Wembley

In 1981, Gary Numan played three 'farewell' concerts at Wembley Arena. It was the culmination of three extraordinary years in which he released a trio of landmark albums in the history of electronic music: 'Replicas' (1979); 'The Pleasure Principle' (1979); and 'Telekon' (1980). At the point where he (temporarily) retired, he was twenty-three, and burnt out.

All through this successful period, during which he also flew around the world in a Piper Navajo, he was relentlessly - and wholly unfairly - pilloried by the British press. This evening, though, forty-one years later, he played Wembley Arena again.

And, of course, I wasn't going to miss that.

Thus, today the Minx and I came down to London, although she was not coming to the gig, this evening, which was - on this singular occasion - to the good; I wouldn't have wanted to spend the gig worrying about whether she was having a good time or not.  

In the afternoon, though, we amused ourselves with a trip to the Sherlock Holmes museum, which must be an absolute wonder if you are a fan. And it was very nicely done. I think for me, it was just interesting to see a London house that had been preserved as it would have been over a hundred years ago.

After that, we met Ash for a drink, and then he and I went off to meet John for a meal at Royal China. I met Ash in my first term at university in 1985, and went on to join his band, The Zane Gray Incident, in which John played keyboards. One of the things that bonded us all was a shared love of Gary Numan.

And once the three of us had eaten, we took the tube across to Wembley Arena. John had got us seats just behind the mixing desk, which is never a bad place to be, and waited for the gig to start.

It was, indeed, a triumphant return. The sound was amazing, especially for such a cavernous venue, and the set list was great; pretty much a fifty-fifty mix of his new material and tracks from those early albums. There was perhaps one song I could have happily missed, which is good going for a set that was well over two hours (yet didn't outstay its welcome).

Numan himself was clearly delighted to be there. It was, I think, for him hugely symbolic. He had his wilderness years in the late eighties and early nineties, before making a creative comeback with his 'Sacrifice' album in 1994. This was followed by a critical renaissance in 1997, when a double album of covers of his songs by respected artists, made it cool to be a Numan fan. Since then, I think he's been working towards this moment.

There was one lovely moment when he brought Rrussell* Bell and Chris
Payne onstage to play 'M.E.'**. They were both members of Numan's 'classic' line-up, but the odd thing was that whilst they did seem to be there as a nod to another life, Numan seemed vibrant, relevant, and current.

*That is how it's spelt
**I took this photo while they were on stage. Rrussell is bang in the middle, playing guitar, and Chris is just above that right-hand camera, holding his viola and bow.