Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The worst of intruders are those that gain access to what we believe is the most secure and personal belongings we own, our own dark thoughts, our altered memories that plague us, that worm into the mind when it is running on dormant, and which send our own belief, our presence of self, whirling, spinning, until we catch the Intruder and make it sing our song, loudly, with passion, with empathy.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Gary Numan at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph used with kind permission by Dave Edwards.
The dust has barely settled upon the knowledge that the world is broken, not just torn at the seams, stretching thin like black tights that cannot contain the expanding skin or a ceiling under the pressure of water that has started to buckle and strain, the thin plaster becoming slack before coming cascading down upon the floor below; the world is broken and it is arguably in many ways, impossible to put right again.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The connections are always there, the Godfather of Industrial Metal, of Synth driven angst and polished extremes, when it comes to putting an album that captures the emotional pull of the self and the world in which we inhabit, few make it as well as Gary Numan, nobody makes it as savagely beautiful as he.
In Gary Numan’s latest release, Savage (Songs From A Broken World), the connection between the previous album is made clear, moving from the splintered mind that we all possess when the world is cracking under the strain of our presence, to the fractured course of our shared history and its impact on Earth; the connection is positive, endearing, a little bit haunting but fully embracing.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are some things in life that will always seem permanent, the first drops of rain on a British lawn leading to water companies announcing that there will be a hosepipe ban, qualification by any of the home nations to the finals of the World Cup or getting the newspapers going over the top in their assertion that the trophy will be coming home. However, perhaps most welcome of all, the first track of a new Gary Numan album will just be the prelude to a recording so hot that if set out in space would cause the sun to develop blisters.
Originally published by L.S.Media, September 21st 2011.
They say that form is temporary and that class is permanent, in Gary Numan’s case, it’s nailed down with a thousand six foot poles, a few million staples and an industrial size pack of Gaffer tape!
Ever since he arrived on the scene as part of the Tubeway Army in the late 70’s and thereafter on his own, he has continued to release album after album of scintillating music that defies ignorance of the industrial music and searing pop synths, in fact he welcomes it with open arms and embraces it with passion. Dead Son Rising is no exception, filled to the rafters with sounds that other bands would not even consider placing down for eternity.
Where Queen led a year before hand in their release of Hot Space, David Bowie was probably bound to go for the 1983 album Let’s Dance. However where Queen went arguably and disastrously wrong, The Thin White Duke, the master musical chameleon could only do right and Let’s Dance stands out as, up until the release this year of his album The Next Day, the last great and most adventurous album of a long and prestigious career.
Originally published by The Birmingham Mail. March 2008.
Having just celebrated his 50th birthday, Gary Numan appeared as fresh and as good as he has ever been whilst still appearing to be mean, moody and more than able to please a near capacity audience.
Coming on stage to huge applause, Gary and the rest of band postured and preened through the openers of Replicas and the stunning Me, I Disconnect From You.
With no need for introduction of each song, Gary was able to speed through the set whilst retaining the honesty and meaning of classics such as Praying to the Aliens, I Nearly Married a Human and the wonderful It Must Have Been Years.
Gary Numan at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Originally published by the L.S. Media. September 21st 2011.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Gary Numan has some of the most faithful followers in the music industry. From his beginning at the end of the 1970’s as the new pop hero with his new and experimental sounds and film noir look through to the present day where he is seen by some as the Godfather of Industrial Metal, they have stuck by him, added more along the way and through it all, Gary has been given everything back in stunning performances and music that can make grown men act like children in his presence.