Gary Numan Confirmed To Play Auckland in May

A couple of weeks ago we announced that Gary Numan looked very likely to be heading our way in May after seeing a NZ date on an Australian touring company's website. Last week it looked like our leg of the tour may have been dropped as it disappeared off the site but we can now confirm that the show is definitely going ahead, same date but different venue.

Gary Numan
21st May, ASB Theatre, Auckland
Tickets from buytickets.co.nz - presales available from midday Feb 10th with the password "electric".

Press Release:

Gary Numan -The Pleasure Principle 30th Anniversary Tour

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of his revolutionary album, THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE, Solid Entertainment is proud to present Gary Numan, one of the founding fathers of modern electronic music.

Having toured New Zealand just once in 1980, the electro pioneer is returning to perform his classic 1979 album THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE in its entirety, plus material spanning across his career.

Gary Numan performs one show only on Saturday 21st May at the ASB Theatre in Auckland.

The release of THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE in 1979 was a defining moment in music history. It marked the birth of electro-pop and cemented Gary Numan as an innovator and pioneer in modern popular music. Thirty years later it’s difficult to imagine just how different Numan’s music sounded and felt at the time. Most people quite simply had never heard the like!

As an album, THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE abandoned tradition. A rock album where guitars were largely replaced with Numans’ signature sound of synthesizers being fed through guitar effects pedals with traditional song structures being left behind altogether. Containing the iconic single ‘Cars’, THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE ushered in a decade of forward-thinking electro-pop, and a revolution in popular music.

In 1979 Gary Numan had released the Replicas album under the name Tubeway Army. The revelatory and unique sounding single ‘Are Friends Electric’ reached Number 1 signposting the epoch defining THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE album to be released later in the same year.

Astonishing commercial chart-topping success followed and Numan’s innovative production techniques and sounds spawned massive, unprecedented and ground-breaking hits around the world. With three Number 1 albums in the space of 2 years it was an extraordinary period in time, a period of seismic music cultural change and impact that still resonates today.

Creatively, not only did THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE act as a benchmark for many electro-pop artists following in Numan’s legacy including Ultravox, The Human League and Depeche Mode, but it also had a direct impact on the works of a wide and varied range of artists including Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Basement Jaxx, Sugababes, Wu Tang Clan, Fear Factory and Afrika Bambaata. Artists who later covered or sampled Numan songs giving birth to a whole new re-booted generation of Numan hits!

Few artists can lay claim to the titles of 'legendary' and 'pioneering' but as the NME noted 'Gary Numan's influence on electronic music is unparalleled’. In recent times the legacy has solidified further through the wide acknowledgement and respect from such artists as Queens of the Stone Age, Beck, Tricky, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker and David Bowie. In 2009 Trent Reznor invited Gary to appear onstage with Nine Inch Nails explaining how Numan was a “vitally important and a huge inspiration” during the past 20 years.

In 2011 Gary Numan’s influence has resonated far and wide. He’s made an indelible mark in musical history, commands huge respect from his peers and his name and his music have spanned the last thirty years via many channels.

Gary Numan’s story is not one that could have been scripted. Who would have guessed that to a whole new generation of TV audiences he would become an instantly recognisable cult figure in the hugely popular series The Mighty Boosh? The Vince Noir character made many adulatory references to Numan later leading to a personal appearance.

Vince Noir [holds up a cassette tape] “This is the best of the sixties.” [holds up another cassette] “And this is the best of the seventies.” [lifts a huge stack of cassettes] “And this is Gary Numan!”

‘There have been plenty of replicas, but there's only one Numan.’ NZ Herald

‘The Pleasure Principle is so original and cool and ground breaking and in a way classic. Like, it still sounds great today…like nothing sounds like that today.’ Devo

Gary Numan’s shows have always been momentous affairs. From the never seen before (and costly) extravaganzas of the 80s right through to last year’s rapturously received sell out shows in Australia.

So - for the first time in a long time - it is with added pleasure that we’re delighted to announce the return of an iconic performer to New Zealand.

Don’t miss your chance to see GARY NUMAN performing THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE this May 21st. One New Zealand show only.

TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 14TH FEBRUARY MIDDAY
www.buytickets.co.nz 0800 BUY TICKETS

SATURDAY 21ST MAY ASB THEATRE, AUCKLAND

A Gary Numan Overview Taken From The Author of His Autobiography :

At the end of the 1970's Gary Numan, a 20 year old ex-punk from West London, was virtually alone in seeing the potential for a 'synthesiser star'. His unique style, born out of a paradox of introspection and showmanship, touched a chord with a huge international audience and within two years of his breakthrough single 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' Numan had sold more than 10 million records.

Fuelled by the enthusiasm of a huge fanbase, Numan released over 20 albums of forward-looking, oddly personal electronic pop between 1978 and 1994 and survived for several years out of the spotlight with his cult status still intact. Avoiding the conventional rock 'n' roll excesses of drink and drugs, Numan blew his money on the pusuit of innovative extremes; gigantic stage sets and new, death-defying adventures as a pilot. He flew around the world in 1981 and by the early 1990's had become one of the top aerobatic display flyers in the country.

Finally, in Praying To The Aliens, Gary Numan tells his own story. It is a story of an eccentric and at times improbable star. We follow his life, from the unequalled live shows, through media hatred and tax exile to near isolation from the music industry. From hair raising aerobatic stunts to his love of sci-fi. From the decline of his career in the late eighties, to cult status and the huge resurgance of interest in his music in the late nineties.

Numan is the embodiment of the fin de siecle sentiment; combining his gothic music fascination with a devotion to technology, he conforms to none of pop's boundaries. Defying musical frameworks he is a definitive point of reference for the serious music scenes newest and most wanted. Namechecked by such diverse entities as Tricky, Nine Inch Nails and Beck, Numan is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with; past present and future. Steve Malins