Live: Gary Numan – Foundry, Sheffield 21/03/2018

GARY NUMAN (+ Nightmare Air)
Foundry, Sheffield

21/03/2018

Not only is electronic music innovator Gary Numan supporting one of his strongest albums to date in the form of 'Savage: Songs From A Broken World', but this tour of the UK also coincides with his 60^th birthday. And as he proves at tonight's show at Sheffield Student Union's Foundry venue, is still creating and performing with the best of them.

First onto the stage though is LA's Nightmare Air. Local to Gary now that he has relocated to the city of angels, this three-piece mix new wave, shoegaze and alt rock into a fairly serviceable if overall bland end product. Meek female vocals and conviction-less emotive male screeches are set against a decent-enough combination of new wave bass, shoegaze guitar, and very modern dance-friendly electronics.

Given Numan's now 20-odd year embrace of heavier industrial rock these seem like an odd choice as a support group, perhaps more to ease-in the older members of the audience who are in attendance to hear a few cuts from 'Replicas'. Nevertheless their set is fairly well received even though the most memorable part will be trying to remember exactly what they did.

As Numan and his band take to the stage, it is hard to believe that a man with his much energy and stage presence is 60 years old now. His voice still sounds great and he moves around the stage with more conviction than performers half his age. It's a good job though as the set draws mainly from his three most recent, and heaviest albums 'Savage...', 'Splinter...', and 'Dead Son Rising'.

From the opening of 'Ghost Nation', through tracks such as 'The Fall', 'Bed Of Thorns', 'Here In The Black', 'Mercy', 'Love Hurt Bleed', 'My Name Is Ruin' and 'When The World Comes Apart' the band passionately power through while Numan gives each track his all. He's no stranger to retrospective tours as we've seen in recent years, but synthpop is in his past and tonight's performance shows that heavy industrial rock is very much his presence and future.

That isn't to say there isn't room for a bit of nostalgia as rockier re-workings of 'Metal', 'Down In The Park', 'Cars', and 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' are still undoubted highlights. And even after nearly 40 years, Numan still has the passion to sing those songs and integrate them into his newer material.
With 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' finishing up the main body of the set it's a puzzle to second guess what will make up the encore. For this Numan delves into the fairly recent past with 'A Prayer For the Unborn' from 'Pure' and 'My Last Day' from 'Splinter...'. Unexpected but very poignant and effective closers.

Numan shows once again he is still at the cutting edge of music and has the ability to bring that music to life in a dynamic and passionate live performance. For anyone that thinks he is an artefact of the early 80s a performance like tonight's would be a massive shock to the system. Numan can still create great music and perform with the best of them.

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Live: Gary Numan – Roundhouse, London

GARY NUMAN 
Roundhouse, London
16th November 2013 

It seems that a lot has changed in Gary Numan's life in recent years. Relocation to LA, and an increasing opening up to his fans, firstly through social media: followers of his Twitter account were invited to his personal family photo album as he travelled across the US with his wife, kids and a horse-sized dog. His daughters even appeared in the music video to his latest single, 'Love Hurt Bleed'. New album 'Splinter' continues this trend being exceptionally personal and soul-baring, and sonically powerful and anthemic. All of which raised expectations and curiosity to witness New Man Numan live.

The change is visible even before he walks onstage, as the lights go down and what looked like metal scaffolding seconds beforehand turns out to be a massive electronic led display, simultaneously connecting to Numan's tradition of futuristic, sci-fi stage settings throughout the years, and placing it in the here and now. Then he appears. Looking fit, invigorated, hungry, assuming full command of stage and crowd immediately. This has always been his natural habitat, but there is truly a sense of resurrection. The songs from 'Splinter' are perfectly balanced between Numan's industrial guitar sound of the recent decade and a half and the searing, beaming, trademark synth sound. The result is scintillating, almost shocking.

Numan is cavorting all over the place like a 20-year-old, giving it his all, light years away from his past aloof distance or pouting superstar persona. This is a real and as tangible as it gets. The old songs integrate seamlessly, classics like 'Metal', 'Down in the Park' and 'I Die You Die' all getting massively aggressive treatments. Without any theatrics bar the aforementioned light show, the forcefulness of delivery often equals that of Rammstein or NIN, Numan serving as Godfather asserting his hegemony. The aforementioned current single, which in its studio version sounds as if Numan momentarily fronted Curve (yes that's a good thing indeed), contends with the classics with its rousing dance chorus. 

However, tonight is not just about muscle-flexing, but about a full emotional spectrum, as evident with the rendition of 'Lost', probably Numan's purest, most naked ballad ever, during which he wells up and breaks into tears. When an artist gives everything, he gets everything back. The Roundhouse is in absolute rapture. Coming back for encore with 'Cars' and 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', Numan seems to be enjoying delivering these two eternal crowd-pleasers more than ever. This becomes all the more poignant as he changes the lyrics of one spoken line in 'Electric', gesturing towards us and saying “you see this means everything to me”. Spine-chilling. And if that wasn't enough, Numan concludes by reminding us he is a contemporary musician and not a nostalgia act by choosing to cap tonight's set with 'My Last Day', 'Splinter's magnificently melancholy closer. Unforgettable.

Avi Pitchon

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