I’d be interested to hear what the songs played tonight would sound like in the context of an album.
They may have actually been selling one at the merch stall, but with ongoing concerns over Covid and a strict queueing system in place that extended half way up the side of the (newish) swanky bars that the University have within its concourse, I instead decided to wait until I got home and let the internet once again take me on another musical adventure.
Which is something tonight’s headliner has most certainly been on since the first seeds of a Numan renaissance were sown back around 1994 with the release of his ‘Sacrifice’/’Dawn’ album and whilst it was a good six years later that I first reengaged with the artist via his ‘Pure’ album (the title track of which making a mid-set appearance tonight) and live a year later during a rip-roaring Reading festival appearance in (of all places) the Dance Tent, tonight really is all about the triumph that is Gary’s nineteenth solo record, the aforementioned ‘Intruder’.
With Gary promising a breath-taking light show to complement the tour, it is the title track of ‘Intruder’ that brings everything to life amidst a fireball of energy. The video banks and lighting playing out the visual aspect of the music – whilst the audio is (as one has come to expect from Numan) technically brilliant from the get go.
There’s a real bite to the layers of sound and whilst the band numbers just five members (including Gary) they make the sound of a dozen thanks to swathes of synths and samples that swirl around in the Great Hall. Special mention must go out to the guitarist and bassist who duck and weave like champion prize fighters, and indeed Gary himself who at 64 years of age pirouettes, preens and sings like a person a third of his age. He was certainly never this stage confident first time around, albeit he still doesn’t say a single word to the audience tonight other than the odd off-mic thank you.
Set list wise I don’t really want to spoil it for those of you yet to still catch this tour as it winds its way through the UK for much of May. Me, I’d have been quite happy for Gary to play all of the ‘Intruder’ album, but for those of you who have also been on the musical adventure with the man himself then along with a handful of cuts from said album there’s also a smattering of deeper cuts, interspersed with the usual “must play” tracks, the highlights of which for me tonight are a cocksure run through of ‘We Are Glass’ and a mid-set pace resetting ‘Down In Park’ that directly followed a brief musical interlude where the band left the stage and let the samples set the tone.
Thankfully with Numan it’s not just about playing the hits though, and its tracks like ‘The Chosen’, ‘The Gift’ and the jawdropping ‘My Name Is Ruin’ that easily stand shoulder to shoulder with the ones people like to sing the riffs to.
This tour is indeed a triumph for Gary Numan both musically and visually, it’s something you really should dig deep to get a ticket for (and like many fans I see on social media commenting) maybe even for multiple dates, because remember as Numan himself has said they’ve learned 35 songs for this tour and only 19 of those were played on this the opening night.
New York, NY (February 24, 2021) – Autogramm, the synth-driven, power-pop trio from Vancouver premiered a video to the title-track single off their upcoming sophomore album, ‘No Rules’, due out April 16 via Nevado Records.
Featuring lead vocals from the currently Chicago-based drummer The Silo (Destroyer, Spun Out, Black Mountain, Lightning Dust), he notes regarding the track’s inspiration… “I’m an enthusiastic dancer. Skilled? No. But I love to dance, and this song is an ode to my relationship with dancing: Flex abandon, enter the void!
It’s one of my favourite things to do. I don’t believe there are any rules in dance, apart from not hurting anyone else or infringing upon their personal space. It might seem weird to begin a song called “No Rules” with two rules, but it’s kind of like a snake eating its tail, no? No rules for no rules, including the absence of rules…”
Discussing recreation of a Billy Joel classic video, bassist CC Voltage (Dysnea Boys, Loyalties, Black Halos, Spitfires) adds, “we email videos around to each other all the time. Sometimes to inspire us, sometimes to discover something new, or sometimes just to have a laugh at a ridiculous music video. In this case it was the latter.”
Featuring guitars and vocals from Jiffy Marx (Hard Drugs, Blood Meridian), Autogramm draw on influences from The Cars, The Go Go’s, Gary Numan, 20/20 and Devo. Along with calling Canada, the U.S., UK and Germany home at various points, the band also has a long standing connection to the art, punk, and skateboarding communities world-wide.
“No Rules” out April 16th, 2021 on Nevado Records: Here
Richard Davies & the Dissidents – ‘Echo Road’ (Bucketful Of Brains) Excellent grower from a really impressive album ‘Echo Road’ builds via a really earthy swirling keyboard and great barroom vocals the song is excellent for dusty road trips but the real gem here is the B Side and the bands take of the classic Lords tune penned by Tony James and Tory Crimes and whilst I have the Lords on a pedestal this is a pretty impressive take on a classic song and well worth checking out. To be fair whilst you’re at it go the full hog and bag yourself the album ‘Human Traffic’. Great band great songs.
ReMission International – ‘TOS2020′ (SPV Records) Wayne Hussey and friends release classic Mission ‘Tower Of Strength’ anthem with Proceeds to charities personally chosen by each contributor. There’s nothing not to like about a classic song being reinvented for a bunch of great causes and it features a glittering line up with people like Andy Rourke, Billy Duffy, Budgie, Evi Vine, Gary Numan, James Alexander Graham, Jay Aston, Julianne Regan, Kevin Haskins, Kirk Brandon, Lol Tolhurst, Martin Gore, Michael Aston, Michael Ciravolo, Midge Ure, Miles Hunt, Rachel Goswell, Richard Fortus, Robin Finck, Steve Clarke, Tim Palmer, Trentemøller.
With pre-orders already reaching over 40K its a truly outstanding contribution. Spread the word, share, tweet, post it everywhere to tell others about it. Shout it from the rooftops and tell your friends, tell everyone. The digital bundle contains 5 awesome tracks for just £2.99, it all helps those that need it most and the proceeds will be divided and distributed equally among all the beneficiaries. It’s an awesome song always has been and always will be and now its been put to great use. Keep up with ReMission International Website | Mission Facebook | Mission Twitter | Mission Instagram |
Fast Eddy – ‘Game Of Love’ (Spaghetty Town Records) A couple of things struck me about this here single. One, Ted at Spaghetty Town sure does know quality Rock and Roll. Two, Fast Eddy sure do play quality Rock and Roll. The title track is a strut and swagger down the blvd. It’s as confident and cocksure as anything you’ll hear all year these cats know they have a swag bag full of top tunes and from the great vocals to the big singalong piano-driven middle eight it’s fuckin’ huge sounding and I mean grande canyon huge sounding. The flip side is another great tune but a little something different. It’s hard to pigeon hole these guys it’s catchy and radio-friendly but there’s an edge and a tension in a sort of Afghan Whigs way. The B Side gets it for me but by a whisker. Check em out Fast Eddy will make a dent – trust me. Facebook / Instagram
Poison Boys – ‘Mean Queen’ (Hobo Wolfman Records) Don’t be sneaking out no new 7″ singles without consulting the RPM Singles Club with the news cmon boys that’s just not fair especially when it’s one of our favourite bands from the good ole US of A. From the opening engine roar this is a sleazy slice of punk rock n roll. Its got the Stooges fueling the engine and that guitar break sounds like they’re in the room with me it’s so alive. Awesome tune (not that I would ever doubt it) and it’s backed by a cover of the Jerry Nolan ‘Take A Chance With Me’ so what’s not to like? Cool cats that just ooze quality and a single you should most definitely have in your collection and hopefully a sign that an LP is on the way!
“Mean Queen” is a celebration of bad ass women, queens, and sex workers everywhere. Make a donation to www.swop-chicago.org to support current and former sex workers, who have been hit extra hard since the start of the covid-19 pandemic.
DEAD DIRTY DINOSAURS – ‘Revenge’ (Riot Records) A restrained, slow burner with a raw, loud, and abrasive guitar riff with a chilled vocal its a smolderer that burrows into your ear. This Brisbane three-piece might be onto something other than having a great band name they can knock together a pretty good noise between them. I guess the only thing now is I want to hear more. So, if you’d be so kind send over a few other tunes or the album would be nice. But as far as introductions go this is impressive. Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
The Richmond Sluts – ‘Walkin’ Tall’ (Rock Box Records) Always a good day when The Sluts strut into your life with a new earworm. What a cocksure slab of Rock and Roll this is. It has swagger and that early ’70s Stones strut that a lot of bands attempt but fall short of but not The Richmond Sluts. They nail this from the solo on the geetah to the reverb-heavy vocal that sounds like too many late nights and cigarettes n whisky. A real tonic in these tough times. Three and a half minutes of pure unadulterated Rock and Roll good times. All hail the Richmond Sluts.
Ben Wood & The Bad Ideas – ‘Black’ (Back2Forward Records) With a rapid steady beat this is a little belter. A right ray of sunshine. I was expecting something altogether different but this uptempo ditty came banging out of the speakers and I like it, I like it a lot.
Just when you’re waiting for something along comes a bolt out of the blue and whilst its nothing original its quality.
Wanted Noise – ‘Go Get’ (self release) San Diego what’s up? Surf/skate punks have a brand new single for your consumption. It’s upbeat and in keeping with the whole sound you’d expect from a bunch of young guns into skating and surfing. Bandcamp
Heap – ‘EP’ (Rave On Records) Who needs Westerberg and The Replacements? OH OK, so that’s a lie but in the absence of such an iconic Rock and Roll band the void is ably filled by the likes of Beach Slang and for a brief period Gaslight Anthem well you can throw Heap into that mix. Coming across like a latterday Westerberg with all the right roots rock and roll moves and refrains Heap have penned three really strong tunes on this here EP. Its dive bar rock and roll from the heart its got dirt under those fingernails and a book of stories in their hearts -Well worth checking out.
The Jailbirds – ‘Dull My Brain’ (Golden Robot Records) This three-piece mix up some cock rock gang vocals with some big bluesy 80s influenced Hard rock chops. Guns n Roses or more specifically Slash sound like they were a big influence.
A really confident new track from the Canadian trio will no doubt turn some heads in the classic rock circles. Check em out here
Smarts – ‘Small World’ (Anti fade) Australia has consistently been churning out some of the best music for quite some time now and we’re constantly turning up bands on our radar that are impressing us with their releases and Anti Fade are constantly pushing the boundaries with a lot of the cassette releases and the ever helpful Bandcamp platform who it has to be said are championing alternative music and not just beating them as a cash cow we find ourselves with another Melbourne band Smarts and their four-track cassette ‘Small World’ which is somewhere between Devo, Tubeway army and a whole host of punk rock band we love. Don’t hang about though because the four songs run in at just a hairs breath over four minutes from the opening ‘Smart Man’ and its robotic Numan like mood to the frantic head fuck of ‘Smart World’ to their ‘Golden Arches’ and final hurrah of Devo like ‘Don’t Slap The Hand’ Smarts are smart and you should try some. Here
The Wake – ‘Hammer Hall’ (Blaylox Records) Get your Goth on kids this is as dark and Goth like as you could possibly get without actually being a member of the Sisters Of Mercy jammin’ with Robert Smith on a couple of Bauhaus tunes. ME, I love a bit of Goff and this is really well done and is a really decent track.
Now you know we don’t normally approve of Rush making it onto the pages of RPM but we do approve of Autogramm being here and when they covered Rush how could we say no. Check out this cheeky cover and admit Rush never sounded so good.
Autogramm recorded this RUSH cover just for fun, when they were bored and stuck at home (in Chicago and Vancouver) because of COVID social distancing and quarantining. All proceeds from sales going to local non-profit RAVEN Trust (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) a legal fund that defends Indigenous rights in Canaduh. Find it on all of your favorite digital platforms now!
When Vancouver’s infectious power-pop-trio Autogramm found themselves separated (with drummer the Silo moving to Chicago) and locked down during the global pandemic, they decided to keep their spirits up by recording a Canadian classic; by RUSH no less. The song “Working Man” keeps with Autogramm’s tradition of crafting singalong pop anthems, and adds a twist of DEVO to help personalize the tune in classic Autogramm style. The song is the first single by the band in advance of their sophomore album, to be released in early 2021 on Los Angeles’ Nevado Records.
Autogramm is a synth-driven, power-pop trio from Vancouver drawing influences from the likes of The Cars, The Go Go’s, Gary Numan, 20/20 and Devo. The band members are Jiffy Marx of Brooklyn’s Hard Drugs and Vancouver’s Blood Meridian, CC Voltage of Berlin’s Dysnea Boys, London’s Loyalties, and Vancouver’s Black Halos and Spitfires, and The Silo of Vancouver’s Black Mountain, Lightning Dust and Destroyer.
Hit ’em up on Bandcamp to buy the single and check em out
Being a big Numaoid in the early days when I saw there were archive recordings of ‘Replicas’ and ‘the Pleasure Principle’ hitting the shelves there was no point ignoring it I just had to get my hands on the set. Coming in an Ampex sort of slipcase and pressed on heavyweight double coloured vinyl ‘Replicas’ Sessions was on.
In late 1978, Gary Numan was booked into a small studio in London’s Chinatown with the same musicians that had played on Tubeway Army’s debut album, released a month earlier. Two stereo master tapes were compiled of eleven tracks. A month later they again went to Gooseberry Studio and recorded an additional three tracks, including “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” and “Replicas”. At the same time, the band recorded a session for the BBC’s John Peel show, taping alternate versions of three songs from the December recordings. Finally, Numan returned to an upgraded studio, Marthus Music, in February to overdub and remix the Gooseberry recordings into their released versions. Only one alternative outtake still exists (“Down In The Park”) which is included in this release.
Spread out over two discs most of this release has been issued before on CD in the Replicas Redux set but that’s a minor quibble if your one of the uber-nerds who are picky about that sort of thing. Me, I’m not so fussy and to hear the original mixes of these songs gives me goosebumps. I loved the Tubeway Army post-punk synth fallout and remember it like it was yesterday. the synth stabs on ‘Down In The Park’ are exceptional and that tinny hi-hat on ‘Do You Need The Service’ with the treated electric guitar. The crispness of these recordings is amazing. Numan was a pioneer and should be well proud of these recordings mixing the synths with more conventional musical instruments is brilliant.
I can remember my father sticking his head around the bedroom door wondering what the fuck we were listening to and knowing the lyrics to ‘The Crazies’ within the first couple of days of hearing it is still funny. Wondering how they managed to create the sounds on ‘Me I Disconnect From You’ is kinda funny looking back but even now its a real rush hearing it back. listening to how ‘Are Friends Electric’ grew into the beast it became on the proper release is interesting. The Peel versions on the second LP show how bloody good those engineers working at the Beeb really were and they always managed to turn even the most primitive punk rock into some inspiring wall of sound.
If there is to be a complaint about this collection is the lack of some written booklet about the process we are listening to. It would have been great to have a song by song memoir if such a thing exists. but that’s just the uber nerd in me again. Oh and don’t be put off by the repetitive song titles because these are very different in many ways even to the casual listener.
The Pleasure Principle.
Pretty much as you are. Numan was no longer a weird post punk outsider he’d had hits and ‘Cars’ put him front and centre on TOTP as well as swap shop where kids would back off and parents would wonder what was going on. As for the early recordings on offer, over the hour and a bit of music again spread out over two coloured records kicks off with a great guitar, Bass and drum led ‘Cars’.
Before the single “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” came out, Numan had a band consisting of a drummer and keyboard player and had demoed an album’s worth of songs and this was in 1979. They also recorded a session for John Peel the day after the single hit #1 on the UK charts. Rather than calling it Tubeway Army, the session was credited to just Gary Numan and the group name abandoned at the peak of its success. As before, rather than promote the current album, Numan chose to record four new songs. While the album Replicas hit #1, Numan was busy recording the follow-up.
From the surviving tapes, there were six separate out-takes and these have been included. The discs have been sequenced with the stronger, second demo but all tracks are in the order of the tapes. ‘Complex’ sounds like it could have been written and recorded yesterday so fresh sounding it is. I loved this album when it came out but there were some songs that didn’t stand the test of time so well even though I haven’t played them in ten years at least so playing ‘M.E’ here with fresh ears as it was had me wondering why I wasn’t so keen to play this album. ‘Tracks’ is the sound of a worn tape at play much like a spooled C90 you used to splice with sellotape when it got jammed not that I ever indulged in home taping because that was killing music!
‘Cars’ Demo 1 is weird and must be a buzz for Numan to playback knowing what it morphed into. there are a bunch of the remastered in ’09 tracks that sound like 80s B movie soundtrack songs and have little interest to me I’ll be honest. the second record is wrapped up as ‘Replicas’ with some Peel session tracks that just sizzle. ‘Cars’ is brilliant from the wobbling synth to the punchy snare to the “da da da da boom boom!” and the splash of the cymbal makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up remembering what it was like travelling to Hammersmith Odeon to see Numan and wondering what the fuck I was watching.
If you were ever a Numanoid or played any of those singles then you really do need these records – trust me just get em!
Already picking up admirers such as BBC Radio 6 and BBC introducing I Am Lono sound like the real deal with a cold as steel exterior yet it just covers a boiling hot center borrowing from masters of the dark post-punk synth rockers like The Cure and The Mission there is also a healthy amount of pop via the likes of Japan and Bauhaus.
You have the heaving thump of the bass guitar on the sparse ‘Lovers’ with its mechanical drum thud and bass throb it has the echoey vocals and synth layering the song until after the chorus when it soars as the guitar takes over. Huge sounding record and to be fair a really impressive track too.
Let’s not jump the gun here and rewind to the opener ‘America’. There is a real familiarity to this one – sounds like a dark Visage (if I might be so bold). I love the bands I’ve mentioned in my introduction and there are shades of all of them in this for sure and ‘America’ reminds me of the post 90’s period Bowie. Call it art rock or post-punk synth pop I couldn’t care less its captured superbly and the moody ‘Abigail’ sounds huge and should rightfully turn heads as people will sit up and take notice. The production and songwriting is excellent with the songs being really well arranged and none of them outstay their welcome with just the right amount of Guitars and Synth and great vocals throughout. In fact, Mr. Hussey could do a lot worse than check these out and maybe take them on tour with him, his audience would love this.
Available on 10″ vinyl maybe its time to embrace your dark side and get a headful of I Am Lono you might be very pleasantly surprised.
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