The eighties phenomenon is back with his Telekon 45th Anniversary Tour reveals why his fans’ fondness of nostalgia drives him mad and how he’s looking forward to performing with his daughter Raven
Robotic tones and eerie electronic music were only matched in their weirdness by Gary Numan’s heavily kohl-lined stare and stage outfits straight from the world of sc-fi.
Now the eighties phenomenon is back with his Telekon 45th Anniversary Tour – celebrating the birthday of his third UK number 1 album – supported by his daughter Raven, who will be performing alongside him.
While he professes to hate anniversary tours, he says: “It is such a big milestone it would be arrogant to not do something about it. I will have my little moment of reminiscing with people. ”
Ever since he really caught the public imagination with his 1979 hit Are Friends Electric? when he was performing as Tubeway Army, Gary Numan has been something of an enigma.
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Now 67, he changed his name from Gary Webb to Numan after finding a plumber in the Yellow Pages called Arthur Neumann and then abandoning the German spelling. Born in Hammersmith, west London, but now living in Los Angeles, he is more concerned about what’s happening in the future than in taking a trip down memory lane.
Particularly worried about climate change and the future of the planet, he says: “It bothers me that we have got Trump and how the warnings about it [the planet] are getting more dire. The tipping point is coming ever closer and things are moving faster than they thought they were going to with the sea rising.
“We all know that and we have got Trump, who is systematically undoing all the things that have been put in place to try to help. None of it was enough, but instead of building on it he is getting rid of it. It is properly frightening and nerve wracking. I have got three little ones. As a dad it definitely bothers me.”
But Numan is not all doom and gloom, he does celebrate creativity. “I got into music because I was interested in creating something,” he says. “Electric music was important to me. It not only gave me the opportunity to write songs, but the very sounds themselves were the sounds you had never heard before. I was obsessed by that. I have never lost that. I still wake up in the morning and my desire is to go to the studio and come up with the noises and the sounds that you have not heard before.”
Frustrated by his fans’ desire for nostalgia, the creative genius continues: ”Fans just want me to keep doing my hits Cars and Are Friends Electric? It has been a massive hassle to get my own following to accept the fact that we are just going to keep moving forward and we are not going to do many of these nostalgia things. If people want to work with me to do an 80s thing, I am not the one for it. I don’t think about it at all. I don’t actively think about it and I don’t want to work with anyone. I do my own thing. I want to be in the here and now.”
Numan’s dislike of nostalgia is mainly fuelled by his desire for life to remain a voyage of discovery. “For me it is the kiss of death,” he continues, on his anti-nostalgia theme. “It does feel like as though you are raising a little white flag and saying ‘I have nothing new to offer. All of my ideas are gone. I am just going to live off past glories.’ That is why I have such a problem with it.”
For Gary, neither looking back, nor sitting still are acceptable options. He says: “I am as prolific now as the day I started. I am as passionate about things now as I was the day I started. I am not interested in the 1980s.” Known for his space age style clothing at the time of Telekon, Numan says most of his famous costumes have now gone. He says :”My mum kept a few up in the loft and then when my mum died we cleared everything out and half of them had rotted away. They were covered in mould. I do have the famous black leather jacket with the red stripe. I do have that one. “
Even his overly made-up face is no more. He says: “I have toned it right down now. I am getting too old for too much make up. I don’t think glam is essential. It is not a requirement now.” Gary, who has been open about his Asperger’s diagnosis, has three daughters – Raven, 22, Persia, 20, and Echo Moon, 18, with his wife Gemma, who he met at a signing and married in 1997.
He is clearly very proud that his children are all musical. He says: “They write their own music. My daughter Echo has a garage band. She is amazing at structuring four or five minutes of music. My daughter Persia has sung with me many times on stage. She has been on an album and has started to record her own stuff. And Raven did music and she went off it and now she is back into it again. She is really clever. She has an amazing ear for melody, I am all for it.
“Would I like them to date rock stars? What a terrible way to progress that would be! I am so massively family-orientated. If I am not working I am with my family.” And he loves nothing more than throwing everything in a big van and driving off together. I am slightly disconnected with the world, to be honest,” he says. “I have got my own little bubble and I love it. My family makes me really happy and my kids. They have not turned into those horrible zombie kids which some teenagers can. They are lovely and lovely to be around. I just try to keep the world at arms length from all of us.
