Gary Numan
 Gary
Numan (real name Gary Anthony James Webb) dumped his day job in a
shop the day the first Tubeway Army single, That's Too Bad,
was released. To his disappointment it did not sell. Neither did
the next two . . .
But after Are Friends Electric? and Cars (and
the album The Pleasure Principle) entered the charts at
Number One, Numan dropped the Tubeway Army name, insisting that
the group was only put together for touring and never as a
permanent fixture.
While the immediate success of Are Friends Electric? and
Cars satisfied fans, it riled critics who (as always)
perceived anyone who could rise to fame so fast as a charlatan, a
huckster out for dollars while starving artists were out for
art.
The backlash syndrome never hit anybody so hard as it hit Gary
Numan.
Numan was a blatant imitator; not only was he dismissed as a
Bowie-clone, but, critics said, he managed to merge the worst of
Brian Eno, Ultravox in the most simplistic and elementary fashion
imaginable.
While real artists like Eno, latter-day Bowie and
Talking Heads toiled endlessly for art's sake, selling respectably
but never really crossing over massively into the pop charts,
Numan's watered-down pap was simplistic enough for even
the dullest of minds. Which was why, they said, he sold so
many records.
When posing was the biggest sin of all, Gary Numan was
the poseur exemplified.
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