Four decades after walking away from fame, synthpop’s pioneering superstar is filling stadiums once again. The ex-Tubeway Army frontman talks about overcoming death threats, panic attacks and losing 997,000 fans
By the end of 1980, Gary Numan had a level of superstardom that, for working-class kids like him, had seemed as unachievable “as landing on the moon”. The singles Are “Friends” Electric? (with his band Tubeway Army) and Cars had both rocketed to No 1, as had the albums Replicas, The Pleasure Principle and Telekon. But he was unprepared for fame.
“There’s a glossy front-cover version where everything looks very glamorous,” he says, “but the reality can be damaging and destructive. Making music stops being this thing you love and starts to become about units and strategies. The stress and pressure of it all was unbelievably difficult, particularly for someone like me.”
