- published: 25 Apr 2016
- views: 32
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".
Oh - my regrets
How they pale and die
Like crippled white creatures
Left behind the chariot
Dissolving where they fell
Did you ever see such power
Black horses running, foaming
Blasting along the path
Away from the questions
That should never have been asked
Did you ever see such force
Their master;
Flaring eyes
Maddened quest
Yet, mind at ease
Oh, my regrets
How pathetic a quest
They are aiming at a target
That is long ago washed away
By the change of day
Did you ever see such pride
In the raised shoulders of one
He throws a short glance
- at his past -
But look; he holds his horses back
Just in time to throw his
Carriage on to another path
He races towards the mountains
Where the paths are narrow and steep
The creatures try to follow
But the road has narrowed in
Then with deadly precession
His whip scorch
their greedy, grasping hands
And forever they fall
Oh, my regrets
Their memory will vanish with me
Like crippled white creatures
Left behind the chariot