Gary Numan, the legendary and beloved synth-pop pioneer and influential forefather of industrial music has been in the news headlines lately for all the wrong reasons – amid a personal tragedy.
Gary is grieving the shocking sudden death of his younger brother John Webb (60), who tragically died of an apparent heart attack on the walk to his car after saying goodbye to Gary on the steps of his tour bus, as he left after a gig in Leeds just over a week ago.
Devastated Gary was given the news the next day and broke down in tears on stage that evening in Birmingham. But at the request of his father and his late brother’s wife, he agreed to continue with the tour.
That tour celebrates the 45th anniversary of his seminal album “Telekon”, which was released in 1980 on Beggars Banquet and debuted at the top of the UK album chart making it Gary’s third consecutive # one album.
The Numan catalogue is extensive: 24 studio albums and a few re-issued, five extended solo album releases, 34 live albums, 20 compilations, four soundtrack albums and six re-mix albums. At least 50 singles, and a slew of collaborations or as featured artist. Three # one albums in the UK, seven top 10 albums and 10 top 20 albums.
His last two studio albums both peaked at # two in the UK chart – 2017’s “Savage (Songs from a Broken World)” and 2021’s “Intruder”. “A Perfect Circle: Live”, dropped in July this year (2025), which captures his triumphant “Intruder” live show at Wembley’s OVO Arena in 2022.
Gary Numan’s 1000th show is documented with the excellent “1000: Live At The Electric Ballroom”, which was released a couple of weeks ago.
Praise from Nine Inch Nails as they took industrial music into the mainstream in the ’90s started a rediscovery of Gary Numan’s work. That inspired a darker, more visceral approach to his own music which grew in power from his 1994 album “Sacrifice” onwards.
In that same year, the “Random” tribute album was released, featuring his songs reinterpreted from fans as diverse as Damon Albarn, The Magnetic Fields, The Orb and Lauren Laverne’s Kenickie.
The sold out Brighton Centre is the venue for night # nine of 17 UK and Ireland dates. Tonight [Sunday 23rd Nov] it’s Southend’s turn and then a few more UK shows before Dublin, closing in Belfast on 3rd Dec. This tour follows a big trek around North America from September as special guest to Psychedelic Furs.
Gary was last in Brighton in June this year for two much smaller shows, playing to 600 each night at Concorde 2, as low key warm-ups ahead of his spectacular debut performance on the Glastonbury festival stage back in the summer this year, on the Park stage on Saturday [28th June].
Back to Brighton November 2025, after a pleasing set from Gary’s daughter Raven Numan and her band – who included a recently released cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “In This Twilight” – as the support on this tour, and a break for nipping to the bar and/or the merch’ table, it was that time…
The circa 5,500 capacity crowd are audibly excited when the throb of a menacing bass line kicks in and the stage is drenched in red light.
A torch cuts through to lead out four silhouettes who take their places, including his right and left-hand men, guitarist Steve Harris and bassist Tim Slade plus drummer and keyboard player; and then the whoops and cheers get louder as the middle spot on stage is filled by you know who.
The red lights flash and white search lights swoop in and out as the track pushes on to the lead vocal point. More cheers and here we go…Kicking off with “This Wreckage”, a single from December 1980 and the opening track on “Telekon”.
Song two: “Remind Me To Smile”, the stage is bathed in greenlight and there is lots of “fog” or “smoke” effect, which these days is usually created by a “hazer”, which is warm water vapours.
The old smoke machines from back in the day caused so many issues for people with asthma and lung problems, they eventually got binned off. Dry ice was next and even that is no longer in use.
The aptly named “Remember I Was Vapour” is next with Gary on keyboards. No words are spoken as yet between songs at all, and this time the stage is awash with even more “fog”. Often you can hardly make out where Mr Numan is – at the front on the mic, at the back on keyboards or on knocking about on guitar, the fog is so thick.
But the lighting designer is the sixth member of the band tonight as the effects are mesmerising. Not that the photographers in the pit shooting for the first three songs would agree! A tough night for them with all that fog stuff and low lighting, but our Manja managed to bag some corkers as you can see on this page.
Brighton Setlist
Remind Me to Smile
Encore:
My Shadow in Vain
Friends
Listen to the Sirens
Down in the Park
I Dream Of Wires” next before title track of the “Telekon” album” which gets a great reaction, and then “I Sleep By Windows” where the predominantly red lighting switches to yellow.
For “A Game Called Echo”, Gary is back on guitar, while Gary, Steve and David Brooks are all on keys for “Photograph”, the B-side of the single “This Wreckage”.
The 67-year-old faultlessly delivers a 19-song set with songs from from “Telekon” and a few from other albums. No “Cars” or “Are Friends Electric?” tonight”.
The four-song encore is devoted entirely to Tubeway Army material; beginning with “My Shadow In Vein”, “Friends”, “Listen To The Sirens” and closing an exemplary and brave performance [after his very recent loss ] with “Down In The Park”.
Gary looks a wee bit tired underneath the ghostly trademark make-up perhaps, and maybe he wasn’t covering as much ground around the stage as he usually does, but his voice is intact and it is an achievement to even be here and to perform at all, after the shock he has had and the mourning state he is in. You could feel the palpable emotion in the air as thick as the fog on stage.
I am sure all of us, circa 5,500 people, just wanted to give Gary a huge collective hug and tell him how sorry we are for his loss and for what he and his family are going through.
But, do not think for one moment this was a gloomy night. A kind of wake or memorial event. Far from it. This was “the show must go on” writ large. Still very much a Gary Numan concert in its finest form. Thankyou Gary. A lot of love in that room…
- Please have a look at our recent interview with Gary, here:
