All the fives

Elaine Paige was 75 on Sunday

Elaine Paige - With One Look

Elaine Paige OBE (born Elaine Jill Bickerstaff, 5th March 1948)

Gary Numan is 65 today

Gary Numan - She's Got Claws

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb, 8th March 1958)

Patsy Kensit was 55 last Saturday

Eighth Wonder - I'm Not Scared

Patsy Kensit (born Patricia Jude Kensit, 4th March 1968)

Proof, indeed (if any were needed) that we have the most eclectic musical tastes here at Dolores Delargo Towers...

Many happy returns, one and all!

Wrecked

The world’s ‘oldest intact shipwreck’ must have a hole in it somewhere or it would not be a shipwreck, experts have reasoned.

The discovery of a 2,400-year-old vessel at the bottom of the Black Sea has some experts claiming its mast, rudders, rowing benches and hull are perfectly preserved, and others calling bullshit.

Maritime archaeologist Julian Cook said: “Completely intact? What happened then, did it just forget how to float?

“Stands to reason it suffered some damage. You check that hull properly and I bet there’s a great big hole in it somewhere, where the water came in.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great discovery, but let’s not get carried away. When I was a kid they went on about how incredibly preserved the Mary Rose was. Have you seen it? It’s a fucking wreck.

“Or the alternative is that it is completely intact, but it was just a really, really crap ship. In which case who cares anyway.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

And, just because... this:

Gary Numan - This Wreckage

[The "real" story]

The magic of the Moog

I've been listening to writer and broadcaster Andrew Collins' rather faboo four-part series on electronic music The Great Bleep Forward on BBC Radio 6 Music.

It's a fab retrospective of a genre of music I particularly love - and features everything from the Teleharmonium to Wendy/Walter Carlos to Tangerine Dream to Robert Moog to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to Brian Eno to Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, the Human League, OMD, Depeche Mode, Trevor Horn, House music and beyond.

And, just because... Here's a mix of oddities I have chosen, for your delectation, from that great "bleeping" world of artificial soundscapes:

Gary Numan - Complex

Gary Clail feat. Lana Pillay - Human Nature

John Foxx - Underpass

Mixhell & Joe Goddard feat. Mutado Pintado - Strong & Wrong

Glam with Pete Burns - Sex Drive (Parralox Bootleg Remix)

Simple Minds - I Travel

Visage/Hurts/Space/Pet Shop Boys - Fade To Love (Robin Skouteris Mix)

Bleep!

Does everything stop when the old tape fails?

Today is the 55th birthday of my icon Gary Numan, a man who obsessed me during my formative years. I have him to thank for many things - not least for his influence on my subsequent exploration and appreciation of the back-catalogue of Mr Bowie, Mr Ferry and the rest, and my eternal fascination with dressing-up.

This song was never off my turntable in 1980. I played it so much, I think I wore the vinyl out! - it's I Die, You Die:

Gary Numan - I Die You Die

This is not love
This is not even worth a point of view
In Echo Park
I pause for effect and whisper 'who are you?'

They crawl out of their holes for me
And I die: You die
Hear them laugh, watch them turn on me
And I die: You die
See my scars, they call me such things
Tear me, tear me, tear me

Now I have your names
Screaming 'you will suffer' and 'you're all too late'
Now I feel young
Does everything stop when the old tape fails?

They crawl out of their holes for me
And I die: You die
Hear them laugh, watch them turn on me
And I die: You die
See my scars, they call me such things
Tear me, tear me, tear me

But I'm still frightened by the telephone.

Gary Numan (Gary Anthony James Webb)

Read my previous blogs about Mr Numan

I'll have my name in lights

Happy birthday today to my original electro guru, Mr Gary Numan!

I know I have blogged about him before - notably here, here and here, but...

...I couldn't resist posting this brilliant cover:

Gary Numan - On Broadway

They say the neon lights are bright
On Broadway
They say there's always magic in the air
But when you're walkin' down the street
And you ain't had enough to eat
The glitter rubs right off and you're nowhere

They say the chicks are somethin' else
On Broadway
But lookin' at them just gives me the blues
'Cause how ya gonna make some time
When all you got is one thin dime
And one thin dime won't even shine your shoes

They say that I won't last too long
On Broadway
I'll catch a Greyhound bus for home they say
But they're dead wrong, I know they are
'Cause I can play this here guitar
And I won't quit till I'm star
On Broadway

But they're dead wrong, I know they are
'Cause I can play this here guitar
And I won't quit till I'm star
On Broadway

Gary Numan official website

It keeps me stable for days

It is, amazingly, thirty years this week since Gary Numan's classic Cars hit the top of the UK charts... Yet it seems like it has never really gone away.
For with this mega hit, the maestro of electro-pop and godfather of the "80s sound" not only provided the springboard upon which such giants as The Human League, OMD, Depeche Mode and even Soft Cell could launch their estimable paths to success, and provided a catalyst for even greater geniuses such as David Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk to revive their careers, but in more recent times his "sound" has been re-jigged and sampled by such modern Electro DJs and producers as Richard X, Basement Jaxx and even Armand van Helden - and soon to be released, the new one from Chicane.

Compare and contrast...

Gary Numan - Cars

Chicane - Hiding all the Stars

I was in a car crash, or was it the war? Well, I've never been quite the same

Author, fantasist and downright strange person J.G. Ballard is dead. Although he was feted for his childhood memoir (latterly produced on screen by Steven Spielberg) Empire Of the Sun, and treated with shock and awe for his other famous work that became a film (by David Cronenburg, no less) Crash, it is for the influence his surreal science fiction short stories had upon music that we should truly recognise this man.

For amongst those songs ostensibly influenced by his work are these beloved classics...

Tubeway Army - Down In The Park

Joy Division - Atrocity Exhibition

The Normal - Warm Leatherette

JG Ballard obituary in the Telegraph

And just for a second I thought I remembered you

Happy birthday today to one of my greatest inspirations - Mr Gary Numan.

Why Numan, and not Bowie, Roxy, or Kraftwerk - his own acknowledged biggest influences? I was actually too young to appreciate the coolness of any of them. At the height of their powers in the mid 70s, my world revolved around Top of the Pops, glam (especially Queen), and the emerging "New Wave" and disco sounds.

It was in 1979, after the brief flurry that was Punk had died down, and at a similar time to my obsession with Blondie, that I stumbled upon a performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test by an unknown band called "Tubeway Army". I became absolutely hooked, and I didn't really know why...

Numan's stark, steely presence - like some kind of "space elf" - and his mournful robotic vocals fascinated me. I bought every record (single and LP) he produced, went to see him at the Colston Hall in Bristol on his Telekon tour in '81, and began to model my look and tastes around this new alien synthesizer-driven world of his creation. In night classes, I used his iconic White Album image [above] to screen-print T-shirts, and I craved a diagonal-buttoned jacket like his.



Little did I know at the time how much of a musical sea-change was just around the corner in his wake, with the rise of the Futurist/New Romantic movement I came to embrace. His song Jo The Waiter ["Held me close, behind the door marked 'Gentlemen'"] became a bit of an inspiration during my coming out, too.

His appearance on the music scene ruffled a few long-established feathers. David Bowie famously wanted Gary Numan off the set of the Kenny Everett Show on which they were both scheduled to appear, saying that he didn't know that "cloning was part of the 80s". Miaow. But it was through the "Numan influence" that I, and many others, came to rediscover the ground-breaking music of the original 70s pioneers via our local "Bowie/Roxy nights".

A largely unrecognised legend these days (except perhaps by Richard X), but one dear to my heart:

Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?

Tubeway Army - Down in the Park

Gary Numan - I Die, You Die

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb, 8th March 1958)