Gary Numan: Micromusic

Introduction

By 1981 Gary Numan was arguably the world's first electronic superstar. Sure, others had blazed the trail before him but he was in the right place at the right time to really benefit from the switch of punk to something different, dark and cold. With two number 1 singles already behind him in Are 'Friends' Electric? and Cars plus three number one albums in Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon, you'd think he would be comfortable with his place in the world. But no…

The problem with Gary Numan, and still is to some extent, was that he was always pretty insecure in his own abilities, doubting his own song-writing ability and hating the touring that was and is a major part of selling music. It didn't help that Numan came to prominence during the punk age where music journalists were too influential for their own good, bigging up a band one week only to slay them with the pen the next. Bizarrely the written word from these journalists had no impact on Numan's growing popularity, which embittered them further to him.

Gary Numan decided that he was under too much pressure and needed to focus on the one thing he thought would make a difference, he wanted to spend more time in the studio to hone his song-writing skills. In order to achieve this goal he decided that he would announce his retirement from touring - to the dismay of many business colleagues around him. Numan had made a meteoric rise to the top over three years and still didn't understand how the music business operated, only seeing his own problem rather than the impact of live retirement on those around him, such as band colleagues, record company staff and management.

The decision made, Numan announced his retirement to the world and booked three nights at the Wembley Arena in London to host what was to be one of the most spectacular concerts held there at that time. Using the same people from the previous Telekon tour, Numan asked Gaslight to upgrade the lighting rig into what was at that time to be the biggest sets seen in the UK. Numan also not only awarded support slots to dance troupe Shock and Canadian mad violinist Nash The Slash, but asked them to participate in the shows themselves.

The two hour set was a stunning retrospective of his current career containing a mix of tracks from all his albums to date, with his backing band being at the top of their game. And then it was over, and things weren't the same for Numan ever again…

Video

Filmed for TV broadcast and video release back in the day, the picture is in 4:3 format. As with many concert films from this era, it's very dark and soft but not too grainy as you might expect. Sadly whilst you get to see the impressive lighting rig, you don't get many glimpses of the band.

Sound

Sound is only in 2.0 Stereo. It does sound rather good but really could have benefited from a 5.1 mix to really bring it out.

Extras

Interview - an hour long interview with Gary Numan, filmed in 2006, where he is pretty much as candid and self-deprecating as most fans know he is. Even now his lack of self-confidence shines through, preferring to believe that his rise to fame was more the work of others than his song-writing ability - it all goes back to the solitary idea of a picture disc...

Overall

Gary Numan was my first musical hero, the man who decided the future of my music listening habits. His initial Top of the Pops appearance with AFE was as iconic for me as Bowie's Starman was for many others. I remember watching Micromusic on BFBS TV in Germany back in my early teens, as we only had one British Forces channel I managed to persuade my parents to let me watch it but they were both baffled by it, my mum was into Elvis and Cliff whilst my dad was very much a traditional Country & Western fan. They never really understood it, but then they weren't meant to.

Despite the dark, soft picture, this is definitely one of the defining concerts of the period. This was Numan saying farewell to his fans, not musically, but at least in the live sense. You can tell towards the end though that he's having second thoughts, as he admits in the interview. A lot of Numan songs ended up being extremely autobiographical with him putting his feelings about the press and his sometimes smothering fans on vinyl. By the time we get to Please Push No More at the end, a plea for him to be left alone, he's almost silent whenever he gets to this line, allowing the fans to sing it instead as if he actually realises just what they mean to him.

Numan was at the top of the world here and acknowledges that whilst he was proud of the Farewell concerts, they are tinged with almost 30 years of regret at the cost they had to his career. Despite releasing many albums, some of them rather good, in the aftermath of this, Numan could never again be described as being at the pinnacle of his career. For an awful period in the late 80's and early 90's he followed a sub-Prince/Janet Jackson musical route that is still thought a huge mistake by many fans. Then he rediscovered his dark side with albums like Sacrifice and Exile before deciding he wanted a heavier image and ended up as a staple on Kerrang with many of his contemporaries now acknowledging the debt they owed him.

I have to admit that I much prefer the earlier stuff to the later, although I'll still buy it regardless. I just find that whichever period we're talking about, I have to be in a different place in order to listen to any of his music now. Not sure why that is but I can't just throw on TPP, Telekon or I, Assassin on a whim. No idea what that says about me but it isn't that I like his music less, just that it takes a bit more for me to listen to it.

Still, I digress. Micromusic has been long overdue an appearance on the DVD format and whilst it's not as good visually as you might expect in order to do justice to the spectacle, it sounds fantastic.

Recommended.