Gary Numan

Gary Numan with his wife Gemma and Trent Reznor during the O2 show in London, 2009.

Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958) is an English singer, composer, and musician. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of commercial electronic music and has been described as the "King of synthpop." Numan is widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" (with Tubeway Army) and "Cars". Numan's more recent output, however, from 1994's Sacrifice to 2006's Jagged, has been much darker and industrial in nature, incorporating haunting soundscapes with a lyrical tendency towards Atheism and a general anger towards organized religion.

Nine Inch Nails covered Numan's song "Metal" from The Pleasure Princinple (1979) on the remix album Things Falling Apart in 2000. So far, Gary Numan has been a surprise guest during the last leg of the Wave Goodbye Tour, making appearances at the O2 Arena, the Hollywood Palladium and the Echoplex, performing guest vocals on "Metal," "Cars," and "I Die: You Die," the latter song from his 1980 album Telekon.

Discography

Studio Albums

• Tubeway Army (1978) (with Tubeway Army)
• Replicas (1979) (with Tubeway Army)
• The Pleasure Principle (1979) (Numan's first album under his own name)
• Telekon (1980)
• Dance (1981)
• I, Assassin (1982)
• Warriors (1983)
• Berserker (1984)
• The Fury (1985)
• Strange Charm (1986)
• Metal Rhythm (1988) (New Anger in the United States)
• Outland (1991)
• Machine + Soul (1992)
• Sacrifice (1994) (Dawn in the United States)
• Exile (1997)
• Pure (2000)
• Jagged (2006)