The 2008 Replicas Tour in 10 Riveting Chapters:
One man's mission to see the last 10 shows of the UK Replicas Tour
Chapter 1
Nottingham
I was heartbroken. A hundred emails must have come here to the NAGNFC telling me how great the 2006 Teletour was. I could only imagine. I vowed the next tour would include me in the audience. Then in the fall of 2007, another retro tour was announced. This time the shows would feature all the Replicas era songs. They would coincide with Gary's 50th birthday and his 30th year in the business. The tour would happen exactly 25 years to the month when I personally bought the Replicas LP. And there would be several more shows planned than the four that took place on the 2006 Teletour.
To give myself more time to save for the trip, I would need to forgo the first 5 shows of the tour so that I would comfortably get to the last 10 shows. After all, 10 out of 15 isn't bad, eh? The Machman machine was set in motion. I purchased some of the concert tickets, and some were Christmas gifts from my folks. I'm usually hard to buy for, but not this time! Several UK NAGNFC readers scoped the venues for nearby places for preshow and aftershow parties.
Everything was falling into place as the logistics of this undertaking were taking shape. Then I received many emails from friends old and new offering hospitality of all kinds. I was humbled by offers of personal tours of their cities, DVDs and CDs of Numan shows at preshow parties, and places to stay. To say I was overwhelmed by the kindness of my fellow Numanoids would be an understatement.
I got a great deal on a 15-day train pass for England and a flight from Ithaca to London via Detroit. This was a first. I always flew from NYC to London but with gas prices and the $120 Newark parking fee last time, I was inspired to fly direct from my hometown. It used to be an expensive luxury to fly out of the small Tompkins County airport here, but I actually saved a bundle by not driving to NYC this time.
The NAGNFC Tour Page was the internet's largest source of info for the Replicas Tour. I printed it out to remind myself of the locales of all the preshow parties. I brought tons of videos on my PSP and US Jagged Tour CDs to give away at the NAGNFC UK gatherings. Three months of planning all came down to March 3rd when my flight left for London via Detroit. My folks drove me to the airport and saw me off. The total wait at the check-in desk and the security line was zero minutes. What a change that was!
After five trips to the UK, I finally got smart and procured some luggage with wheels this time. All my other trips there involved only three concerts max, so getting around wasn't a major undertaking. But with 10 shows in 11 days planned, I was going to need all the mobility I could get!
My Northwest Airlines flight left the tarmac for the Ithaca sky as my family tracked it on www.flightaware.com and I met a woman onboard from my high school. I'd never flown over this terrain I knew so well from my car, and it was fun picking out familiar towns from this unfamiliar perspective.
I'd never flown NWA. In fact every flight has involved a different airline. The experience was first rate from the flight attendant to the pilot updates to the passengers. It was just a small twin-prop to Detroit but I had a great first impression.
But not as great a first impression as with the new beautiful Detroit/Wayne County airport. This quickly became my favorite airport of all time. Everything about the place made it easy to get around with several diversions and eateries if you had time to spare. The noiseless tram that swished by overhead gave the place a futuristic feel. I always saw Detroit as being a little dumpy but you would never know it from this awesome airport! Sealing the deal was the half-mile long moving sidewalk between Terminals A and C that was a long and wide hall with its walls awash in rich and changing colors of reds, blues, whites and yellows mixed with a serene music track of soundstreams.
Check out my video in Detroit's way cool airport March 3, 2008!
One last (and cheap) cell phone call to friends and family and at 9:20 pm my flight left for London Gatwick. I don't have the skill to sleep on a plane. I was nearly tired enough to use this overnight flight to get some ZZZ's, but that was before I found out about the cool movies playing onboard. Movies that folks were paying to see at the theatres right now. I watched that Pixar movie Cars because it's Gary Numan's song and because it had Michael Keaton in it. And I watched Enchanted (okay stop that snickering) because I'm a big Patrick Dempsey fan from his 80's films.
Still having not slept, daylight roared over the horizon at 1:30 in the morning Detroit time. By 3 in the morning the sun was out in its searing brightness as we flew over Scotland then over the Pennines easily identifiable from the air from its snow-capped peaks against the green-brown of the regular British landscape.
I'd never flown to Gatwick airport. In many ways it was a more pleasant experience than flying in to Heathrow. There was no line at UK customs, and no line to get my train pass validated. I had a huge concern because my pass said my first and middle name instead of my last name, and the pass could only be purchased outside of the UK, but there was miraculously no problem. The Numan karma was watching over me until I arrived at the UK customs desk. By now I'm used to the ribbing that I get from the customs agents over my plans to see Gary Numan. This time the man said, "No accounting for taste I suppose." It's where one can still get a taste of the old guard in England during a time when Gary got no end of criticism and disrespect. Luckily we live in a time now when we who grew up with Gary are now in the positions of power in the media and have since given Gary enough props, hopefully, to make up for decades of lost time and unfair press.
Having not slept from Ithaca, I was tired as my train traversed the English terrain from Gatwick into London. It was sooo cool to be back here though. And I smiled as a little boy shouted "There's London Bridge!" to his mum. Victoria train station was as big as I remembered and underground the Tube would connect with Euston station to get the long-distance train to Manchester where Steve offered his abode for the night, as he'd kindly offered during each of my UK trips.
At Euston station I had a half hour to kill before the Manchester train left and went outside to breathe what seemed like the first fresh air in days after all the planes and trains. With my internal solar batteries recharged, I boarded the train and quickly fell asleep for the nearly three hour journey.
It had been 4 years since I'd been to the UK. The trains looked updated and new. They ran like clockwork, and those who were awake could plug into the BBC Radio Service at their seats with all manner of programming.
The Manchester Piccadilly train station appeared over the horizon like an old friend. I still had about 5 hours to kill before I met Steve at our meeting spot by the Arndale Centre. Plenty of time to see the sights! The last time I was here in Manchester it was with my then fiancee, Jennifer. I remembered the Burger King we ate at as I walked by, and I recalled how much she fell in love with the city as I now sat alone and fed the pigeons with the remnants of my sandwich. I thought it would be hard to be here again, surrounded by memories. But somehow it was okay and seeing several copies of Gary Numan's Replicas Redux CD greet me at the entrance of the large HMV store helped me shake off dusty memories in this museum we all live in.
view video of my afternoon in central Manchester March 4, 2008!
While in the HMV I tooled around the dance vinyl section and was thrilled to happen upon a 10" single from Groove Armada covering Are 'Friends' Electric?. It came out in March 2008 and not one Numanoid I spoke with had heard of it coming out, except one who had heard it and was mixed about its tranceness.
The Arndale Centre was as I remembered four years earlier. I ate in the food court to pass the time and read the local daily. In this huge mall was a Zavvi store (formerly Virgin) and was impressed by the sheer size and selection of cool swag within! I was to meet up with Steve at the ferris wheel across from Arndale. In my absence, these wheels had popped up all over Britain, just as it had in Niagara Falls when I lived there in 2006. And every one of them are identical in color and size.
Before long Steve showed up and I followed him bags in tow to his car. It was great seeing him after so long. By now his house had been an oasis of great conversation and hospitality several times. I was mightily impressed by the renovations he did to his place. I didn't recognize the water closet! I gave him a couple Numan boots. Apart from Numan, we talked well into the night about lighthearted topics like politics and the Revolutionary War. I was fascinated to get a Brit's perspective of the battles and I learned much. For instance, some today may wonder about the stark red color of the British uniform in the woods, but in reality, red made it hard for American troops to ascertain the numbers of men through telescopes.
My folks called my cell at one in the morning, forgetting about the time difference (it was only 8 pm in New York). Steve gave me some flyers about the Replicas Redux CD then I retired to a guest room full of interesting books about music and art.
I couldn't sleep much for the excitement of what lay ahead on this journey, so I used the extra morning to spiff up for the concert tonight in Nottingham. With the logistics of getting 10 concert tickets I had forgotten if I had a ticket waiting for me in Newcastle after Nottingham. Steve drove me to Manchester to the ticket desk downtown and in the Zavvi's where we also scoped out a new 7" Are 'Friends' Electric? picture disc for me. Zavvi's was out of them (there were only 3000 made) and was told by them that Newcastle was sold out. That was disheartening and I started to wonder if I could utilize some Machman cred to procure a ticket in Newcastle. It was worrying to say the least.
We picked up a friend of his named Gary and we were off. We cut a path through the beautiful Peak District National Park and in Nottingham, Steve guarded a parking spot as Gary and I made a beeline to the NAGNFC preshow party at the Horn in the Hand around the corner from the Numan gig at Rock City. Crossing one street I heard someone shout from the road "JIM"!! It was Chris and Tina from Birmingham in traffic looking for a parking spot. It was way cool to see them again. We shouted "NUUUUMAN" and they were off.
view the ride from Manchester to Nottingham on the UK motorway March 5, 2008!
On the way we saw a queue had already formed. I saw friends from all over the world but I hurried by as I was better than an hour late to my own party. It would be a recurring theme on this trip, to my chagrin. Gary and I scoped the place for black clothed Numanoids. Gary scored me a Dr. Pepper at the bar and himself a beer as I heard someone call my name from a window seat. It was Paul. I apologized profusely for my tardiness. Paul was incredible. A big fan of the NAGNFC, he hooked me up with some of Gary's latest TV appearances and articles much prized in my collection. He asked about the logistics of putting this site together as Gary snapped a picture of us.
Paul bought me another round of Dr. Pepper and we talked for about 45 minutes. I was having so much fun chatting I didn't want to leave. Alas, the queue surely would have been massive by now. I was about 30 people back from the front as I met a young girl who had never seen a Numan show. I literally met one at every show. And of course there were the veteran 'Noids.
Once inside, I got a great spot up front as just then the Dr. Peppers were taking their toll. It was a conundrum. Either give up this amazing spot or wait it out. I considered offering the guy behind me a beer to hold my spot as the crowd thickened. But as the show finally started I forgot to remember about it and had a great time.
The concert was brilliant. Songs and B-sides I had grown up with were being performed by Numan just in front of me. Everyone had their favorites. Mine changed night after night, but tonight We Have A Technical and I Nearly Married A Human blew me away. The latter being relevant as recently, I really nearly married a human.
After the show I met people whose faces would become very familiar to me as I saw them many more times over the next 2 weeks. I scored some bootleg Numan T-shirts from out front. You can't really go too wrong for just a fiver. I bid goodbye to Steve and Gary and met up with Don who offered to put me up in Sunderland. It was a two hour drive so we wasted no time getting on the road. Still in town, we saw Steve on his way back to Manchester. After the next roundabout we laughingly gave each other the finger and drove off into the English night.
Don had a Volkswagen much like one I used to have. He brought pop and candy bars (my favorite!) for the ride. We had a lot of common interests to talk about which made for a very fast trip. There was only one free day on my 10 concert tour and tomorrow was it. The one day to savor the vacation with sleep and lack of time constraints.