What did David Bowie think of Gary Numan?
4 min read
I’m going to put my cards on the table here. I’ve reached a mature and balanced stage of my life where I don’t hate Gary Numan. In fact, I reached that stage a while back. Because I recall very vividly the wall of hatred that Numan inspired among music journalists, fans of synth pop and even…David Bowie. But looking back now it seems completely out of proportion. The beating up in print of a performer whose work was very distinct and dare I say it – rather good. What was it with Gary Numan that rubbed some people up the wrong way so badly?
The main accusation – very damaging at the time but ridiculous in retrospect – was that Numan had somehow usurped David Bowie. He had snuck in with a Bowie-esque sound when Bowie wasn’t looking. As The Thin White Duke returned to the limelight after a period of absence at the end of the 1970s, Nick Kent on the NME told Gary Numan to get out of the way.
“…David Jones from Beckenham (Bowie in case you didn’t know) had returned from his sojourns out in left-field to claim his throne, the very chair your bum has been keeping warm in his Nib’s absence for – how long is it now? Two years, at least, eh?”
And this:
“…Ground control is evidently calling your number as I write in the same harsh, hollow cadence you yourself have utilised for your sound…”
It’s hard to remember now how Bowie was revered as a pop deity in the 70s. And during those periods where he seemed to disappear for a while – others who tried to fill the gap were likely to get a lashing from Bowie’s ultra-loyal acolytes. Back in 1974, Steve Harley – another musician I rather respect these days – got it in the neck for allegedly daring to assume Bowie’s mantle while the great man was elsewhere. What absolutely rubbish in retrospect.
But poor old Numan didn’t just get brickbats thrown at him by Bowie fans – no, David Bowie himself joined in!
In 1980, Bowie released the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). It included a track titled Teenage Wildlife. The lyrics caused many eyebrows to raise:
A broken-nosed mogul are you
One of the new wave boys
Same old thing in brand new drag
Comes sweeping into view
As ugly as a teenage millionaire
Pretending it’s a whiz-kid world
Who was Bowie singing about? Some said it was a critique of his younger self. But others were convinced he was commenting on the New Wave perceived imitators of the late 1970s. And, to stop beating about the bush, fingers pointed at Gary Numan. It seems Numan himself was pretty sure Bowie was taking a pop at him as well. In a 1980 interview with the NME while he was playing the Elephant Man on stage, Bowie left little room for doubt that Numan was not his favourite musical act.
He was asked about Gary Numan, John Foxx and “all the other little Diamond Dog clones” that had arisen of late. On Foxx, he was vaguely complimentary. But then he turned to the vexed question of Numan:
“Numan? I really don’t know. I think what he did – that element of Saviour Machine – type things – I think he encapsulated that whole feeling excellently. He really did a good job on that kind of stereotype, but I think therein lies his own particular confinement. I don’t know where he intends going or what he intends doing, but I think he has confined himself terrifically. But that’s his problem, isn’t it?
What Numan did he did excellently but in repetition, in the same information coming over again and again, once you’ve heard one piece.
It’s rather sterile vision of a kleen-machine future again.
But that’s really so narrow. It’s that false idea of hi-tech society and all that which is… doesn’t exist. I don’t think we’re anywhere near that sort of society. It’s an enormous myth that’s been perpetuated unfortunately, I guess, by readings of what I’ve done in that rock area at least, and in the consumer area television has an awful lot to answer for with its fabrication of the computer-world myth.“
It’s a strange accusation from David Bowie that Gary Numan was TOO futuristic. And TOO convinced that we were on the verge of living in a “computer world”. Ironically, Kraftwerk – who definitely influenced Numan – would release an album by that name the following year, 1981. Bowie is often lauded these days for having predicted the full impact of the internet well in advance. But here he is mocking Numan for embracing the notion of a digital tomorrow.
15 REASON WHY GARY NUMAN IS NOT A LEGEND
1. Numan wasn’t just influenced by Bowie, he ripped him off. The moves, persona and everything else. As well as Kraftwerk and early Ultravox.
2. Numan became famous for blatantly copying Bowies “Low” period long after Bowie had re-invented himself again.
3. Numan bragged about being rich and famous despite having no musical talent. His words not mine. That’s not modesty, it’s being a …..
4. How on earth did he manage two number one singles and albums simultaneously in such a short space of time? Even by today’s standards that’s fast. Umm!!.
5. After Bowie saying he didn’t like Numan’s style Numan threw his toys out of the pram and told the press that Bowie was threatened by his success and that he was bigger than Bowie. A definite no no in music.
6. His fellow pop stars and the press labelled him a fascist. He probably was.
7. He collected guns. Enough said.
8. He worshipped the royals and Thatcher and avoided paying tax by running off to America in 1982. He stated that paying tax is demoralising.
9. BBC Radio 1 wiped his records from the playlist. Well his songs weren’t exactly radio friendly were they?. Strangely Top Of The Pops still had him on though as did children’s shows.
10. After 1980, his albums and singles would come in to the chart in the first week of release then fall out the top 40 the week or two after. This was down to his small hardcore obsessive fans called ‘Numanoids’ rushing out to buy his records on the first day of release. They didn’t just buy one copy each they bought three or more just to get him in the chart.
11. His records always got terrible reviews despite some of them being mediocre anyway. The press eventually ignored him and stopped the reviews until 1994.
12. After ripping off Robert Palmer and Prince in the early 90’s he went all gothic and ripped off all the people he’s meant to have inspired like Nine Inch Nails and Manson….and he’s still doing that today.
13. In 2010, he slagged off Bowie again for his lack of output. He probably did this to get some attention.
14. He’s held in the same regard as Bowie by some pop revisionists. They label anybody a legend these days don’t they?
15. He uses a range of excuses for his rants in the past. Some people over a certain age don’t forget.
Verdict: Pretentious Bowie cloned novelty act. I used to be a fan but found out his phoney ways. 🙂
Think a lot of people ended up viewing him the same way. His later singles were truly awful.
The NME went after bands who weren’t left wing, it was pathetic. Gary Numan today is a legend in pop music, and the NME, no one buys it anymore and it scrapes a living as a website.
That is true. Also, some of the NME journalists from that era have turned into horrible reactionaries, way worse than Gary Numan. Won’t mention any names but I’m sure you know who I mean.
Legend based on what?. A brief period of mainstream success 42 years ago? Because if it’s inspiration you’re referring to then it’s third-rate cult obscurities and those trying to be cool who give him false praises.