09 October 2023 (gig)
12 October 2023
The musical chameleon sheds his skin once again.
Back in the throes of his post-apocalyptic themed offering Savage (Songs From A Broken World), Gary Numan unexpectedly joined forces with the Skaparis Orchestra in 2018 to push his electro-goth back catalogue to its full cinematic potential.
One companion LP and, crucially, one pandemic later, and the shape-shifter has pivoted on a wholly different trajectory.
It's taken four-and-a-half decades for acoustic performances to figure on Numan's agenda, but the evidence presented at St Luke's in Glasgow suggests yet another fresh and viable pathway now lies before him.
The second night of an unplugged UK tour taking in more intimate venues than he'd normally play, this was quite the eye-opener.
With his trademark synth stylings completely absent and seated throughout, the 65-year-old frontman and cohorts Steve Harris, Tim Slade, David Brooks and Richard Beasley provided a quite stunning run-through of highlights from pretty much every phase worth speaking of in his epic career.
Numan seemed as likely to require to pinch himself at the gig's start as any of his followers, explaining that his change of tack should be seen as "an experiment, of sorts".
The concept was inspired by an intriguing series of online lockdown sessions, and even if they hadn't been tuned in during that bleak period, When The World Comes Apart from Savage was a solid start that got the crowd onside right away.
With the standard rock bombast absent a reverential hush might've been in order, but the more bolshie Numanoids were having none of it as the angular You Are In My Vision – the first of four songs in the set taken from the classic Tubeway Army LP Replicants – sparked more than a few into a rowdy singalong.
It was a pleasure to hear the languid Stories from Numan's sublime 1981 album Dance alongside such wondrous creations as Down In The Park and Jo The Waiter – both here less disconcerting than previous, but benefitting from added poignancy in their simplified form.
Not really known for banter, Numan seemed content to chat between songs, endearingly explaining the origins of his creations while (most of) those present listened intently.
The self-effacing icon enjoyed a running joke with himself about the often morbid subject matter in his material, which prompted chuckles among fans and bandmates alike on more than one occasion.
Slade brought his double bass into play on the reflective Lost, from the 2011 opus Splinter: Songs From A Broken Mind, which Numan wrote in a moment when his relationship with wife Gemma was under strain.
Opening up on the night, he explained that the song, which came over like a more minimalist cousin of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt, "made me realise I was going to be an idiot and ruin something special".
His somewhat scattergun – or scatterbrained – musings took a more eccentric turn moments later when a preamble to Walking With Shadows laid out a somewhat fantastical theory proposed by the lifelong believer in the paranormal.
Put simply, it appeared to concern the possibility of the existence of creatures that come to life in nightmares and prey on our fears. Whatever, no harm was done, with its hypnotic melody providing an other-worldly vibe.
The strutting Bleed, another ditty about sleep beasts, came over like the robo noisenik doing roots rock – yes, you heard it here first – while a live debut for Tubeway Army rarity Crime Of Passion sent the Gaz anoraks into a frenzy.
A crowd-pleasing encore made up of a tenderly delivered Cars and a simple yet oh so toe-tappingly effective Are Friends Electric showed their reinvented hero very much remains a Nu-man of the people.
