Interviewing Gary Numan

Whilst I have kept it fairly well hidden from most people around me, I have, for the last couple of weeks, been an absolute bag of nerves. Let me tell you why.

My friend, Keith, runs a blog called, The Song Sommelier,  which I have written for a handful of times, and recently he started a Podcast series called 'The Art Of Longevity'. To be honest, I wasn't sure how this would work out; almost by definition you'd need some big names for this, not just the guy who's been doing open mic down your local for thirty years.

Anyway, for Episode 1 Keith managed to interview Olly Knights of Turin Breaks. OK, so far, so good. Then, for the second episode, he got NILE BLOODY RODGERS!! That interview is clearly going to open a few doors for him, including, I hope, the one that will lead Keith to his dream interviewees: Duran Duran.

Now, Keith and I have been chatting about all this all the way through and one day he announced that he might try to get Gary Numan and, if he managed it, would I do the interview? Even at this hypothetical stage, there was a butterfly invasion in my stomach. The first single I ever bought for myself was Tubeway Army's 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', which is the foundation stone of my love of electronic music.

Numan was the front man of Tubeway Army, and under that name and then 'solo', he released three albums - 'Replicas', 'The Pleasure Principle', and 'Telekon - all of which I still play regularly forty years later. These albums went on to influence a whole generation of artists.

On the evening of April 16th, hot on the heels of our initial chat about interviewing Numan, Keith forwarded an email message from Numan's management, with a note that simply read: "you're on". Oh God.

Consequently, I have spent the last twelve days reading Numan's autobiography, '(R)evolution', thinking about what to ask him, and thinking of all the ways I might mess this up. To reassure myself, I have been listening to podcasts featuring him and watching interviews with him on YouTube to remind myself what a lovely, friendly guy he is.

Today, though, was The Day. I finished the autobiography, went for a marvellously hilly run around Holmfirth, and spent the afternoon writing out my questions in full, and then, at five twenty-five, Numan joined me online from Los Angeles, where he now lives.

He was lovely right from the start. He told me he was off for his second jab after the interview, which he was very happy about, and we talked a bit about how we've coped with being locked down. I could have happily just chatted to him for an hour but there was the interview to be done!

This was a different kettle of fish. I had my list of questions, of course, but sometimes Gary's answer to one question would lead naturally to another further down my list, so I ended up jumping about a bit, trying to keep an eye on which questions were remaining, with diminishing chances that what he was talking about for each answer would lead to one of the questions I had left. Plus, I needed to make a call on when he'd finished with an answer and it was time for another question.

I was wrong-footed once or twice when the question I asked didn't really interest him but, like an absolute pro, he moved seamlessly onto what would have been the answer to a different question.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable hour, even if it was a little stressful. Afterwards, he was absolutely charming, though, and he left me feeling like I'd done a good job.

And then he was gone and I spent the whole evening feeling happy and shocked,  and dancing around in my head with thirteen year old me hugging and dancing and shouting "We just interviewed Gary Numan! GARY NUMAN!"

PS I really must thank the Minx for all her support over the last twelve days, along with the ever-calm Keith, and Dan and Abi, and also Simon, a fellow Numan fan, who read through my questions for me and was entirely encouraging, understanding where I was at in my head at all times.

PPS As a rule of thumb, don't meet your heroes but, if you do, I hope they are as lovely as Gary Numan.

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I finished reading Gary Numan's book, '(R)evolution', today. It's a whirlwind trip through his long career, while still coming in at 454 breathless pages. It was written by him (as opposed to a ghostwriter) in only seven weeks. Seven weeks! And whilst I am clearly biased, I can only recall enjoying John Taylor's autobiography as much: well-written, charming, funny, humble, and informative.