Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on March 8, 1958) is a British singer, songwriter, electropop and new wave music pioneer.

Numan rose to prominence at the tail end of the 1970s, initially recording under the band name Tubeway Army. After recording an album's worth of punky demos (released in 1984 as The Plan), he was signed by Beggars Banquet Records in 1978 and quickly released two singles, "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers," neither of which charted. A self-titled, New Wave-oriented debut album later that same year sold out its limited run and introduced Numan's fascination with dystopian science fiction and, more importantly, synthesisers. Tubeway Army's third single, the cinematic "Down in the Park" (1979) failed to chart but it would prove to be one of Numan's most enduring and oft-covered songs. Almost from nowhere, Tubeway Army reached number one in 1979 with the powerful single "Are 'Friends' Electric?", the parent album Replicas simultaneously climbing to number one in the album charts.

A few weeks later he repeated the feat with "Cars", which became a top ten hit in America as well, and the 1979 album The Pleasure Principle, both released under Numan's own (assumed) name, which he had plucked from an advert in the "Yellow Pages". Topping both single and album charts simultaneously was noteworthy enough; doing so twice in the space of six months was astonishing. A sell-out tour followed. The Pleasure Principle was a rock album with no guitars; instead, Numan used synthesisers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a phased, heavy metal tone. Self-produced in a fortnight for very little money, The Pleasure Principle sounded like nothing else, and remains one of Numan's most highly regarded efforts today. A second single from the album, Complex, made it to #6 in the UK charts.

Numan was pop music's first synthesizer star. He wore costumes and make-up and openly proclaimed his influences: David Bowie, Marc Bolan and contemporary electronic acts such as John Foxx's Ultravox. On stage his persona came across as as aloof, alien and androgynous; in interviews, however, his disarmingly open manner caught many by surprise. Numan's great popularity and unabashed love of wealth alienated critics and even some fellow musicians; Yes recorded a sardonic song about him, "White Car," for their 1980 album Drama, a reaction to his habit of tearing around London in the white Chevrolet Corvette given to him by Beggars Banquet; his one-time idol, David Bowie, refused to appear with Numan on an episode of The Kenny Everett Video Show on which both were scheduled to perform.

Numan bewildered the music press. He was a driven, creative, troubled 21-year-old loner who still lived with his parents. He was not punk. He was not quite New Romantic either, and retrospectives of the period tended to ignore him and his influence. Yet during this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves Numanoids, enough of whom would remain loyal to carry him through the latter half of the 1980s, when his fortunes began precipitously to fall (even before this time, and throughout his commercial peak, Numan was constantly vilified and ridiculed by the UK music press).

1980s

In 1980 Numan again topped the album charts with Telekon, although the concurrent singles "We Are Glass", "I Die: You Die" and "This Wreckage" only reached numbers five, six and twenty, respectively. Numan's second major tour (after 1979's The Tourning Principle) was The Teletour in 1980, an elaborate stage show which, although successful, actually lost Numan a great deal of money because of its vast expense. By this time Numan was sick of the pressures of fame and announced his retirement from touring with a series of expensive, sell-out concerts at Wembley Arena in April 1981. The decision to retire would be short-lived – in his autobiography he recalls walking out onto an empty stage after his final concerts and thinking, "What the fuck have I done?" – but it would have a fateful effect on his career, as Numan found the fickle pop audience quickly turned its attention to other artists.

After this decline in his career, in 1981, Numan had an embarrassing episode involving his hobby of flying, which briefly put him in the UK news. Attempting a round-the-world flight in a light aircraft, Numan had to make a forced landing (reported in the press as an outright crash) in India, where he was arrested on suspicion of smuggling and espionage. Contrary to news stories at the time, Numan was not piloting the plane himself during the landing. During the late 1980s, he had his life threatened on several occasions by a mysterious stalker.

Numan's first album after his farewell concerts, the bleak, atmospheric and experimental Dance (1981), charted as high as #3 on the UK charts, but it dropped out of the charts after only eight weeks. The more upbeat and danceable I, Assassin (1982) fared worse: despite spawning three top-20 singles, the album peaked at only #8 and dropped out of the charts after six weeks. Warriors (1983) was Numan's best album in some time - boasting vibey, melancholic pop and menacing, aggressive guitars, the album peaked at #12 and, like its predecessor, spent only six weeks in the charts. Warriors was the last album Numan recorded for Beggars Banquet Records, and it was supported by a 40-date UK tour, Numan's first live tour in the UK since his Wembley appearances in 1981.

Now battling against the increasing public perception that he was a spent force, Numan issued a series of albums and singles on his own record label, Numa. Despite the merits of albums like Berserker (1984) and The Fury (1985) and their accompanying singles, Numan's music was by now barely grazing the UK charts.

Turning his back on electropop, Numan experimented instead with jazz, funk and lightweight pop. His career quickly nosedived, eclipsed initially by 80's new wave music Adam Ant, and later by Duran Duran, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, The Cure and other popular new wave artists. He spent the decade in a creative malaise, trying to recapture his former chart glory with undistinguished albums stylistically derivative of artists like Robert Palmer and Prince. Each album saw a new "image", none of which captured the public's imagination to nearly the same extent as the lonely android of the late 1970s. His penchant for sharp suits and hats seemed faintly ridiculous, while his later adoption of leather and shades seemed opportunistic. Numan was no longer a pioneer but a follower. Collaborations with Bill Sharpe of Shakatak helped little, though one single the duo recorded, "Change Your Mind", did see chart action, reaching the top 20 in Britain. Numa Records, which had been launched in a flurry of idealistic excitement, folded after the release of Numan's Strange Charm album (1986). In addition to Numa's failure, a lack of radio play and sales drained the fortune (he estimated £4.5 million) Numan had amassed in the late 1970s. Numan signed to IRS Records and his final studio album of the 80s, the edgy, industrial-funk Metal Rhythm (1988) found favour with fans and got positive reviews in the UK music press, but it sold dismally. Metal Rhythm's sales were arguably confounded by the lack of strong promotion and inappropriate choices of singles on the part of IRS.

1990s

After Outland (1991), a disappointing return to lack of form and his second and last album with IRS, Numan reactivated Numa Records, under which he would release his next two albums. However, even Numan considers his 1992 Machine + Soul, a misguided attempt at a purely commercial release recorded solely to pay off debts, a career low point. The music was uninspired and the album sold only a few thousand copies. By 1994, Numan decided to stop attempting to crack the pop market and concentrate instead on exploring more personal interests, including his vocal atheism. His future wife Gemma encouraged him to strip away the influences of the previous years. Numan re-evaluated his career and went in a harsher, more industrial direction with his songwriting on the album Sacrifice; for the first time, he played almost all the instruments himself. The move was well-received, as Numan's harder and darker sound emerged just as Numan-influenced bands like Nine Inch Nails were enjoying their first rush of fame. The influence was two-way; Numan claimed that Nine Inch Nails' song "Closer" is his favourite hit single of all time, and influenced his music. Sacrifice was the last album Numan made before shutting down Numa Records permanently. His next two albums, Exile (1997) and Pure (2000), restored Numan's critical reputation; Numan even toured the U.S. in support of Exile, his first stateside concerts since the early 1980s.

Resurrection of career

After years of ridicule in the press, Numan found himself cited as "the godfather of electronic music" and an artist respected by his peers, with such musicians as Dave Grohl (of Foo Fighters), Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Marilyn Manson proclaiming his work an influence and recording cover versions of old Numan hits. The band Basement Jaxx had a huge hit in 2002 with "Where's Your Head At?", which relied on a sample of Numan's "M.E." - from The Pleasure Principle - for its hook. The band Fear Factory produced a cover of "Cars" featuring a guest appearance by Numan. Nine Inch Nails covered the song "Metal" on their album Things Falling Apart. "Cars" remains Numan's most enduring song; it was a hit again in 1987 and 1996, in the latter case thanks to an appearance in an advert for Carling beer. In 2000 DJ Armand Van Helden sampled "Cars" and mixed it up in his single "Koochy" which conquered the dancefloors. In 2002, UK pop trio Sugababes scored a No.1 with "Freak Like Me" - a mash-up of Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me" and "Are Friends Electric" from Numan's Tubeway Army. Other musicians who have sung Numan's praises in recent years include Beck, Tricky, Queens of the Stone Age, and David Bowie. Afrika Bambaataa has also talked about the influence of Numan's music on the fledgling American DJ scene: "In the late 70s and early 80s Gary had the rhythms that DJs wanted to get hold of and people waited for his records on the dance floor."

In 2003, Numan enjoyed fleeting chart success once again with the Gary Numan vs Rico single "Crazier", reaching No 13 in the UK chart. Rico, who is an up and coming artist from Glasgow, also worked on the remix album Hybrid which featured reworkings of older songs in a more contemporary industrial style. In 2004 Numan took control of his own business affairs again, launching the label Mortal Records and releasing a series of live DVDs as a precursor to a critically well-received new studio album, Jagged which was released on 13 March 2006. An album launch gig took place at The Forum, London, the following Saturday. Numan has announced a UK tour commencing in April 2006 and plans to tour other countries, including the USA, during the year in support of the release. Numan also launched a 'Jagged' website to showcase the new album, and is making plans to have his 1981 farewell concert (previously released as Micromusic on VHS) released on DVD by November 2006 as well as releasing the DVD version of the Album Launch gig later on in 2006.

Personal life

Numan married a member of his own fan club. She diagnosed him as having Asperger's syndrome . She has discussed this and how they met in at least one UK women's magazine. In 2003, he and his wife Gemma had their first child, Raven. In 2005 they had their second child, Persia.

To quote Numan himself on having Asperger's taken from the April 29, 2001 edition of the Sunday Times Magazine (a British Newspaper) . Gary Numan states: "Polite conversation has never been one of my strong points. Just recently I actually found out that I'd got a mild form of Asperger's Syndrome which basically means I have trouble interacting with people. For years, I couldn't understand why people thought I was arrogant, but now it all makes a bit more sense."

Numan is also known for his love of flying, and has owned several aircraft. Numan was a passenger in one of these aircraft when it made an emergency landing on a main road in England, in 1981. This came shortly after successfully flying around the world, during which he was briefly imprisoned in India on suspicion of spying. His love of flying is also noted on the BBC TV series The Mighty Boosh.

Numan published his autobiography, Praying to the Aliens, in 1997 (updated edition 1998), in collaboration with Steve Malins.