Victoria Christina Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), better known by her stage name Little Boots, is an English electropop singer-songwriter. Her stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend, a reference to her unusually small feet. As a musician, Boots sings and plays the piano, keyboards, synthesizer, Stylophone and a Japanese electronic instrument called Tenori-on. After a return to college to focus on her studies, Hesketh along with two of her fellow students formed the electropunk band Dead Disco. The band had limited releases of their four singles but due to increasingly different ideas about the band's musical direction Hesketh left to pursue a solo career. Hesketh has cited as influences The Human League, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Jean Michel Jarre.

Hesketh began writing her own songs and posting covers on social networking sites such as YouTube and Myspace. After appearing on several shows including Later... with Jools Holland and Last Call with Carson Daly, Hesketh entered production on her debut album Hands. With increasing media attention regarding her then-yet-to-be-released debut album, Hesketh topped the BBC Sound of 2009 poll and received a Critics' Choice nomination at the 2009 BRIT Awards. With the release of her debut, she was linked to a recent wave of breakthrough female artists in their twenties playing 1980s-influenced music, including Lady Gaga, Ladyhawke, Florence and the Machine and Elly Jackson of La Roux.

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 synthesiser 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 been widely imitated.

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".