North American Gary Numan Fan Club Website, May 2008

North American Gary Numan Fan Club Website

Volume 18 May 2008 Issue 156

"Serving Numanoids For Over Half of Gary's Career"

Hello to the Numanoids of the World! Jim "The Machman" Napier here in your computer. Now I'm behind glass, I'll talk to you. It's been a lot of fun doing the illustrated write-up from 10 nights of the Replicas Tour. I've gotten some great feedback and I'm happy everyone is liking the Riveting Chapters. Hey, it's time for This Day In Numan History! At press time it is now May 1st. It was exactly 10 years ago today that Gary played his first North American tour date in 16 years at the Philadelphia Theatre For The Performing Arts! But enough cheery banter. I have some STOP THE PRESS news for you dear NAGNFC readers.

After propelling Gary Numan once more into the Top 10 in March, Beggars' Banquet shut down operations on April 29. Affected are all the bands and labels under the Beggars Group including Beggars' Banquet, Rough Trade, XL Recordings, 4AD and Too Pure. In an effort to pool resources and expand operations, bands such as The National and Stereolab will be heading over to 4AD. Beggars' was formed in 1977 by record shop owners Martin Mills and Nick Austin. Gary had described Beggars' as being an inspiring and friendly group of people to work with. Who knows how well Gary would have fared under a more oppressively mainstream label? This week a major piece of Numan history has disappeared. Rest in peace Beggars' Banquet. We'll remember you fondly. Thanks very much to Paul in Cambridge for the scoopage and link!

Here's one for the X-Files. Andy Peal of Dover, England purchased White Noise brand new and sealed from a dealer on eBay. When Andy opened his new purchase, he found that Gary's autograph was on the front cover. I couldn't shed any light on this for him, but if you have any ideas, he is desperate for an answer to this mystery. You can contact Andy here.

The newest Riveting Chapter is now viewable! This week I've included Chapter 5: Wolverhampton. Read on as I talk a guy in the queue out of his ticket, buy pizza from Turkish guys at 3 in the morning and deal with the pipe-wielding teens of Wolverhampton. Or you can start at the beginning of the misadventures here.

Quite a nice prize this month over at Is Trivia Electric. As always, the first reader with the right answer wins it all along with NAGNFC prestige.

Gary Numan

London Wembley Arena

April 1981

(thanks, Stephen!)

In the spirit of the Wolverhampton chapter, I've included over 100 pictures from the show that night over at the NAGNFC Picture Pages. I've also included another page of excellent and exclusive Cambridge pictures from Rob Naylor here. Thanks Rob!

'Til next time!

Jim "The Machman" Napier