Righteo, so, I’m at a point in my musical journey where I think I’ve got quite a pretty fuckin broad spectrum. So let’s have a bit of a tumble down my music wormhole and see how that shit all happened.
At quite an early age, like I’d imagine almost every poor bastard on the planet, I was subjected to the parental taste in music, mine consisted of the likes of The Carpenters, Johnny Mathis, and stuff of a similar ilk. One of the few saving graces was Frank Sinatra who’s vocal phrasings and style can be heard throughout songs to this day. There was a fair old dollop of classical in there too, but as harmful as I felt it often was to my poor earholes it did give me a good appreciation for clean vocals and a healthy respect for the ability to layer instruments without losing the focus.
In slightly later life, many, many other influences landed on me, having a similarly music-obsessed older brother introduced me to the likes of electronic-based bands such as Tangerine Dream, Tomita, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, to name but a few, which laid so many foundations in the music world generally.
That soon shifted onto more what would be considered conventional type bands.. I mean, as in guitar, bass, drums, rather than synth-heavy. Bon Scott era AC/DC, Rainbow… You know what I mean…
So basically I had so many different styles and tastes rolling around it was a tough call to pin down where my musical allegiances really lay.. You have to understand, I was in a time where Mods, Rockers, Punks, Skins just to name four.. so many different groups, almost tribal in their ways.. you belong to one or the other or basically you were nothing in life.. Them crazy days eh?
Anyway.. Anyfuckinway.. this brings us to. Thank you, Gary Numan.
1980.. Gary Numan had released the Tubeway Army album which was brutal and unforgiving in it's brilliance..
Replicas which was a dystopian gem of an equally disturbing look into his idea of the future, and The Pleasure Principal which I thought was quite tame in comparison.. but just as engaging as the previous two outings.
Then.. out of nowhere.. A gig.. The new album... Telekon.. New Street Odeon. Upper stalls me and my brother.. songs playing over the tannoy system.. There had been a supporting artist… Nash the Slash but he'd been and gone, and to be honest i don't even remember him being there... i just know he had been.. It felt like fuckin hours... People starting to get restless… And then…
The lights go down... People start screaming... This was my first proper gig.. I had no fuckin idea what was going on... The Synthesiser drone hit me like a hammer. The opening to the track, This Wreckage... Jesus fuckin Christ..
The sound.. The lights..
The whirlwind of my musical journey had climaxed... I was in the eye of the storm.. everything made sense..
It was all there, right in front of me... Electronics.. Guitars.. Drums.. Vocal phrasings.. Sonic layers, everything...
The finest musical encounter of my life.
I hope everyone encounters this once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon that puts it all into context, I really do. This experience laid a path for me.
There's a lot more… but for now.
Thank you, Gary Numan.
