Review from SonicAbuse
Gary Numan W/ Losers @ Nottingham Rock City 10/11/2013
NOVEMBER 11, 2013 | POSTED IN GIG REVIEWS | NO COMMENTS
An artist like Gary Numan was always going to attract a fair turnout, even on a wet and rainy Sunday in Nottingham. Nonetheless, the extent to which Nottingham rock city is packed still comes as a welcome surprise, and, unusually, the majority of the audience is well in place by the time the support band, the Losers, take the stage.
A little background will perhaps help here – working on a reviewing blog like SonicAbuse can have its rewards and its problems. One erstwhile reviewer for the site spoke to me a few months after starting, saying that as a result of the site he had not actually listened to music for pleasure since joining the team – a state of affairs he was not keen to see continue. Needless to say he quit, and it must be said that as a reviewer exposed to a huge amount of new music in any given month, inevitably cynicism sets in. The reason for this brief departure from the main thread is that The losers utterly blew any aspects of cynicism away. Featuring members of the woefully undervalued Cooper Temple Clause, Yourcodenameis:milo and Oceansize, the band are a wonderful, beautifully f***ed up blast of adrenalin-powered electronic rock that takes elements of f*** buttons, Mogwai, Porcupine Tree Cooper Temple Clause and Massive attack and throws them all into the blender to deliver huge, surging blasts of unexpectedly brilliant noise. Opening with two video screens displaying bifurcated clips of disturbing video with the band’s phrase “it’s all in your head†flashing up on the screen subliminally, opening track ‘acrobatica’ (from the band’s awesome second album ‘…and so we shall never part’) could not sound any larger, with the raging guitars washing over an appreciative audience and the band giving a stunningly energetic performance. Clearly thrilled to be touring with Gary Numan, the Losers look ecstatic throughout their show as they unleash a series of increasingly brilliant tracks including an achingly poignant ‘turn around’ (complete with unnerving, sonic youth-esque freak out at its centre point), the creepy electro-ambience of ‘the chain’ and the closing, muscular blast of ‘Azan’. Quite honestly watching the band took me back to when I first started attending gigs, spending my time standing at the front wide-eyed with naïve awe at the gods striding across the stage unleashing carefully controlled chaos from their respective instruments, and the huge rush of adrenalin that surged through my body during the closing number (an inspiration, apparently, for Gary Numan himself) made the simple point that the Losers are a genuinely thrilling, original and exciting band, and from the roars of adulation that met each song, it seemed clear that many in the audience felt the same way. Losers by name, it would seem, but certainly not by nature, the Losers all-too-brief show was a peerless triumph and it left the crowd desperate for more.
It needed something special to follow the Losers utterly remarkable performance, and Gary Numan truly delivered. Taking a leaf out of nine inch nails’ book aesthetically, the industrial uber-lord appeared in front of a giant LED screen that threw out dazzling imagery throughout the tight, demonically driven performance. Cleverly mixing up new material with the classics that the audience will always crave, Gary delivered a set that was second to none, and on his current, crushing form, all visceral muscle and doom-laden electronic grandeur, the show proved to be one of the best gigs of the year. Part of what made it such a special night was the boundlessly enthusiastic crowd who had already received the Losers with great warmth and who now turned their attention to attempting to drown out Gary’s band with their roars of appreciation, while the power of the band and the devastating levels of volume deployed approximated shock and awe tactics. Gary himself seemed entirely bowled over by the level of adoration aimed at the stage, and turned in a mind-blowing performance that included ‘cars’, ‘metal’ (easily out-rocking Nine inch nails’ reverential cover), ‘down in the park’ and ‘are friends electric?’ as well as choice cuts from ‘splinter’, ‘pure’ (including the stunning title track and the deeply moving ‘a prayer for the unborn’) and other recent albums. Well-paced, the set’s strengths lay in the fact that Gary knows the value of his back catalogue and carefully interspersed new material with more familiar numbers making sure that the audience were always on side whilst simultaneously emphasising the power of a record that has been hailed in some quarters as one of the best of his career. Gary Numan is a rare artist whose work seems to be ever improving, and his intense stage presence and remarkable body of work left no audience member in doubt of why he is so revered.
It’s rare that you get two such amazing acts in one evening but Nottingham rock City bore witness to a truly astounding show. Losers are a band who should, by any rational assessment be huge (and having bought the album immediately after the show and played it relentlessly since, it would certainly seem that my senses were not overwhelmed by the gig – the band truly are that good) and there unique, wonderful music was a highlight of a year of reviews, let alone of the show. Gary Numan, meanwhile, is a pioneer; a master whose work has benefitted from a permanently lit flame of inspiration that burns deep inside and his current work stands tall amidst a back catalogue of gems so burned into the public consciousness that even the most ardent Gary Numan hater would surely (and perhaps unwittingly) love at least one track aired over the course of the evening. This is the sort of gig that reaffirms even the most shaken faith in the power of music to tantalise, excite, energise and invigorate and everything, from the remarkable showmanship demonstrated by both bands to the brilliant set lists proved to be exactly right. It was one hell of a night!
It really was that good, best one I've been to in a long time and that includes a lot of Numan's shows
Review from music224
Gary Numan
With Support From Losers.
Rock City Nottingham 10th November 2013.
Tonight, Rock City was to play host to one of the worlds most prominent and well respected musicians! His career has spanned some 35 years and in one way or another his music has influenced our lives. Other musicians such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Dave Grohl all acknowledge Gary Numan as an influence in their own musical journeys and have covered his tracks on their own albums (except Manson). Even artists, such as Basement Jaxx, have had great commercial success thanks to the use of a Gary Numan sample, (M.E.) on the track “Where’s your head at?†So, no time to delay then, this is a gig I’ve been looking forward too for a while, time to head over to Nottingham. Here in my car……
I’ll continue with that later, but first, supporting Numan were Losers, odd name, to which the crowd had great pleasure in shouting between tracks, whilst forming an L shape, using their index finger and thumb, pressed up against their foreheads, you remember doing it, don’t deny it, but this band are far from their names sake and are a very talented bunch indeed!
The band consists of a wide variety of musicians, all having varying success in previous projects, Tom Bellamy (ex Cooper Temple Clause) – Guitar & Vocals (Panzer Attack, by The Cooper Temple Clause is one of my all time favorite tracks, even to this day), Paul Mullen (ex YourCodeNameIs:Milo/Young Legionnaire) – Guitar, Keys and Vocals, Mark Heron (ex Oceansize/Kong) – Drums and Percussion, Eddy TM (DJ/new music radio and club guru) – Bass, Keys and Backing Vocals, as well as a young lady of the keyboards and an electric ukulele, who’s name I cannot find.
The band formed back in 2009 and in 2010 their debut album “Beautiful Losers†grabbed the dance music media’s attention instantly, catapulting them into the musical spotlight.
After hearing the first album, I considered how their live show would work, being primarily electronic music and vocals, but the likes of Pendulum, Chase n Status and others have successfully produced captivating live shows, whilst maintaining their sound, so why not these Losers. I think it’s safe to say I was intrigued. The music they produce is deep, meaningful and thought provoking in their live show, whilst maintaining that electro feel, they have managed to accompany it with enhanced bass from the drums and bass guitar, leaving the 2 guitarists to produce some heavy riffs, drops and solo’s that translates well live.
I personally like dance and electronic music, but after tonight’s show, I couldn’t tell these guys were a dance act. The new album “And So We Shall Never Part†was made possible through the fan funded website Pledge and is being released as we speak. This new album is said to be heavier, leaning more towards their live show and less like the previous album. Tonight people at the gig could pick up a copy of that album, exclusively, as it is not yet available anywhere else, so if you do go to any of the shows on the Splinter Tour, make sure you pick up a copy, it will be well worth it.
Losers bass player, Eddy, dedicated the last track in their set “Azan†to Gary Numan tonight, stating this track had inspired Numan to write his latest album SPLINTER, he also went on to say, if he walked out into Nottingham and got hit by a bus, he could die happy knowing this fact……I hope this didn’t happen, they are performing in Sheffield tonight and will continue on with Numan throughout this tour, so check what all the hype is about for yourself!!
Set list tonight consisted of: 1. Acro 2. Us Vs Night 3. Think You 4. The Chain 5. Turn Around 6. Azan (Set list taken from the stage list so may not be as per the actual track title)
Gary’s introduction was interesting as at the back of the stage, metal panels started to spell out the word “Splinterâ€, and once spelt, out rushed the band to a barrage of screams and applause, which only got louder once everyone recognised Gary. If one things for certain, despite his age, Gary Numan has taken good care of himself and is as energetic as ever. Trying to photograph him was a nightmare, factor in masses of smoke and back lighting, I struggled to say the least. My very first shot, however, was of Gary with his Gibson Les Paul, bought by his father, when he was only fifteen and is probably the inspiration that got Gary into music…..Thank you Gary’s Dad! Not that you could tell from my photos, but there was actually a full band along side Gary tonight, but knowing how important Gary is to the music scene and only having 3 tracks to shoot him, I didn’t get many of the others, sorry!
Another certainty is that a Gary Numan show is always going to be entertaining and tonight was no exception. This album has gone right back to his heavy synthesizer days, yet it sounds fresh and up to date. With plenty of emotion, feeling and energy from Gary, the rest of the band and the crowd, I couldn’t help but feel inspired myself!
As cries of NUMAN, NUMAN, NUMAN and wolf whistles came from the crowd, I could tell they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and the show, so much so that during the track “Filmsâ€, I think everyone in the crowd were waving their arms about, side to side and in unison – clearly the crowd are well versed!
It’s fair to say, the show featured a lot of tracks from the new album “Splinter†and with this being the Splinter tour, that would make sense, however, I along with many of Gary’s fans and the music press will agree, this is his best body of work for a long time. From start to finish, the show was spectacular, but my favorite moment has to be hearing “Cars†live, it bought back so many memories from my youth, where I heard the track for the first (and many after that) time, when my dad played it at home, it almost bought a tear to my eye!
Full set list consisted of: 1. Resurrection 2. I Am Dust 3. Metal 4. Everything Comes Down to This 5. Films 6. Here in the Black 7. The Fall 8. The Calling 9. Down in the Park 10. Pure 11. Splinter 12. Lost 13. When the Sky Bleeds, He Will Come 14. We’re the Unforgiven 15. Love Hurt Bleed 16. A Prayer for the Unborn 17. Cars 18. Are ‘Friends’ Electric? 19. My Last Day
