Interview: Gary Numan - Eighties synth supremo is still flying high

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 14:45

IN a year when artists ditched guitars in favour of synthesisers, Gary Numan finally got his due. Which is superb, even better that he's touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his seminal album The Pleasure Principle and playing Edinburgh for the first time in yonks.

The critics slaughtered his 1979 album when it was originally released – but now it's hailed as a masterpiece, three decades after it first topped the charts.

So, Mr Numan, does it feel good to have the last laugh? "It does a bit, actually," says the 51-year-old, who has just kicked off a 16-date tour that brings him to The Picture House on Thursday.

"I don't have a chip on my shoulder, but some criticisms were remarkably personal. People didn't simply dislike the album, they seemed to hate it passionately. I really don't have an argument with that. It's been around a while and opinions change."

One regret he has is the big deal that he made about playing gigs while at his peak in the early Eighties. "I retired from live work in 1981 temporarily and I made a great big fuss about the fact I was doing it," he explains. "It was a really good decision to make; so much had happened quickly and I needed to calm down and take stock but, being young, I had to make a big song and dance about it and I shouldn't have. I really damaged my career because of it." The damage was temporary. Numan's biggest anthems such as Are Friends Electric? and Cars are held up as classics and his music has been covered by modern rock icons like Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, who is known to perform his own version of Down In The Park.

"Dave Grohl is nice and cool, which is often the way with people of that calibre," says Numan. "Electronic revivals happen every five years or so and there are a few covers of my songs about – it's a compliment and good for my wallet."

But while you imagine he could live off royalties amassed from the likes of Sugababes sampling his songs, Numan recently returned to the studio for the first time in five years and has finished two new albums, one of which will see the light of day in the spring, the other in the summer.

The first, Splinter, is a follow-up to 2006's Jagged. The second, Dead Son Rising, features alternative versions of tracks from his last three albums.

Before then, he joins forces for a unique collaboration with an artist he's greatly influenced – the BBC's Sound of 2009 poll winner and current princess of pop Little Boots, aka Victoria Hesketh.

The pair will get together at the iconic studios of Maida Vale to record a session as part of the BBC 6 Music Live strand. But despite notching up a string of his own hits back in the day, Numan says his forage into Little Boots' world is minimal.

"My pop sensibilities are non-existent," he explains. "I was just lucky a long, long time ago that I managed to collide briefly with pop music because my own stuff just isn't pop music.

"I get that Cars was probably the most pop thing I ever did but I think Victoria has a much better sensibility for pop. She's very tuned into it."

As for his eagerly-awaited visit to the Capital, Numan promises fans some new material alongside the classics. "The Pleasure Principle only comes to 50 minutes so the show is effectively going to be in two halves," he says. "There will be a full performance of the album, and then there will be a second section which is a mix of early titles and new work."

He may be getting on a bit now, but Numan still loves touring. "I don't find touring tiring at all," he smiles. "We all treat it as one huge party from the moment we get on the bus until about two days after we get off it. I love it.

"I can't imagine a better way to live your life than on a tour bus, with your best friends, playing music each night to people that love what you do. On longer tours we often play ten or more gigs back to back with no days off. When you're doing something you love why would you want a day off?"

So what's the first thing he does when arriving in a new city? "I gather up all those leaflets you see in the foyers of hotels and look at all the things you can visit while you're there," he laughs. "Then, usually, realise it's soundcheck in less than an hour, so I just hang about in the bar until the bus picks us up.

"I have thousands of those leaflets at home. I keep them all with vague promises to go back one day."

Despite his ice-cool onstage persona, Numan insists he's nothing like that in real life.

"I'm quiet and shy. I've never talked to the crowds and showed them my devastating personality because I don't really have one," he laughs. "On stage I come over as sneering and arrogant. I'm not really like that at all but playing on stage is an unusual thing and acting gets me through it.

"My whole stage persona is an alter ego," he adds.

He may be the godfather of electronic music, the man whose influence looms large over so many of today's pop idols, but Numan feels that his greatest achievement has nothing to do with music.

"I became an air display pilot evaluator," he says proudly, "which means I check that the people who want to become air display pilots are good enough and I help them, fly with them, teach them; I was really proud of that.

"I flew round the world as well, which was a real achievement," he adds.

Gary Numan, The Picture House, Thursday, 7.30pm, 22, 0131-221 2280