GARY NUMAN @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

In between his new releases, Gary Numan seemingly never stops touring, this year marking the 45th anniversary of his early albums – Tubeway Army’s ‘Replicas’ and his debut solo album, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, both released in 1979. He opened his set on tracks from both releases: the singing synths of eponymous song ‘Replicas’ and ‘M.E.’; the latter saw the masterful meshing of mellifluous synth and industrial, hammering drums as well as reeling guitar. The percussive bashings and guitar continued in ‘Down in the Park’ B-side, ‘Do You Need the Service?’ and the trudge of ‘Engineers’.

With many of the songs from both albums carrying the same rhythmic structure and thick analogue synth sound often drowning out his vocals, Numan also played keyboard for ‘Conversation’ and ‘Praying to the Aliens’; the former with baritone, drone bass and orchestral string synths and the latter with rusty guitar revs, also performing the electro-funk of ‘It Must Have Been Years’. He then brought his daughter Raven on stage to co-sing the rockier robotics of ‘You Are in My Vision’, which was a special moment in the set for both him and fans. Despite the repetitive sound of the tracklists, Numan included more instrumentally varied pieces: the computeronic ‘When the Machines Rock’ and piano keys of anomalous single, ‘Complex’.

Following Tubeway Army single ‘Down in the Park’ and the synth trills of ‘Metal’, Numan ended his set on the whirlwind synth of B-side ‘We Are So Fragile’ and returned for an encore of his best hits from both studio albums: ‘Cars’ from ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ from ‘Replicas’, following its aforementioned B-side.

08/06/24: Gary Numan @ Roundhouse, London.