The lights dim, the stage bathed in green and smoke. Indistinguishable forms emerge on stage, you wonder if its him? Has he evolved/altered his form? His bandmates look like two shaven headed Viking berserkers with their tunic tops, matching skirts and facepaint running in a line down their chin. Ready for battle. He emerges and bursts into “Down in the Park” . He too looks warlike. With torn and frayed clothes and three blood coloured lines running vertically down his face. As if sent from a dystopian future. From my position in the pits he beams you in with his contorted energy, the audience is rapt. The adoration for Gary Numan in Camden Electric is palpable, from his army of “Numanoids”.
When I work my way back into the crowd I get repelled for getting in the way of their god. As well as moving to the music in their own individual ways, you can see them zooming in on him like a messianic beacon with their phones at various points. They want to be as close as possible. These fans are ALL IN, a Tubeway Army at the command of Numan. Tonight is his 999th show, tomorrow the 1000th, so it does feel special. The t-shirts are a cut above. The feature the Bauhaus style Numan portrait from Tubeway Army’s debut embossed in black on a black t-shirt. The rear features the time and place of all 1000 gigs in tiny writing that looks more like computer code.
With this 998, 999 and 1000 being milestones for Numan, they are also significant for the support. They are his daughter Raven’s 1, 2 and 3rd performance respectively. Going into the show and not knowing this: you would not be able to tell. She commands the centre stage, dark haired and in a leather bodice, next to her younger sister Persia. Offering a beautiful vocal counterpoint to the symphonic heaviness of their band around them. Numan moves seamlessly through his oeuvre. Tubeway Army Tracks like his opener “Down in the Park” are muscled up with guitar, more heavy, more punishing and satisfying. Moving seamlessly into his industrial period with “Rip”. His guitarists thrust across the stage. His vocal soars above the maelstrom of mechanical guitars like an oracle relaying a terrible future they have beheld. The heavy hook of “Pleasure Principles” “M.E.” segues into the epic desert scape conjured by “Bed of Thorns”, during these moments the energy relents, at least partially.
Numan pays tribute to Rico who passed away in 2022, before escalating again by launching into “Crazier”: a song they collaborated on. Its soaring synth and guitar propel the vocal and deliver an anthem. The alternation between heavy and more swaying tracks continues like a wave. “The Chosen” form his new album “Intruder” has the mechanistic guitar underpinned by a piercing synth. Which explore the nature vs machine feel of his last couple albums. “The Gift” then exerts a slow and sultry beat with a Middle Eastern hypnotic vocal quality. The assault lets up. His guitarist continues to brandish his guitar like a weapon and displaying a fierce resolve. “Prayer for the unborn” with its majestic build closes the set: “If you are my shepherd then I’m lost and no one can find me”. It has a beautiful desolation: that uplifts at the same time. The set closes with “Me I disconnect from you” and “Are friends Electric” from Replicas. The undulation of the latter is truly beautiful. The quiet lull as Numan chants: “when I’m alone I can think for myself” followed by the discordant guitar of the chorus with the audience chanting as he suddenly throws his body into unimaginable shapes from the calm prelude as if channelling all of it through himself.
He gives everything: and it feels like everything.
