The godfather of electronic music, the first synth-pop star, an accident-prone airline pilot: all of these descriptions apply equally to Gary Numan. An Essex boy with carefully cultivated android looks and a robotic monotone, he first emerged in the late '70s fronting Tubeway Army, who scored two massive hits in the form of ‘Are Friends Electric?’ and ‘Cars’. He looked poised to become one of the biggest stars of the '80s, but fatigue forced the singer to dramatically announce his ‘retirement’ after a 1981 Wembley Arena show.
For the next two decades he struggled to maintain his chart career, more often than not making the headlines for his airborne (mis)adventures rather than any musical achievements.
But what goes around comes around, and by the mid-'90s artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Basement Jaxx, Dave Grohl and even Marilyn Manson were citing him as a major influence. His commercial recovery was sealed by Sugababes’ sampling of ‘Are Friends Electric?’ on their 2002 hit ‘Freak Like Me’. Currently touring Jagged, his first album in five years, he claims to be entirely comfortable with his status as patriarch of electronica.
“I’m cool with it,” Numan smiles. “I’m flattered that people see me as an influence, and I’m as much a fan of them as they are of me. I think what we achieved in the '80s was making the synth acceptable, where it is now an established part of music.”
Of his other passion in life, he insists the press got it all wrong and that his flying record speaks for itself.
“I became a fully qualified air display pilot and an instructor, and I have been for years, but in all that time I was only ever in one accident,” he proffers. “But The Sun used to print a daily rundown of all the accidents I’d (supposedly) been involved in. Once they said I’d crashed into a tree in France when I hadn’t even been to France for 20 years. There was another time I was in a B17 bomber as a passenger when it had a flat tire before it took off. They fixed the tyre and it took off without any problems, but The Sun had a headline the next day, ‘Gary Numan In Near Death Drama’. I don’t do much flying now – my wife wasn’t too happy, especially when the children came along.”
Does he still enjoy touring 25 years after his ‘retirement’?
“What’s not to enjoy about it? You’re living the dream, doing what every kid wants to do. In fact, I hate having days off. At nine in the evening you just want to be up there, onstage.”