Despite Gary's computer problems he sent his answers last Saturday.

Most of you are following the instructions for emailing questions but a few still are omitting your whereabouts. I'd like to see this info on every submission of questions. Even those who have done so before, otherwise I have to go look up previous sessions to find the relevant info. Please make my job easier by including all requested info with each submission.

Thanks,

Derek

Q1. I just saw the picture of the Harvard in NuWorld.  Looks pretty good.
    Where was the photo taken?  Was that a B-25 behind it or maybe an old
    Hudson?  The top turret was reminiscent of the B-25. I dont know if
    the Lancaster had those?


A1. The picture was taken at Duxford, Cambridgeshire and the aircraft in
    the background is the Bristol Blenheim that my brother flies.

Q2.  Knowing your appreciation of aircraft, and your desire to fly WWII
     planes, I was wondering if you've ever had the chance to pilot any
     aircraft from the first world war, ie Sopwith, Fokker, etc? If you have
     what was your impression, and if not would you like to?

A2. No I haven't and, to be quite honest, I don't really want to. I've had
    three friends killed in WW1 aeroplanes and they don't actually hold that
    much interest for me. I prefer the high power and speed of the WW2
    machines.

Hello again. First I just wanted to say thanks for answering all the
questions we throw at you. I don't know of _anybody_ else that does this,
especially as some of them are quite personal.

Anyway, I was listening to a bootleg (I think) interview last night that was
taken after The Fury tour. I think it's one which you've condemned in the
past. On it you say that you'd rather sell out and sell more records, thus
making more people happy than just make music that wasn't so successful but
was what you wanted to do.

Q3.  After your experiences with IRS and the obvious success of Sacrifice
     onwards, would you now say the opposite, and in fact it is better to do
     what _you_ believe to be good?

A3. Sacrifice has not been successful at all commercially. It's true to say
    that I've been happier with the work recently but I do still crave for
    success. In an ideal situation Exile would go to number 1 around the
    world and I would be successful with an album that sold out to no-one.
    On the other hand if someone paid me a million pounds to sing hip hop
    versions of Al Jolsen tracks I'd do it. I only have one life to live and
    artistic credibility is a very good way of starving for most of it.

Q4.  Do you have any live video recordings of either the Warriors or the
     Fury tours, and would you consider at some stage releasing any of them
     perhaps just via the fan club ?

A4.  None that I'm aware of.


Q5.  Are there any plans to release a single well in advance of the Exile
     album ?

A5.  We don't have any plans about that yet as much depends on whether we
     can get a record deal or not and, if we can, what plans they might then
     have for singles.


Q6.  Apart from the Exile stuff, what would you consider to be your own
     personal favourite songs of yours ? And what would you say was your
     least favourite song ?

A6.  It's honestly impossible to give either. The more recent stuff is much
     better produced that the earlier things and that has to play a part
     from my point of view because I'm responsible for all aspects of a
     song, not just the music or the lyrics and so I listen to them
     differently to other people. I love 'Absolution' but then I also love
     'Noise Noise' and quite a few others. I don't like 'Cry' particularly
     but I wouldn't say it was my least favourite. I don't like 'Jo The
     Waiter' very much either, or 'Bombers' or any of the punkier stuff from
     the early years. Don't like any of the instrumentals from 'Replicas'
     and 'The Pleasure Principle' much come to think of it.

Q7.  Which vehicle does the engine sound at the beginning of  "My Car Slides
     2" belong to ?

A7.  My old Ferrari. A BB 512 Berlinetta Boxer.


Q8.  Why didn't Kipper play guitar on the Premier Tour ?

A8.  A mutual understanding of divergant opinion.


Q9.  There seemed to be so many more people at the concerts this year.  Was
     this just my imagination or were ticket sales significantly better than
     for recent tours ?  With this new wave of interest in you and your
     music do you think you'll be able to get back into the kind of venues
     that you played when you were special guest to OMD ?  I've seen Jean
     Michel Jarre, U2 and The Rolling Stones at Wembley Stadium in recent
     years.  The stage production, especially for U2, was stunning.  Much as
     I enjoyed the shows the one thing I kept thinking all the way through
     was, "I wonder what Gary Numan could do with this place ?".  Do you
     have any ambition to put on another awesome show like you did for The
     Farewell Concerts at Wembley Arena ?

A9.  Ticket sales were up dramatically in most places which was great to
     see. I think I have a way to go before I can headline arenas again but,
     if I ever do, I will be sure to put on a show to talk about.


Q10. Did you vet all the support acts for the Premier Tour ?

A10. No, none of them.


Q11. Why didn't you have just one support act for the whole Premier tour ?

A11. The theory was to get bands that were known locally so that they could
help attract extra people. Didn't work.


Q12. Why was "I'm An Agent" dropped after only a few dates into the Premier
     tour ?

A12. No particular reason.


Q13. One of the major reasons for touring is to promote new material. With
     "Exile" expected in the Autumn why do you not plan to tour again until
     1997 ? Do you not feel that the Numan revival will lose some momentum ?

A13. Because there are other, arguably more effective ways, to promote an
     album. One TV can put you in front of 15 million people in the UK
     alone. I played to about 40,000 on the entire Premier Tour. Those
     figures speak for themselves. On tour you poretty much preach to the
     converted and attract a few new people along the way. With TV and radio
     you preach to an almost entirely new audience each time. The Premier
     Hits promotional campaign showed us a completely different way of doing
     things which we are keen to try. Spend a fortune on hiring third party
     companys to push, plug and promote the record, sell as many as you can
     and THEN tour to capitalise on all that promotional work. By slotting a
     tour into the same few weeks as the promo effort, as we did with the
     Premier Tour, just diluted the time I had for either. It virtually
     shattered me before the tour was even underway and meant that I missed
     a lot of good promo opportunities and missed most of the rehearsals.


Q14. In the Beggars double CD of "Telekon" and "I, Assassin" the back inside
     picture shows what looks like a massive painting of the "Telekon" album
     cover on the side of a building.  Where was this ? What's the story
     behind it ?

A14. I think it's a billboard advert in Tokyo.


Q15. On the Numan Fan Club Telephone Update line in March you said that
     there were going to be 2 different T-shirt designs for the tour. As
     only one design seemed to make it,  is there another design waiting to
     be released, possibly via NuWorld ?

A15. No. We just decided that the one design was so much better than the
     other one that we would stick with just the one.

I've often wondered why it was that I latched onto your music and image way
back in 1979 when I was a mere 13 years old.  Most of my friends at school
were into the  'guitar' bands of the time.  My slightly older sister was
into disco. Before I bought "Are 'Friends' Electric ?" I only had about 6
or 7 singles most of which were a bit punky.  On the face of it I should
have been destined for a life of following guitar thrashing rock gods or
smooching to the latest dancy sounds.  However, I heard AFE once and loved
it. Then I saw the strange looking, unsmiling, almost chilling man perform
the song on TOTP and I was hooked.  I thought (and still do) this guy is
way different and way cool.  With the advent of satellite TV in the UK
giving people the opportunity to see some old cult series again, I've
noticed some similarities bewteen your good self (circa 1979/80) and two of
my favourite TV heros. The first is No. 6 (Patrick McGoohan) from "The
Prisoner" and the other is Commander Ed Straker (Ed Bishop) from "U.F.O."
One dressed all in black.  Very much on the outside of everything.  Up
against it all.  The other wore futuristic type clothes,  blonde almost
white hair. Aloof, robotic and unfeeling.  But both had that cold icy stare
from piercing blue eyes.

Q16. Were you aware of either of these characters and did they influence you
     or your choice of image in the early days ?

A16. I'd seen them on the tele but they were never an influence.

Must say that I've enjoyed your music since Replicas.  I saw your appearance
on Saturday Night Live and really got into it.

Q17. Is there anyway we might be able to get a copy of that performance,
     sound or video?  What year was that, 1979, 1980?

A17. I really don't know. You could try writing to the TV company I guess.


If I recall, you sang Cars and Praying to the Aliens, with subtitles on
Aliens.

Q18. Were the subtitles your idea?

A18. No. I didn't know that they'd used subtitles. If I'd have known I'd
     have looked at a monitor because I probably got them wrong on the
     night.

You may not know this, but the show is still in production, although down
for the season.  It would be cool to see you back on it.

Thanks!!!!!

Some time ago, I remember reading that you "hired out" your Outland Studio
to outsiders for a fixed daily rate.  I was wondering,

Q19. What sort of response did you get (ie did you have a lot using your
     studio)?

A19. It was reasonable but not overwhelming.


Q20. Did you get a great number of people coming in wanting to do covers of
     your songs?

A20. No. People did their own songs mainly. In fact I don't think anyone
     wanted to cover one of mine.


Q21. Was it (letting out your studio) something you enjoyed doing?

A21. Actually it was bloody hard work and I don't think I'll do it again.
     It was good being that involved with fans and their music but after a
     while I had to spend too much time on my own stuff.


Q22. Is it something you have continued to do, or has this now ceased
     (through lack of time or whatever)?

A22. I've stopped doing it now. Time was the main reason for me having to
     stop doing it. The problem was that people would book it for 12 hours
     for a set price which should have been from 11am to 11pm. However at
     11pm they still hadn't finished and I never had the heart to stop them
     or to ask for more money so I often ended up working until 3 or 4 in
     the morning. After a while I just thought Sod it, not worth it anymore,
     plus I was needing to use the studio more and more myself so it had to
     stop.


Q23. On a totally different tack, I was wondering what your impressions of
     Billy Currie were after working with him in 1979 (if you can remember
     in any detail), and whether you have met up with him since?

A23. I can't really remember that much about him. He was a good player and
     fun to be around but that's about as much detail as I canr ecall. I
     haven't seen him for years now.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

I realize I'm delving into your political views here, but then again, I was
the bloke who asked you about a "hair piece" in last month's questions :-)

Q24. Do you have a view/opinion on British Royalty?  In other words, what do
     you think of a family being in power of England simply by being "born
     into it"?

A24. I am a royalist. I love the tradition of it all. They aren't really in
     power anyway, Parliament holds all the power, our royals are
     figureheads only but earn the country far more than they cost.

Q25. Do you think they're doing a good job of it (other than the Charles and
     Diana "thing" that is)?

A25. Yes. Surveys have shown that this country earns billions of ppunds
     through business done under the guise of royal visits and through
     tourism based around the monarchy.

Q26. Have you ever met anyone in the Royal family?  Would you care too?

A26. I haven't but I would like to meet a few of them.

Just wanted to ask a few quick questions regarding Exile.

Q27. How does it look for the September release date?  Is there any chance
     that it will be released earlier?

A27. No chance of earlier. September looks unlikely, October more likely
     but only if it goes out on Numa. If it's signed to a major then your
     guess is as good as mine.

Q28. How many tracks will you put on it?

A28. Probably ten but it depends on how long the final versions of the
     various tracks are.

Q29. Have you designed a cover sleeve yet?

A29. No but I've had a working idea for the front cover for about 9 months.

Q30. When will you put new samples on the NuWorld web site?

A30. Quite soon. I actually have a major problem getting clean sound into
     my mac or I would have changed them a lot more frequently. It's
     something I've been putting back indefinitely but I must fix the
     problem soon.

Send your questions via email to:

Derek Langsford (dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu)

with a subject line of:

Gary's Qs

Include your real name, town/city, county/province/state and country.

I reserve the right to delete and edit questions for content or length.

Thanks to all who participated.