On 21^st May 2002, Gary Numan was signing his new greatest hits album entitled “Exposure”.  I had been to a couple of his concerts with Debra but not had the chance to say hello.  So in my Gary Numan T-shirt I went with Debra to HMV in Oxford Street after work.

Upon arrival we headed straight to the queue for the long wait.  My paws were sweating more the nearer we got and I could feel my fleas swimming in the sweat.  Some of the fans came and said hello to Debra and me.  I was dancing to the CD, which they were playing in the store, which made a few people laugh.  Don’t know why they were laughing, I’m a good at dancing, better than Debra anyway. 

There were 4 isles of the shop used for the queues, just as we thought it would be our isle next I would turn my camera flash on, another isle would be opened instead and I’d turn my flash off and wait again.  At last it was our turn, and Gary signed the CD to both Debra and myself.  Debra and I had our photo taken with Gary, but Debra looks awful in it, so we will have to cut her out of it.  It was so nice to meet Gary, he’s so cool, he ought to be a teddy bear.

Added February 2006

Gary Numan (Gary Anthony James Webb) was born on 8th March 1958. He became famous in May 1979 and his TV debut was on The Old Grey Whistle Test the night before his Top of The Pops debut. Before this he had released three singles as band Tubeway Army. They did not make it into the charts but gained some early fans.

"Are 'Friends' Electric?", from the album Replicas was a single released as a picture disc in May 1979, and this in part, helped it get to number one without any airplay on the nations station Radio1. 'Cars' was the next single released in September of the same year and it too got to number one in the UK charts. This was from the first album released under the name 'Gary Numan' called 'The Pleasure Principle'.

These two singles are well known, even by people that don't recognise the name Gary Numan. As soon as you say the song titles or sing them then people know who it is!

However, HE HAS MANY MORE singles and albums, some have charted and some not; but all with little or no airplay have kept his career going a long time.

Gary's influences were Marc Bolan, David Bowie, John Foxx era of Ultravox.

Many people seeing Gary performing on TV or on stage thought him weird and aloof. Meeting him or seeing him in interviews showed a very open frank and maybe vunerable young man that knew his own mind and did not fit into the sterotype of 'Rock Star'.

Gary Numan's career took a large dip between 1985 and 1994 and he tried to regain his former glory with albums full of music that wasn't really in keeping with his reknown style. His experiments did though produce some great music of various genres.

In 1994 Numan re-invented himself taking a harsher, industrial sound which gained new fans whilst too recapturing some lost ones. There were still of course the hardcore 'Numanoids' who were always there and likely always will be and Debra is proud to be one of the original Numanoids and Gary has even mentioned her in his autobiography 'Praying To The Aliens' and on Piccadilly Radio. I too have been a numanoid since meeting him in 2002 at HMV in Oxford Street.

Since 1994 many people have quoted Numan as their or one of their influence's. Some have covered his songs. He is a well respected influence on todays music scene and I'm sure will for years to come yet. His new album 'Jagged' will be relased on 13th March 2006 and Debra and I can't wait to go get it. He is also touring the UK, Europe and USA during 2006. (see tour dates page on his website)

Gary is married to Gemma (a fellow Numanoid) and they have two daughters. Raven who was concieved by IVF and Persia who was a natural conception.

There is far too much to say about Gary Numan and I not going to go on anymore at this stage, so see his website and maybe one day I will dedicate a more worthwhile section on Gary Numan.