71. Gary Numan

Hammersmith Apollo

28 November 2014

The gigs I’ve attended this year have ranged from the truly abysmal, acts so bad they should be classified as human rights violations, all the way up to utterly transformative live spectacles. So, it was with some degree of cautious optimism that I arrived at the Apollo for Gary Numan’s grand return, thirty-five years after he famously quit live touring at the end of the Living Ornaments tour. But now, like a synth-wielding Lazarus, he was back. And this one promised to be special.

He hinted that he’d be digging deep into the archives, and for once, that wasn’t just empty pre-gig waffle. We got “Films”, “Berserker”, “Me! I Disconnect From You”, “Jo the Waiter”, and “We Are So Fragile”; all dusted off and unleashed for the first time in over a decade. Back dropping this was a towering video wall, pumping out industrial-dystopian imagery; think abandoned buildings, collapsing cities, dark prophetic visions. Numan’s signature wall of sound roared to life. The synth anthems swelled, the bass rumbled ominously, and somewhere deep within the venue, someone’s spleen probably ruptured. This was a homecoming, a circle completed and a once-in-a-lifetime moment, and we were there.