Photo: Richard Gray
Who is Gary Numan, you ask? Only the man that Trent Reznor could have been. While this inflammatory statement it clearly a joke, there are moments in the first half an hour of Numan’s set tonight when you feel like you could be watching Nine Inch Nails.
Such is the influence of Robert Finck, collaborator on Numan’s 2013 album Splinter and former NIN guitarist, that the lines between the two artists are sometimes more blurred than you’d think. The older of the industrial goth-heroes starts tonight with 'Pressure', taken from 2006 album, Jagged. It’s a barnstorming opening, with 57-year-old Numan pulling off the kind of lithe and seductive moves a man half his age would be proud of.
His voice, more profound and less reedy than in the Tubeway Army days, cuts through the band’s deep industrial tones impressively. The heavier tone is set and remains for the first five songs of the evening. But then 1979’s 'Bombers' marks a slight return to the Numan of old, still darkly metallic but with the familiar synth lines making their first meaningful contribution to the night’s entertainment.
But that’s not at all to say the audience appeared to be waiting for this shift. It’s welcomed but such was the strength of the opening that it feels as much as a natural progression rather than a relief, which an ageing singer turning to old material often can be.
'Cars' is thrown in around two-thirds of the way in. But there is no hysteria from the crowd, little outpouring of glee or emotion. And Numan should take this as a compliment. To outsiders, Numan IS 'Cars' and 'Cars' is Numan, but inside the Royal Festival Hall tonight his dedicated and knowledgeable fan-base take in this their stride. They treat it as what it is; a good song played near the end of a great set.
'Are Friends Electric' closes the main set before Numan returns, acoustic guitar ominously in hand, to kick of the encore with a solo version of 'Jo The Waiter'. He affably jokes about a previous occasion when an attempt to do something similar was predictably below par, asking the audience if they remember "how shit I am at this". But to be, fair he pulls it off. It’s never going to be a highlight but neither is it an abomination.
An uber-flouncy and triumphant 'I Die: You Die' closes the evening, Numan leaving the stage to the deserved adulation of the loving throng. He certainly is an entertainer, and when pitched with the right musical collaborators can also produce some fine songs.
The point made about the NIN influence earlier may have been unfair, because of course Numan himself was a huge influence on a young Reznor. So essentially, what you end up with on some occasions is a kind of Numan doing Reznor doing Numan pastiche. But you know what, if it sounds and looks this good, long may it continue.
Gary Numan played:
Pressure
Everything Comes Down to This
Remind Me to Smile
My Jesus
Here in the Black
Bombers
The Machman
Dark
Down in the Park
Prophecy
I Am Dust
Cars
We're the Unforgiven
Love Hurt Bleed
My Shadow in Vain
Are 'Friends' Electric?
Encore:
Jo the Waiter
A Prayer for the Unborn
I Die: You Die
