After a lazy Sunday spent at my parents eating food and playing games I headed over to Shepherds Bush to see Gary Numan in concert. This was only the second time I saw him live, having first seen him at The Astoria a year and a half earlier (GIG 270).

Supporting him on this occasion were a band called Posh. I only knew them before the gig as they appeared on the Gary Numan Tribute album “Random” covering “She’s Got Claws”. The Random album is actually pretty worth while getting/listening to, consisting of 26 covers by bands such as Republica, Pop Will Eat Itself, Saint Etienne, Gravity Kills, Jesus Jones and Moloko. Posh were good, but unfortunately I can only find the above track from them on Spotify.

This concert was the final date of Numan’s Exile Tour and was actually recorded and released as a live album called, imaginatively, “Live at Shepherds Bush Empire”. So as I write this entry I’ve actually travelled back in time to 1997 and am listening to the concert!

Gary Numan is timeless. For an artist who has been recording and releasing music for, what is now, 47 years he has continued to update his sound and stay fresh. He’s also still blinding good live if you ever get the chance to see him (and he does still tour very regularly). Fantastic gig.

SETLIST

1. Down in the Park
2. Dominion Day
3. Friends
4. Films
5. A Question of Faith
6. Voix
7. Everyday I Die
8. Dark
9. You Walk in My Soul
10. Noise, Noise
11. An Alien Cure
12. Cars
13. Absolution
14. Dead Heaven
15. Metal
16. Bleed (Encore 1)
17. Are ‘Friends’ Electric? (Encore 1)
18. We Are So Fragile (Encore 2)
19. Jo the Waiter (Encore 2)