Gary Numan plus support from Raven Numan

Arriving a little late to catch Raven’s full set, we were very impressed and not only us, the crowd, packed in like sardines, gave her a fantastic reception. She obviously has a cracking voice and a confidence about her, very much in her dad’s vein, not the eighties vein, the now vein. She kept the full O2’s interest all through her warmup set, and we look forward to covering Raven again soon.

Tonight turned out to be a very unusual gig by the legend that is Gary Numan. Yes, he is as ever brilliant live, but don’t expect the synthesiser tunes of old, this IS a ROCK concert. He blends synth sounds to heavy guitar incredibly well giving even the classic tunes a new lease of life, and visually great lighting and more stage presence than you can shake a preverbal stick at. He comes on with a menacing look on his face, and kicks off with ‘This Wreckage’, from his album, ‘Telekon’, which is the title of this tour, and is believe it or not is 45 years old. Flanked by his henchmen on guitar and bass, two equally menacing looking bald headed, very talented monk types, completes the look.

Now we come to one of the most astonishing things we have ever seen at a gig, after one song, ‘Please Push No More’, Numan basically burst into tears and broke down. At first the crowd didn’t know what to do, and when his wife, Gemma came on and the two hugged each other for what seemed ages. The crowd now cheering, were getting over the shock of what was happening, after Gemma, wiping tears away left the stage, Numan stood there and explained to the faithful, that he had received some devastating news but couldn’t say to the crowd what, as he needed a few days to digest it. The noise from the crowd grew even louder, with screams of “NUUMAN”! He turned away himself wiping tears from his makeup face, and when he again faced the crowd, the roaring from the crowd seemed to set him off again. It took him nearly ten minutes to continue, but continue he did, giving an unbelievable performance after what had happened. A true professional and after an encore of three ‘Tubeway Army’ tunes, it was over.

What a performance and what a gig on for different reasons, and can’t wait until next time, but with happier times. A couple of days after a lot of media speculation, Numan revealed the reason why the breakdown. He was out with his brother, John, after the gig in Leeds the night before, and went for a meal and catchup, as you do, when after midnight he had to leave on the tour bus to go to Birmingham for tonight’s gig. After giving his brother a hug and saying goodnight, he got onto the tour bus and John walked to his car, which apparently was only a few hundred yards away, when he had what’s believed to be a heart attack. And although a couple of people were passing tried to help, John passed away. Wow, how sad, and now knowing the circumstances, how he performed god knows. We send our condolences to all the family at this sad time.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe