In May, Gary Numan and his band will be returning to Australia to perform The Pleasure Principle in full, in the continuing celebration of its 30th anniversary. But it’s not the first time that the legend of the electronic music world has performed a past album in full.
Replicas and Telekon received similar treatment in recent years – the former coinciding with Numan’s 50th birthday, and his 30th year in the music business. So what brought on the trend of the Numan ‘album’ tours? I asked the man himself when I had the honour of speaking with him earlier this evening.
“I don’t know why (the album tours have) become so popular to be honest, I guess fans kind of like it. For me, it started out as a compromise. I was touring here (in the UK) regularly, and I don’t really like nostalgia, which sounds silly in context – but I really don’t. My shows are usually new or recent stuff, with only 2 or 3 tracks from the early days. I had a lot of trouble with the older fans in particular, who really weren’t happy about that. It really is an ongoing problem. So quite a few years ago, I said, look, if I was to do a tour, where I just played an old album, would you – this sounds a bit rude – but would you get off my back when I’m doing my normal touring, where I don’t particularly want to do lots of old stuff?
I’ve been going for such a long time, if I was to do a show that was just singles, it would last for four hours! So much stuff to choose from, and if you want to be doing and promoting what you’re doing now, then it doesn’t leave a lot of room for the old stuff. So that was the compromise. I did four shows of the Telekon album, and then I went back to conventional touring.
I have to say that it really wasn’t as horrific as I thought it would be. I thought it would be an embarrassing walk through the past, and I’m just really not into it. And then my 50th came along, so we thought we’d do the album that launched me (Replicas) into my 30 year career, and that was a bigger tour. And the record company really got behind it, re-releasing the album and doing all kind of things with it – and again, it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. Then, similar treatment was given to The Pleasure Principle on its 30th anniversary, so I decided to do a one off show in England, in Manchester.
Once again the record company got behind it and it became six shows, which eventually became 16. It was a much bigger thing than I expected. Then we were going to do two shows in America, but they were cancelled because of the volcano (in Iceland). And so when we got back over there, it had also blown up (the tour, not the volcano), and I think we did 16 shows there as well, and in Mexico too.
Then we were talking with Fraser (Red Ant Touring) about coming back to Australia, and because of The Pleasure Principle tour going so well in these other countries, we thought it would be a great thing to bring back to Australia.
It’s just one of those things – what started out at one show in Manchester has gone into 5 countries and 3 continents… But I have to say, while it’s fun, and I don’t hate doing it the way I thought I would, it’s not at the top of the list of the things I want to be doing. I’m much more excited about new stuff, and new albums, than I am about celebrating old stuff. But then again, once in a while, I think it’s a cool thing to do. Though I think if your career became JUST this, it would be horribly depressing.
The best thing about The Pleasure Principle though is that it’s not very long, it’s only about 40 minutes, so we effectively do the show in two halves. The first half is The Pleasure Principle and then the second half will include some of the new stuff we’re working on. It’s kind of a nice way of bracketing the career, where not only do we have the opportunity to celebrate what came before, but it also gives me the opportunity to show the evolution of where we are now, which makes it more of an enjoyable experience.”
Have the changes in technology changed the way you perform The Pleasure Principle tracks at all? Do you feel this an evolution?
“We pretty much do them exactly as they were. When I did the Replicas album and the Telekon album before that, I did try to make them as they would sound now. I had a real chip on my shoulder about doing something nostalgic. But it dawned on me with The Pleasure Principle that that’s just not the way to do it. You’re celebrating that album, not some new version of it. I think you should do it the way that it was.
It’s actually been relatively simple. There are certain technologies around at the moment, I know they’re new and cutting edge, but they’re are very very capable of recreating the sounds of The Pleasure Principle album. It’s a very simple album, I have to say, there really are only 4 or 5 sounds on it if I have to be perfectly honest *laughs*, it’s not a tricky album to try and re-create, though I wasn’t sure to begin with.”
Let’s talk now about what we’re going to be hearing from you in 2011. I understand Dead Son Rising (a collection of tracks which were leftovers from the last few albums) is one of the projects in the works?
“We’ve gotten a bit sidetracked on that one actually. We were working on DSR around the same time as we started on the new album Splinter. And now the material from DSR has veered off a little into film score land. So all my work at home is focused on Splinter, and that needs to be finished at the end of April – bit of a tight deadline on that one! So that’s what we’re doing at the minute.
They all should be coming out this year one way or another. Whether DSR ends up as a film soundtrack, and it’s even possible some of it might seep over into Splinter, depending on how it sounds. But either way, it will be coming out this year, and we’ll have it finished before we come to Australia, so I can fit as much as possible into the second half!”
We were talking before about new technologies – are you embracing all aspects of new technology in the creation of the new material? Computers, gadgets, gizmos and what have you…
“I will use any new technology that comes along. I grab it, I love it. I’m totally computer and ProTools based, I even use my iPad for songwriting when I’m moving around. Four of the songs I’m working on now were all started on the iPad, one of them funnily enough was started on the flight back from the last time I performed in Australia… so have been working on that one for quite a while!
I think one of the things that attracted me to electronic music in the first place was that it was cutting edge technology, and I loved that, and I’ve never lost that. Every new thing that has come out in the last 30 years I’ve jumped on. I have no ties with old electronic equipment. When a new one comes along, I chuck out the old one. And now with computers, I’m entirely software based. I’ve got a load of hardware for touring, but in the studio I’ve just got one, and that’s virtually just a keyboard that fires up all the software. I love it.
One of the cool things about electronic music is that there are new ways to make sounds almost every month! So to be constantly fed new ways to make music, it’s a massive advantage that we have over a guitar based drum band. Every album is going to evolve, because every new piece of software has 2,000 new sounds. It makes my job a lot earlier.”
What is your favourite toy at the moment.
“I actually like the iPad, I’m finding that very very useful, in a number of ways. But there’s so much stuff, it’s kind of difficult to narrow it down. And when it’s software based, it’s a bit boring in a way – not particularly visual, sitting in front of a computer screen. Won’t be interesting to anyone else.
But the most useful thing in my life at the moment is definitely the iPad. Surprisingly enough, I’m not that gadget orientated. But I mean with the iPad, I navigate with it, it tells me what to do when I get there, it helps my buy tickets, I write songs with it when I’m out and about, it’s just the most amazing bit of kit – I’d be lost without it.”
Sounds like you’d make a great salesman for Apple because you’ve sold me.
*Laughs*
As we come to the end of our chat, I’d like to talk about your imitators, and those you’ve inspired. The electronic scene is full of no doubt thousands of them – who are some of your favourites? A few of whom, I’m sure, are playing with you at the “Back to the Phuture” gigs in the UK in April?
“I’m a big fan of Recoil, Alan Wilder’s project after Depeche Mode. I think he’s done some brilliant stuff. I’m really pleased to be able to do the “Back to the Phuture” show with him. But I think that the band who have had the biggest impact on me over the years is Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. I’ve gotten to know Trent now over a period of time, and I think he’s such an impressive person, with such a phenomenal work ethic, amazingly creative, how he’s able to jump from one thing to another. Very very very impressive. Big Nine Inch Nails fan. Big Trent Reznor fan.
I did some shows in America with a band called Motor, they’re really cool. But I just did a track with Battles, I did the vocals and the lyrics. They are so different, unique… they’ve got such an unusual approach to putting their music together. I was really honoured, really proud to be involved in that. Very very cool. I think they’re going to be huge.”
Numan and Reznor perform together at one of Nine Inch Nails’ final performances.
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GARY NUMAN performing The Pleasure Principle, May 2011
with extra special guests Severed Heads (all dates excluding Perth)
Thursday 12th. Brisbane. Tivoli. 18+.
Tickets from http://www.ticketek.com.au
Friday 13th. Sydney. Enmore Theatre. All ages.
Tickets from http://www.ticketek.com.au
Saturday 14th. Melbourne. Forum. 18+.
Proudly supported by Triple R
Tickets from http://www.ticketmaster.com.au
Monday 16th. Adelaide. HQ. 18+.
Tickets from http://www.ticketek.com.au
Tuesday 17th. Perth. Astor Theatre. 18+.
Tickets from http://www.bocsticketing.com.au/
