BREAKING NEWS: GARY NUMAN ARRESTED
July 11, 1978
Police arrested synth-pop star Gary Numan this morning on the M6 Motorway after a brief stand-off where Numan locked all the doors of his car and refused to come out. Officers remarked that Numan remained calm but would only open the door if someone would "visit with him". He added that it would be the only way to keep him "stable". After ten minutes of pleasant conversation with law enforcement officials Numan surrendered to authorities without incident, admitting that he had been drinking heavily. He was released on bail soon after by his father. When asked by reporters to explain himself, a staggering Numan muttered, through slurred speech, that he was inspired by the day's events and was off to the recording studio to write a song about it. Researchers have since unearthed the recording made by Numan that very day which became the impetus for a song that would soar to number one in the charts a year later. Click on the video below to listen to this incredibly rare recording: |
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Recorded at ChumBucket Sound, Inc 223 Yorkshire Lane Hammersmith, England July 10, 1978. Vocal Track w/moog synthesizer |
TRAGEDY AT NUMAN CONCERT -- associated press
December 13, 1999
During the live performance of Gary Numan's "The Loompa Tour" in Islington on December 10th, dozens of people in the audience were injured, some taken to local hospital to have large amounts of whipped cream removed from multiple bodily orifices. According to several eye-witness accounts, the frontman, Gary Numan, notable entertainer with a plummeting career, half-way through the song "Whip It Up" boarded what appeared to onlookers as "a bleedin' Wonkamobile" where Numan began to drive the ungainly contraption around the stage whilst singing at the helm. During the chorus, the vehicle began to oscillate wildly spewing chunks of whipped cream thirty feet into the air--a dazzling, albeit surreal, spectacle the stage hands later reported saying "went off without a hitch" However, moments later, it was becoming clear that Numan no longer had any directional control. The machine lurched forward and crashed into various amplifiers and then careened into what was already a shocked and bewildered crowd. The wonkamobile continued to belch out vast quantities of cream slowly suffocating the victims who were in the path of destruction. Thankfully, no deaths were reported. Numan, noticably shaken but undeterred, apologized for the inconvenience and continued the concert muttering something about "a last chance to make this work" But it was readily apparant that the fans were in no mood for the show to go on. Even when Numan began to throw chocolate bars out into the audience to placate them the ensuing riot put an end to the evening's festivities.