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Gary Numan
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
May 1979. It’s an ordinary Thursday evening, so it’s time for Top of the Pops. Amidst a zeitgeist of punk and disco, the show suddenly appears to be interrupted by a transmission from the future. A luminous synth riff echoes out, and a beat drives on and upsteps an otherworldly figure – part robot, part alien – to deliver an enigmatic lyric depicting some kind of android existence in a dystopian future. It’s Gary Numan fronting Tubeway Army for their breakthrough hit ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’.
Of the millions watching, few would’ve recognized that this moment foreshadows the shape of music to come, from synth-pop to industrial and alt-pop. That, however, can’t stop it from igniting the imagination of an audience that would swell into a devoted following.
Fast-forward to January 2021. Numan’s latest single, ‘Intruder,’ pulsates ominously as if it’s soundtracking an imminent threat. As austere synths loom like shadows and industrial beats are detonated, the beguiling hook towers like a beacon in the darkness. It’s visionary and venomous, with a narrative that imagines the Earth growing angry at mankind's actions and more than willing to fight back. In the accompanying video, Numan looks even more out of time than he did back in 1979, like an intergalactic refugee fighting for his existence.