Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	The Observer
type	Weekly newspaper
format	Berliner (ex-Broadsheet)
foundation
language	English
owners	Guardian Media Group
political	Centre-left
headquarters	Kings Place, 90 York Way, London
issn	0029-7712
oclc	50230244
editor	John Mulholland
website	observer.guardian.co.uk
circulation	288,928(June 2011)
sister newspapers	The Guardian,The Guardian Weekly }}

name	The Observer (International Edition)
issn	9976-1971
oclc	436604553 }}

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

History

The first issue, published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, was the world's first Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine, Francis Burdett and Joseph Priestley.

19th century

In 1807, the brothers decided to relinquish editorial control, naming Lewis Doxat as the new editor. Seven years later, the brothers sold The Observer to William Innell Clement, a newspaper proprietor who owned a number of publications. The paper continued to receive government subsidies during this period; in 1819, of the approximately 23,000 copies of the paper distributed weekly, approximately 10,000 were given away as "specimen copies", distributed by postmen who were paid to deliver them to "lawyers, doctors, and gentlemen of the town." Yet the paper began to demonstrate a more independent editorial stance, criticising the authorities' handling of the events surrounding the Peterloo Massacre and defied an 1820 court order against publishing details of the trial of the Cato Street Conspirators who were alleged to have plotted to murder members of the Cabinet. The woodcut pictures published of the stable and hayloft where the conspirators were arrested reflected a new stage of illustrated journalism that the newspaper pioneered during this time.

Clement maintained ownership of The Observer until his death in 1852. During that time, the paper supported parliamentary reform, but opposed a broader franchise and the Chartist leadership. After Doxat retired in 1857, Clement's heirs sold the paper to Joseph Snowe, who also took over the editor's chair. Under Snowe, the paper adopted a more liberal political stance, supporting the North during the American Civil War and endorsing universal manhood suffrage in 1866. These positions contributed to a decline in circulation during this time.

In 1870, wealthy businessman Julius Beer bought the paper and appointed Edward Dicey as editor, whose efforts succeeded in reviving circulation. Though Beer's son Frederick became the owner upon Julius's death in 1880, he had little interest in the newspaper and was content to leave Dicey as editor until 1889. Henry Duff Traill took over the editorship after Dicey's departure, only to be replaced in 1891 by Frederick's wife, Rachel Beer, of the Sassoon family. Though circulation declined during her tenure, she remained as editor for thirteen years, combining it in 1893 with the editorship of The Sunday Times, a newspaper that she had also bought.

20th century

Upon Frederick's death in 1905, the paper was purchased by the newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe. After maintaining the existing editorial leadership for a couple of years, in 1908 Northcliffe named James Louis Garvin as editor. Garvin quickly turned the paper into an organ of political influence, boosting circulation from 5,000 to 40,000 within a year of his arrival as a result. Yet the revival in the paper's fortunes masked growing political disagreements between Garvin and Northcliffe. These disagreements ultimately led Northcliffe to sell the paper to William Waldorf Astor in 1911, who transferred ownership to his son Waldorf four years later.

During this period, the Astors were content to leave the control of the paper in Garvin's hands. Under his editorship circulation reached 200,000 during the interwar years, a figure which Garvin fought to maintain even during the depths of the Great Depression. Politically the paper pursued an independent Tory stance, which eventually brought Garvin into conflict with Waldorf's more liberal son, David. Their conflict contributed to Garvin's departure as editor in 1942, after which the paper took the unusual step of declaring itself non-partisan.

Ownership passed to Waldorf's sons in 1948, with David taking over as editor. He remained in the position for 27 years, during which time he turned it into a trust-owned newspaper employing, among others, George Orwell, Paul Jennings and C. A. Lejeune. Under Astor's editorship The Observer became the first national newspaper to oppose the government's 1956 invasion of Suez, a move which cost it many readers. In 1977, the Astors sold the ailing newspaper to US oil giant Atlantic Richfield (now called ARCO) who sold it to Lonrho plc in 1981. Since June 1993, it has been part of the Guardian Media Group.

In 1990, Farzad Bazoft, a journalist for The Observer, was executed in Iraq on charges of spying. In 2003, The Observer interviewed the Iraqi colonel who had arrested and interrogated Barzoft and who was convinced that Barzoft was not a spy.

21st century

On 27 February 2005, The Observer Blog was launched, making The Observer the first newspaper to purposely document its own internal decisions, as well as the first newspaper to release podcasts. The paper's regular columnists include Andrew Rawnsley and Nick Cohen.

In addition to the weekly Observer Magazine which is still present every Sunday, for several years each issue of The Observer came with a different free monthly magazine. These magazines had the titles Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Music Monthly, Observer Woman and Observer Food Monthly.

Content from The Observer is included in The Guardian Weekly for an international readership.

The Observer followed its daily partner The Guardian and converted to 'Berliner' format on Sunday 8 January 2006.

The Observer was announced as National Newspaper of the Year at the British Press Awards 2007.

Whitehall Editor Jo Revill had, as Health Editor, been named Medical Journalist of the Year in 2000 and 2006 by two different organisations, when she was Health Editor.

On 24 October 2007, it was announced that editor Roger Alton was stepping down at the end of the year to be replaced by his deputy, John Mulholland.

In early 2010, the paper was rejuvenated. An article on the paper's website previewing the new version stated that "The News section, which will incorporate Business and personal finance, will be home to a new section, Seven Days, offering a complete round-up of the previous week's main news from Britain and around the world, and will also focus on more analysis and comment."

Supplements and features

After the paper was rejuvenated in early 2010, the main paper came with only a small number of supplements – Sport, The Observer Magazine, The New Review and The New York Times International Weekly, an 8-page supplement of articles selected from The New York Times, has been distributed with the paper since 2007. Every four weeks the paper includes The Observer Food Monthly magazine.

Previously, the main paper had come with a vast range of supplements including Sport, Business & Media, Review, Escape (a travel supplement), The Observer Magazine and various special interest monthlies, such as Observer Food Monthly, Observer Women monthly, Observer Sport Monthly and The Observer Film Magazine.

The Newsroom

The Observer and its sister newspaper The Guardian operate a visitor centre in London called The Newsroom. It contains their archives, including bound copies of old editions, a photographic library and other items such as diaries, letters and notebooks. This material may be consulted by members of the public. The Newsroom also mounts temporary exhibitions and runs an educational program for schools.

In November 2007, The Observer and The Guardian made their archives available over the internet.The current extent of the archives available are 1791 to 2000 for The Observer and 1821 to 2000 for The Guardian. These archives will eventually go up to 2003.

Editors

W. S. Bourne & W. H. Bourne (1791–1807)

Lewis Doxat (1807–1857)

Joseph Snowe (1857–1870)

Edward Dicey (1870–1889)

Henry Duff Traill (1889–1891)

Rachel Beer (1891–1904)

Austin Harrison (1904–1908)

James Louis Garvin (1908–1942)

Ivor Brown (1942–1948)

David Astor (1948–1975)

Donald Trelford (1975–1993)

Jonathan Fenby (1993–1995)

Andrew Jaspan (1995–1996)

Will Hutton (1996–1998)

Roger Alton (1998–2007)

John Mulholland (2008–)

Awards

The Observer was named the British Press Awards National Newspaper of the Year in 2007. Its supplements have twice won "Regular Supplement of the Year" (Sport Monthly, 2001; Food Monthly, 2006).

Observer journalists have won a range of British Press Awards, including

"Interviewer of the Year" (Lynn Barber, 2002; Sean O'Hagan, 2003; Rachel Cooke, 2006; Chrissy Iley (freelance for Observer and Sunday Times magazine), 2008)

"Critic of the Year" (Jay Rayner, 2006; Philip French, 2009)

Bibliography

David Astor and The Observer by Richard Cockett. Has endpapers which are facsimiles of The Observer, with other black-and-white photographic plates of personnel linked to The Observer. 294 pages with an index.

See also

Anthony Howard

Cambridge Apostles

Observer Mace debating competition – now known as the John Smith Memorial Mace

References

External links

Observer website

Information about The Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre

DigitalArchive paid-for service

History of Guardian Media Group 1990 – 1999, Guardian Media Group website; as of 2 March 2003; GMGplc.co.uk (link requires Flash to view timeline)

History of the Observer

Observer Observer, The Observer, The Observer, The Category:1791 establishments in England Category:Sunday newspapers Category:1791 establishments in Great Britain *

bg:Обзървър ca:The Observer da:The Observer de:The Observer es:The Observer fa:آبزرور fr:The Observer gd:An Observer id:The Observer is:The Observer it:The Observer he:האובזרבר nl:The Observer ja:オブザーバー (イギリスの新聞) no:The Observer pl:The Observer pt:The Observer ro:The Observer ru:The Observer sl:The Observer fi:The Observer sv:The Observer th:ดิออบเซิร์ฟเวอร์ tr:The Observer zh:觀察家報

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Niney the Observer
background	solo_singer
birth name	George Boswell
born	1951
origin	Montego Bay, Jamaica
genre	Reggae
occupation	Producer
notable instruments	}}

Winston Holness, better known as Niney the Observer (born George Boswell, 1951, Montego Bay), is a Jamaican record producer and singer who was a key figure in the creation of many classic reggae recordings dating from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Biography

Holness gained his nickname "Niney" after losing a thumb in a workshop accident. In the latter half of the 1960s he worked as an engineer at KG records, where he began producing. His first release was his own composition "Come on Baby" issued on his Destroyer label. He moved on to work with Bunny Lee in 1967, then for Lynford Anderson's studio, then working for Joe Gibbs as chief sound engineer, replacing his friend Lee "Scratch" Perry. While working for Gibbs he produced Dennis Alcapone and Lizzy's "Mr. Brown", and played a major role in launching the career of Dennis Brown. After leaving Gibbs' setup, his first major success as a producer was "Blood & Fire" in December 1970, initially released in a pressing of 200 on his Destroyer label, but reissued the following year on his Observer label, and going on to sell over 30,000 copies in Jamaica. Inspired by Perry's nickname of "The Upsetter", Holness adopted "The Observer", using the name for his new Observer label, and the name of his house band, The Observers (actually the Soul Syndicate). Several singles followed, some reusing the "Blood & Fire" rhythm, including Big Youth's "Fire Bunn".

In the early 1970s, Holness became one of Jamaica's most sought after producers, with the likes of Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson, The Heptones, Johnny Clarke, Slim Smith, Jacob Miller, Junior Delgado, and Freddie McGregor all using his services. He also continued to record himself, on collaborations with Dennis Alcapone, Max Romeo, and Lee Perry. By the mid-1970s, he was also working with Ken Boothe, Junior Byles, Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy, I-Roy, and Dillinger. The late 1970s saw him still very active as a producer, but his output in the early 1980s was significantly less after relocating to France. He re-emerged in 1982 with the Ital Dub Observer Style album, and returned to Kingston in 1983, taking on the role of house producer for the Hitbound label at Channel One Studios. In this capacity he was one of the first to work with Beenie Man, and also produced Third World and Sugar Minott. In the mid-1980s, he relocated to New York, returning to Kingston again in 1988, and working with Yami Bolo, Frankie Paul, Andrew Tosh, and Junior Byles. He began an association with Heartbeat Records, working on reissues of much of his back catalogue, as well as new recordings. He continued to produce new material through the 1990s.

See also

List of Jamaican record producers

References

External links

[ Biography] at Allmusic website

Niney the Observer interview April 2009

Article

United Reggae

WMC: article

Category:Living people Category:Jamaican reggae musicians Category:Jamaican record producers Category:1951 births Category:People from Montego Bay Category:Trojan Records artists

fr:Niney it:Niney The Observer

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Soul Syndicate
background	group_or_band
origin	Kingston, Jamaica
genre	Reggae
years active	early 1970s – present
past members	Earl "Chinna" SmithCarlton "Santa" DavisGeorge "Fully" FullwoodTony ChinBernard "Touter" HarveyKeith SterlingLeroy "Horsemouth" WallaceCleon DouglasEarl LindoTyrone Downie
notable instruments	}}

Soul Syndicate, originally called the Rhythm Raiders, were one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

History

In the first half of the 1970s the band from the Greenwich Farm area of Kingston recorded for producers such as Keith Hudson, Winston Holness (under the pseudonym The Observers), Duke Reid and others on some of the most popular and influential recordings of the era. Core members of the band were guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, drummer Carlton "Santa" Davis, bassist and founder of Soul Syndicate George "Fully" Fullwood, rhythm guitarist Tony Chin and keyboard player Bernard "Touter" Harvey, later with Keith Sterling on keyboards. Other members at various times included drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, guitarist Cleon Douglas, and keyboard players Earl Lindo and Tyrone Downie. Freddie McGregor was at one time the band's featured vocalist. The nucleus of the band also recorded under the name The Agrovators for Bunny Lee. As well as playing on countless releases backing some of Jamaica's top vocalists, including Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs, they also released several albums credited to the band. Harvey later became a member of The Wailers Band.

The Soul Syndicate's "Stalag 17" and "Taxi" bass lines, was among many bass lines created by George "Fully" Fullwood ,a instrumental, featuring Ansell Collins on organ, was much-versioned, providing the basis for hits over the two decades that followed for Big Youth, Horace Andy, Augustus Pablo, Frankie Paul, General Echo, Tenor Saw and others.

Discography

Albums

Harvest Uptown, Famine Downtown (1977) London/Soul Syndicate

Moodie In Dub Vol 1 (1978) Moodie Music (Black Slate & The Soul Syndicate)

Was, Is, & Always (1980) High Times/Epiphany

Roots Radics Meet Soul Syndicate In Dub (198?) Razor Sounds (with Roots Radics)

Friends and Family (1996) Epiphany

;Compilations:

Freedom Sounds In Dub (1996) Blood & Fire (King Tubby & The Soul Syndicate)

Dub Classics (2006) Jamaican Recordings

DVD

Word, Sound and Power (2008), MVD

Notes

References

Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn., Rough Guides, ISBN 1-84353-329-4

Larkin, Colin (1998) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae, Virgin Books, ISBN 0-7535-0242-9

Thompson, Dave (2002) Reggae & Caribbean Music, Backbeat Books, ISBN 0-87930-655-6

External links

Legendary Jamaican bassist Fully Fullwood web site

Legendary Jamaican roots reggae guitarist Tony Chin,member of Soul Syndicate,Big Mountain,the Fully Fullwood Band;and more.

Legendary Jamaican drummer Carlton "Santa" Davis web site

Soul Syndicate at Roots Archives

Category:Jamaican reggae musical groups

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Gary Numan
Background	solo_singer
Landscape	Yes
Birth name	Gary Anthony James Webb
Born	March 08, 1958Hammersmith, west London, United Kingdom
Genre	1977–1994:New Wave, synthpop, electronic1994–present:industrial rock, gothic rock, darkwave
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, producer
Years active	1977–present
Instrument	Vocals, piano, synthesizer, guitar, bass, drums
Label	Metropolis, Beggars Banquet, Numa, IRS, Eagle, Mortal, Atco
Associated acts	Tubeway Army, Dramatis, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Gardiner, Bill Sharpe, Fear Factory
Website
Notable instruments	Minimoog, Polymoog, ARP Odyssey }}

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958) is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" (as Tubeway Army) and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.

Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music. His use of themes from science fiction, and his combination of aggressive punk energy with electronics, have since been widely imitated.

Biography

Early life

Born in Hammersmith, Gary Anthony James Webb was the son of a British Airways bus driver based at Heathrow Airport. Webb was educated at Town Farm Junior School Stanwell, Ashford County Grammar School, Middlesex, Slough Grammar School and Brooklands Technical College. He joined the Air Training Corps as a teenager. He then briefly did various jobs including fork lift truck driver, air conditioning ventilator fitter and clerk in an accounts department. A guitar was purchased for him at an early age and he began writing songs when he was about 15 years old. He played in various bands, including Mean Street and The Lasers, before forming Tubeway Army with his uncle, Jess Lidyard, and Paul Gardiner. His initial pseudonym was "Valerian", probably in reference to the hero in French science fiction comic series Valérian and Laureline. Later he picked the name "Numan" from an advert in the "Yellow Pages" for a plumber "A. Neumann".

1970s

Tubeway Army

Numan rose to prominence at the end of the 1970s as front man, writer and producer for Tubeway Army. After recording an album's worth of punk-influenced demo tapes (released in 1984 as The Plan), he was signed by Beggars Banquet Records in 1978 and quickly released two singles, "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers", neither of which charted.

A self-titled, New Wave-oriented debut album later that same year sold out its limited run and introduced Numan's fascination with dystopian science fiction and, more importantly, synthesizers. Tubeway Army's third single, the dark-themed and slow-paced "Down in the Park" (1979) also failed to chart but it would prove to be one of Numan's most enduring and oft-covered songs; it was featured with other contemporary hits on the soundtrack for the movie Times Square, and a live version of the song can also be seen in the movie Urgh! A Music War. After exposure in a television advertisement for Lee Cooper jeans with the jingle "Don't be a dummy", Tubeway Army released the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" in May 1979. The single took seven weeks before it finally reached #1 at the end of June; the parent album Replicas simultaneously achieving #1 in the album charts.

As Gary Numan

A few months later Numan found success in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with "Cars", which peaked at #1 in the UK in 1979 and #1 in Canada and #9 in US in 1980. "Cars" and the 1979 album The Pleasure Principle were both released under Numan's own (assumed) name. A sell-out tour ('The Touring Principle') followed; the concert video it spawned is often cited as the first full-length commercial music video release. The Pleasure Principle was a rock album with no guitars; instead, Numan used synthesizers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a distorted, phased, metallic tone. The Pleasure Principle remains one of Numan's most highly-regarded efforts to date. A second single from the album "Complex" made it to #6 in the UK charts.

Personality and style

Numan bewildered the music press. He was a driven, creative, angst-ridden 21-year-old loner who still lived with his parents at the peak of his success. While angry like his punk contemporaries, Numan could not relate to the specific political issues they were singing about. Numan suppressed his anger and "got really hung up with this whole thing of not feeling, being cold about everything, not letting emotions get to you, or presenting a front of not feeling".

Around this time, Numan also developed his distinctive style. According to Numan, this was an unintentional result of acne; before an appearance on Top of the Pops, he had "spots everywhere, so they slapped about half an inch of white makeup on me before I'd even walked in the door. And my eyes were like pissholes in the snow, so they put black on there. My so-called image fell into place an hour before going on the show". His "wooden" stage presence was, in his words, a result of extreme self-consciousness and lack of "showmanship". He also wore costumes and openly proclaimed his influences: David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and contemporary electronic acts such as John Foxx's Ultravox. His persona was aloof, alien, and androgynous; Numan was not seen to be part of the punk or New Romantic movements. During this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves "Numanoids", providing him with a fanbase which maintained their support through the latter half of the 1980s, when his fortunes began to fall precipitously.

1980s

In 1980 Numan topped the album charts with Telekon, although the concurrent singles "We Are Glass", "I Die: You Die" and "This Wreckage" reached #5, #6 and #20, respectively. The final studio album of what Numan retrospectively termed the "Machine" section of his career, Telekon reintroduced guitars to Numan's music and featured a wider range of synthesizers. The same year he embarked on his second major tour ("The Teletour") with an even more elaborate stage show than The Touring Principle the previous year. Although considered a success, Numan claimed the tour actually lost him a great deal of money because of the vast expense in mounting it. He announced his retirement from touring with a series of sell-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981, supported by experimental musician Nash the Slash and Shock, a rock/mime/burlesque troupe whose members included Barbie Wilde, Tik and Tok and Carole Caplin. The decision to retire would be short-lived.

Moving away from the pure electro-pop that he had made his name with, Numan then experimented with jazz, funk and ethereal, rhythmic pop. His first album after his 1981 farewell concerts was the bleak, atmospheric and experimental Dance (1981). The album charted as high as #3 on the UK charts, but it only produced one hit single ("She's Got Claws") and then dropped out of the charts after only eight weeks. The album featured several distinguished guest players; Mick Karn (bass, saxophone) and Rob Dean (guitar) of Japan, Roger Mason (keyboards) of Models and Roger Taylor (drums) of Queen.

With his former backing band, Chris John Payne (Keyboards, Viola) Russell Bell (Guitar) and Ced Sharpley (Drums) now reformed as Dramatis, Numan contributed vocals to the minor hit "Love Needs No Disguise" from the album For Future Reference. However, Numan's career had begun to experience a gradual decline, and he was eclipsed initially by acts such as Adam Ant, and later by The Human League, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode. Each album also saw a new "image", none of which captured the public's imagination to nearly the same extent as the lonely android of 1979.

The more upbeat and danceable I, Assassin (1982) fared less well than Dance. Despite spawning three Top 20 singles, the album peaked at No.8 and dropped out of the charts after six weeks. Numan supported the album with a concert tour in America in late 1982 (where he was living as a tax exile), which were his first series of live shows since his farewell at Wembley.

Warriors (1983) further developed Numan's jazz-influenced style and featured contributions from avant-garde musician Bill Nelson (who fell out with Numan during recording and chose to be uncredited as the album's co-producer) and saxophonist Dick Morrissey (who would play on most of Numan's albums until 1991). The album peaked at No.12 and, like I, Assassin, spent six weeks in the charts. Warriors was the last album Numan recorded for Beggars Banquet Records, and was supported by a 40-date UK tour (again with support from robotic mime and music duo Tik and Tok) – Numan's first live tour in the UK since his Wembley appearances in 1981. Numan's look for the album artwork and tour was a Mad Max-influenced black leather costume against a post-apocalyptic backdrop, but this latest image change was scorned by the music press.

Now battling against the increasing public perception that he was a spent force, Numan issued a series of albums and singles on his own record label, Numa. As the decade continued, he experienced a creative malaise, trying to recapture his former chart glory with less distinguished albums, some of which were stylistically derivative of artists like Robert Palmer and Prince. The first album released on Numa, 1984’s Berserker was also notable for being Numan's first foray into music computers/samplers, in this case the PPG Wave. Berserker moved away from the fluid, fretless sound that characterised Numan's previous three albums, featuring instead harder-edged electric bass and drum sounds. The album was also accompanied by a striking blue-and-white visual image, a tour and a live album/video, but it divided critics and fans and commercially was Numan’s least successful release to that date. This year also saw the death of Paul Gardiner, who was Numan's bassist and friend since his Tubeway Army days, from a fatal heroin overdose on 4 February 1984.

Numan's next album, The Fury (1985), charted slightly higher than Berserker, and featured another new image of white suit and red bow tie. To date, The Fury is the last Numan album to crack the British Top 30.

Collaborations with Bill Sharpe of Shakatak helped little, though two singles the duo recorded, "Change Your Mind", did see chart action, reaching No.17 and "No More Lies" reaching No.35 in 1988 in Britain. Numa Records, which had been launched in a flurry of idealistic excitement, folded after the release of Numan's Strange Charm album (1986). In addition to Numa's commercial failure, a lack of radio play (his records were removed from the BBC Radio 1 playlist) and sales drained the fortune (he estimated £4.5 million) Numan had amassed in the late 1970s. Numan signed to IRS Records and his final studio album of the 80s, the edgy, industrial-funk Metal Rhythm (1988) found favour with fans and scored some positive reviews in the UK music press, but it sold poorly. Metal Rhythm's sales were arguably confounded by the lack of strong promotion and IRS's inappropriate choices of singles (the record label also changed the album's title to New Anger, changed the album colour shade from black to blue, and remixed several of its tracks for its American release against Numan's wishes). 1989 saw the release of the Sharpe + Numan album Automatic. A more lightweight-pop effort than Numan's solo albums, Automatic fared less well than Metal Rhythm, and has been out of print since its initial release, fetching high prices on auction sites.

1990s

In 1991, Numan ventured into film-scoring by co-composing the music for The Unborn with Michael R. Smith (the score was later released as an instrumental album in 1995, Human). After Outland (1991), another critical and commercial disappointment and his second and last studio album with IRS, Numan reactivated Numa Records, under which he would release his next two albums. However, even Numan considers his 1992 Machine + Soul, a misguided attempt at a purely commercial release recorded solely to pay off debts, a career low point. The album sold only a few thousand copies. By 1994, Numan decided to stop attempting to crack the pop market and concentrate instead on exploring more personal themes, including his vocal atheism. His future wife Gemma encouraged him to strip away the influences of the previous years. Numan re-evaluated his career and went in a harsher, more industrial direction with his songwriting on the album Sacrifice — for the first time he played almost all the instruments himself. The move was critically well-received, as Numan's harder and darker sound emerged just as Numan-influenced bands like Nine Inch Nails were enjoying their first rush of fame. The influence was two-way; Numan claimed that Nine Inch Nails' song "Closer" is his favourite hit single of all time, and influenced his music. Sacrifice was the last album Numan made before shutting down Numa Records permanently. His next two albums, Exile (1997) and Pure (2000), restored his critical reputation. Numan toured the U.S. in support of Exile, his first stateside concerts since the early 1980s.

2000s

Numan has become acknowledged and respected by his peers, with such musicians as Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters and Nirvana), Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), and Marilyn Manson proclaiming his work an influence and recording cover versions of old Numan hits. The band Basement Jaxx had a huge hit in 2002 with "Where's Your Head At?", which relied on a sample of Numan's "M.E." – from The Pleasure Principle – for its hook. Fear Factory produced a cover of "Cars" (featuring a prominent guest appearance by Numan himself) for the digipak version of their album Obsolete. Nine Inch Nails covered the song "Metal" on The Fragile remix album Things Falling Apart as did Afrika Bambaataa (with Numan himself) on the album Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light. "Cars" remains Numan's most enduring song; it was a hit again in 1987 (remixed by Zeus B. Held) and 1996, in the latter case thanks to an appearance in an advert for Carling beer. In 2000 DJ Armand Van Helden sampled the track and mixed it up in his single "Koochy" which conquered the dancefloors. In 2002, UK pop trio Sugababes scored a #1 with "Freak Like Me" – a mashup of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" and "Are Friends Electric?" by Numan's Tubeway Army.

Other musicians, and at least one comedian, who have sung Numan's praises in recent years include Beck, Grant Nicholas, Tricky, Damon Albarn & Matt Sharp, Jarvis Cocker, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, Noel Fielding and Afrika Bambaataa, who spoke of the influence Numan's music had on the fledgling American DJ scene: "In the late 70s and early 80s Gary had the rhythms that DJs wanted to get hold of and people waited for his records on the dance floor." "Cars" was featured on the soundtrack for the blockbuster 2002 videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as part of the New Wave radio station Wave 103, although it did not appear on the soundtrack CD release for the game. "Are Friends Electric" appeared on EA's game Need For Speed: Carbon in 2006.

In 2002, Numan enjoyed chart success once again with the single "Rip", reaching #29 in the UK chart and in 2003 with the Gary Numan vs Rico single "Crazier", which reached #13 in the UK chart. Rico also worked on the remix album Hybrid which featured reworkings of older songs in a more contemporary industrial style as well as new material. Other artists and producers who contributed on these remixes included Curve, Flood, Andy Gray, Alan Moulder, New Disease and Sulpher. 2003 also saw Numan performing the vocals on a track named "Pray For You" on the Plump DJs album Eargasm, which was well received. In 2004 Numan took control of his own business affairs again, launching the label Mortal Records and releasing a series of live DVDs. In late 2006, Numan announced on his website that recording would begin on his new album in January 2007, with Ade Fenton co-producing. Numan stated "think of Jagged and Pure, but faster, with bigger choruses, more energy, and more aggression" to describe the album's intended sound. The album, Jagged, was duly released on 13 March 2006. An album launch gig took place at The Forum, London on 18 March followed by UK, European and US tours in support of the release. Numan also launched a Jagged website to showcase the new album, and made plans to have his 1981 farewell concert (previously released as Micromusic on VHS) issued on DVD by November 2006 as well as releasing the DVD version of the Jagged album launch gig. Numan undertook a Telekon 'Classic Album' tour in the UK in December 2006.

On 6 November 2006, Numan took part in the Sky1 reality show The Race. It pitted ten celebrities (five male, five female) against each other in a series of Formula One-style car races. These races were held at Silverstone over the next five days, and varied in racing styles, ultimately culminating in one final Grand Prix race on Sunday, 12 November. Numan did win on the overall leaderboard, though he lost the final race to AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson.

Numan contributed vocals to four tracks on the April 2007 release of Fenton's debut solo album Artificial Perfect on his new industrial/electronic label Submission, including songs "The Leather Sea", "Slide Away", "Recall" and the first single to be taken from the album, "Healing". The second single to be released in the UK was "The Leather Sea" on 30 July 2007. He sold out a fifteen-date UK tour in Spring 2008 during which he performed his 1979 number one album Replicas in full, and all the Replicas-era music including B-sides. The highly successful tour also raised Numan's profile in the media again due to the fact that it coincided with his 30th anniversary in the music business. The tour was also notable for the Manchester gig on 8 March 2008 which also happened to fall on his 50th birthday. The band, along with wife Gemma, helped Numan celebrate by bringing a large cake onstage. A recording of the concert was released on DVD under the title "Replicas Live".

In November 2007, Numan confirmed via his website that work on a new album, with the working title of Splinter, would be under way throughout 2008, after finishing an alternate version of Jagged (called Jagged Edge) and the CD of unreleased songs from his previous three albums (confirmed to be titled Dead Son Rising on 1 December 2008 via official mailing list message). He wrote that Splinter was likely to be released in early 2010. Numan has recently completed a four-date run of gigs in Australia and will be touring the UK in the coming months.

In July 2009, Gary Numan appeared as a special guest at the "Wave Goodbye" Nine Inch Nails concert at The O2 arena (London) in London. Before coming on stage, Trent Reznor explained how Numan was "vitally important and a huge inspiration" to him during the past 20 years. Numan then went on to play two songs with Nine Inch Nails; "Cars" and "Metal". Numan appeared once again at the final run of the "Wave Goodbye" shows in Los Angeles, CA. In August 2009 he played at the Hevy Music Festival in Folkestone, UK. On 2 September 2009 at the Hollywood Palladium, Numan joined Reznor on stage to perform "Metal" and "Cars" near the end of the Nine Inch Nails set. He then joined the band onstage a third time at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, CA, this time performing "Metal" and "I Die: You Die" from the album Telekon. He then joined them a fourth time at the Henry Fonda Theater, performing "Down In The Park", "Metal" and "Cars". Mike Garson initially played "Down In The Park (Piano Version)" before they started the song. He then joined them for the final show at the Wiltern Theater.

In a September 2009 interview with The Quietus, Numan says that he and Trent Reznor plan to make music together.

2010s

He was set to perform a small number of American live dates in April 2010, including a Coachella Festival appearance in California, but had to cancel because air travel in Europe was halted by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud. As a result, the tour was not only postponed but expanded, and his Pleasure Principle 30th Anniversary Tour's American and Mexican dates began on 17 October 2010, at Firestone Live in Orlando, Florida.

Gary Numan is set to tour Australia in May 2011. Performing his seminal album The Pleasure Principle in its entirety to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. Joining him on the tour will be renowned Australian electronic band Severed Heads, coming out of retirement especially for the shows.

Numan lent his vocals to the track "My Machines" off Battles's 2011 album "Gloss Drop". He has been chosen by Battles to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curate in December 2011 in Minehead, England. It is announced on his website that Numan's new album Dead Son Rising will be released on September 12, 2011.

Personal life

Numan is a positive atheist and has incorporated anti-religious motifs and images in his music. Numan was an outspoken supporter of the Conservative Party and of Margaret Thatcher after her inauguration as Prime Minister. He later expressed regret for giving his public support, calling it "a noose around my neck". He has recently said that he considers himself neither left-wing nor right-wing and that he does not support Tony Blair or David Cameron. He also said, "I'm not socialist, I know that. I don't believe in sharing my money."

Numan married a member of his own fan club, Gemma O'Neill, a native of Sidcup. In 2003, after some pregnancy difficulties, the couple had their first child, Raven. In 2005 they had a second daughter, Persia. In 2007 the couple had their third child, Echo. Numan resides with his family in East Sussex. He published his autobiography, Praying to the Aliens, in 1997 (updated edition 1998), in collaboration with Steve Malins. (Malins also wrote the liner notes for most of the CD reissues of Numan's albums in the late 1990s, as well as executive producing the Hybrid album in 2003.)

Numan is known for his love of flying, a passion which has featured in some of his music videos ("Warriors", "I Can't Stop"). He has owned several small aircraft. Numan was a member of the Air Training Corps. He is one of a very small handful of flyers with the credentials and qualifications to train aerobatic instructor pilots. He was once forced to emergency-land his light aircraft on a Southampton motorway.

Numan is referenced several times in the BBC TV series The Mighty Boosh as Vince Noir, one of the main characters, is a huge Gary Numan fan. Examples of this are in the episode "Tundra" where Numan gives Noir a lift to the Antarctic in his personal jet (a black jet with a red trim with "NUMAN" written in white), in the episode "Electro" Numan's influence is clear to see on Noir when he joins electro band "Kraftwork Orange". Along with making several other references to Numan (notably a scene where Noir states he's made some 'tapes' for a journey saying "This is the best of the 60s (holding one tape), this is the best of the 70s (holding another tape) and THIS (picks up a horde of tapes) is Gary Numan!"), Numan guest-starred in "The Power of the Crimp", being locked in a cupboard and is used (unsuccessfully) to cheer Vince up.

At age 15, after a series of outbursts in which Numan would "smash things up, scream and shout, get in people's faces and break stuff", he was prescribed antidepressants and anxiolytics. Numan has stated he has Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder which causes restricted social and communication skills. In a 2001 interview, he said: "Polite conversation has never been one of my strong points. Just recently I actually found out that I'd got a mild form of Asperger's syndrome which basically means I have trouble interacting with people. For years, I couldn't understand why people thought I was arrogant, but now it all makes more sense.".

Following the harassment of his wife while his family was walking on High Street and the 2011 England Riots Numan filed papers to immigrate to the United States. He plans to live in Santa Monica, California. Numan said "Every village and town in England has a bunch of thugs running around in it. The riots were the nail in the coffin".

Discography

Tubeway Army (1978) (with Tubeway Army)

Replicas (1979) (with Tubeway Army)

The Pleasure Principle (1979) (Numan's first album under his own name)

Telekon (1980)

Dance (1981)

I, Assassin (1982)

Warriors (1983)

Berserker (1984)

The Fury (1985)

Strange Charm (1986)

Metal Rhythm (1988) (New Anger in the United States)

Automatic (1989) (With Bill Sharpe)

Outland (1991)

Machine and Soul (1992)

Sacrifice (1994) (Dawn in the US)

Exile (1997)

Pure (2000)

Hybrid (2003)

Jagged (2006)

Dead Son Rising (2011)

References

Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide To Gary Numan.

Guinness Book of British Hit Singles 7th Edition

Gary Numan Famous people with Asperger Syndrome

External links

NuWORLD: Official website

Complete discography, unofficial

Review: Exposure – NXLive.co.uk

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:British industrial musicians Category:English atheists Category:English male singers Category:English songwriters Category:English New Wave musicians Category:I.R.S. Records artists Category:Old Paludians Category:People with Asperger syndrome Category:Synthpop musicians Category:People from Hammersmith Category:Gothic rock musicians Category:Tubeway Army members Category:People educated at Ashford County Grammar School

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Emmy the Great
background	solo_singer
birth name	Emma-Lee Moss
born	c. 1984
origin	London, England
genre	Anti-folk, Indie folk
occupation	Singer-songwriter
years active	2005–present
label	Fear And Records, Close Harbour
associated acts	Younghusband, So Say So, Pengilly's, Three Trapped Tigers, Noah and the Whale, Jeremy Warmsley, Johnny Flynn, Brighton Port Authority, Lightspeed Champion, Ash
website	Official website Myspace
current members	Emma-Lee Moss Euan HinshelwoodGlenn KerriganTom Rogerson Ric HollingberyPete Baker
notable instruments	}}

Emma-Lee Moss (born c. 1984), known by her stage name Emmy the Great, is a London-based singer-songwriter. She has released two albums, First Love and Virtue.

Early life

Moss was born in Hong Kong to an English father and a Chinese mother. Being into music from a young age, she would take the train to her nearest Tower Records so that she could buy the only non-Chinese music they had and, as a result, she got into bands such as Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins and The Lemonheads. While in Hong Kong, she attended primary school in Kowloon. She emigrated with her family to London at the age of 12 and grew up in the English Shires - at one point living in a canal boat in Oxford.

She attended the Michael Hall Rudolf Steiner School in West Sussex.

Emma is dating Tim Wheeler of the band Ash.

Musical career

She has performed as a member of the indie folk group Lightspeed Champion, acting as their vocalist for a brief period in 2007 alongside Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine. She then went back to focus on her work as a solo artist under the adopted nickname Emmy the Great, which she says came about when "I wanted to be a backing singer and I wanted to have something to hand to people... ‘Emmy’ is a name they called me at university, which I hated, and ‘the Great’ I added on because I hated ‘Emmy’ so much." She formed a backing band which includes musicians such as Euan Hinshelwood of Younghusband, Glenn Kerrigan of So Say So, Tom Rogerson of Three Trapped Tigers and Ric Hollingbery of Pengilly's.

Her debut single, Secret Circus, was released in April 2006.

She began writing her debut album, First Love, in "dilapidated studios" owned by The Earlies in rural Lancashire and was released in February 2009. It spawned the singles We Almost Had A Baby and First Love. The album was received with generally positive reviews, while The New York Times compiled their list of "Best Albums of the Year 2009" and ranked First Love at #7.

Her second album, Virtue, was released on June 13, 2011, while the MP3 blog RCRD LBL helped promote the album on April 18, 2011, when they released a free download of the track "A Woman, a Woman, a Century Of Sleep". The album's lead single "Iris" was released as a digital download on April 29, 2011. Speaking of the album's recording process, Moss said that, "It’s been a very strange few months, and I can’t wait to make a record of them".

Collaborations

To date, she has collaborated with several other artists, most notably Lightspeed Champion and Fatboy Slim (as part of the Brighton Port Authority project).

She has also worked with alternative rock band Ash (a band who she has demonstrated great admiration for) on an acoustic studio re-recording of the single "D" - "Tracers" and also performed with them on their A-Z tour. Moss recorded a cover of Ash's song Burn Baby Burn which she released as a b-side to her single First Love. She provided guest vocals on "Calling Out Your Name Again", the second single from Darren Hayman's Essex Arms album.

She is a mentor for The Joe Strummer Foundation for New Music (Strummerville)

In May 2011 Emma and Tim Wheeler covered a song called "Washington Parks" raising money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis and the MS Society. Emma stated "I have just recorded a song with Wheeler for the MS Society. The song is called 'Washington Parks' and it was written by Robert Manning. Robert is the word 'awesome'. He writes a really beautiful blog about his family life and the pain of MS treatment, and also came up with the idea to get people to record his song for charity. So far Ed Harcourt, Marissa Nadler, and loads more have signed up. Tim has a special Ash collaboration version lined up as well."

In April 2011 Emma collaborated with writers Jack Underwood, Nikesh Shukla, Joe Dunthorne and Miriam Elia for the London Word Festival, along with musician Elizabeth Sankey of Summercamp.

Writing

Emmy has written for music magazines The Stool Pigeon, Artrocker and Drowned in Sound, and for the QI Annual. She also has a fortnightly column in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao, and contributed writing to the BBC Radio 4 show The Museum of Curiosity. She claimed in an interview that she has no plans to be a music journalist. An article of hers, based on her time in Omaha with Lightspeed Champion, is featured in the Stool Pigeon compilation book Grace Under Pressure. She stated that if she had not been a musician, "I’d be a writer of some sort, in different formats." Her writing styles have been greatly praised as being poetic in a time when song writing seems to be losing substance.

She is childhood friends with feminist and columnist Jazz Mellor, who is referenced in several Emmy the Great songs.

Discography

Albums

First Love (Close Harbour/ Absolute, 2009)

Virtue (2011)

Live albums

Acoustic Bonus CD - Live At 12 Bar, London (Rough Trade Shops, 2009)

EPs

Take Me I'm Free (2006) self released

My Bad (Moshi Moshi, 2007)

Chris Moss EP (Internet release, 2007)

Edward (Close Harbour/ Absolute, 2009)

Singles

"Secret Circus" (Drowned in Sound, 2006)

"The Hypnotist's Son" 7" (Drowned in Sound, 2007)

"Gabriel" 7" (Moshi Moshi, 2007)

"We Almost Had A Baby" (Close Harbour, 2008)

"First Love" (Close Harbour, 2009)

"A Woman, A Woman, A Century of Sleep" free download (2011)

"Iris" (2011)

Music videos

"The Easter Parade" (2007)

"We Almost Had a Baby" (2008)

"First Love" (2009)

"MIA" (2009)

"Iris" (2011)

References

External links

Emmy the Great's Official Website

Emmy the Great on Facebook

Emmy the Great on Twitter

Emmy the Great on Myspace

Exclsuive Interview with Virgin Red Room

Category:Hong Kong singer-songwriters Category:Hong Kong female singers Category:Anti-folk musicians Category:English people of Chinese descent Category:1984 births Category:Living people

zh-min-nan:Emmy the Great nl:Emmy the Great