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Last Update: Nov 29, 2001

Frequently Asked Questions. It pays to look here first before sending a question in to us here at NuWorld. We hope you find this FAQ page useful and interesting. All the following questions are answered by Gary Numan. This is very much a page in progress and will have many more questions and photos in the near future.

? Is Gary Numan your real name?

No, my real name is Gary Anthony James Webb.

? Where are you from?

I'm English, Born in Hammersmith, West London.

? When were you born?

I was born at 10:30 pm on March 8th, 1958.

? Who designs and maintains your NuWorld web site?

I do. The only thing not coded by me is the 'behind the scenes' side of NuStreet, the on-line Numan store. That was put together using Cold Fusion software, amongst others, which is a bit beyond an amatuer site author such as me.

? Are you single?

No. I married my wife Gemma on August 28th, 1997. We've been together since 1992. Gemma was born on January 12th 1968 in London, England.

? Do you have any brothers and sisters?

I have one brother, John, who is 36 years old. John is an airliner captain for the British airline 'Go'. In fact, John is a training captain which means he also teaches people to be captains. I'm very proud of him.

? Are your parents alive?

Yes. My father, Tony, is my manager and has been from the beginning. My mum, Beryl, looks after the mail and NuStreet orders. We are very much a family run cottage industry.

? What sort of car do you drive?

I drive a British sports car called a TVR Cerbera 4.5. It's a 2 + 2 with a 420hp V8 engine. 0 to 60mph in 3.9 seconds, 0 to 100 mph in just over 8 seconds. It's fast.

? How many albums have you made?

Not including compilations the list is as follows for the UK releases with the year of release shown in brackets ( ).

    Tubeway Army (1978)

    Replicas (1979)

    The Pleasure Principle (1979)

    Telekon (1980)

    Dance (1981)

    I Assassin (1982)

    Warriors (1983)

    Berserker (1984)

    The Fury (1985)

    Strange Charm (1986)

    Metal Rhythm (1988)

    Outland (1990)

    Machine And Soul (1992)

    Sacrifice (1994)

    Exile (1997)

    Pure (2000)

Also, 'The Plan', an album of early pre 1979 punk songs was released by the Beggars Banquet label in the early 80's. 'Automatic', a joint venture with Bill Sharpe came out in the mid 80's and 'Human', a collection of short instrumental tracks, co written with Michael R Smith, was released in the early 90's.

? What instruments do you play?

I play guitar and keyboards mainly and some very basic bass guitar.

? When you are creating new songs, what inspires you the most and where do you get most of your ideas?

That's not an easy question to answer. There is no one place that you go to for ideas, or one method. I've always believed that genuinely creative people have their eyes and ears, and heart, open at all times. An idea can come from absolutely anywhere. A feeling of dread if the phone starts ringing at a very late or unusual hour, books and films are obvious sources, friends, enemies, smells, buildings, news stories, noises, memories, ambitions, fantasies, dark secrets, inquisitiveness, fear, lust, beauty etc etc. There is no end to the list of where ideas can come from. I don't really have a 'most'. My ideas come from almost as many different places as I have ideas although I must confess to coming up with many of the vocal lines when I'm driving. I also find driving to be a good place to find answers when you are stuck for what to do next with a song.

I am inspired by the same things that give me ideas in the first place but also by a desire to be better next time than I was last time, although that applies to pretty much everything I do. Gemma says I have an obsessive nature which may be true. I admire many people, in many walks of life not just musicians, and I constantly try to reach their level of excellence. I don't get there very often but the trying is everything and I am eternally optimistic about what is possible.

? What are your hobbies?

My main hobby is flying aeroplanes. I have a 1943 Harvard that I keep at a nearby airfield. I've been an aerobatic display pilot since 1984 and, until recently, was an air display pilot evaluator for the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Also, until recently, I taught formation aerobatics to pilots that wanted to become display pilots. The sheer weight of work since the music career recovered in the last few years has forced me to pull out of display flying for the time being.

I also have two motorbikes, a Yamaha XV535 and a Yamaha 600 Diversion that I bought recently from my brother John. My latest favourite is a twin engined jetboat, a Seadoo Sportster. Car driving is fun, especially in the TVR. I spend a lot of time at track days in the UK where you take your road car onto racing tracks. I also have a Kart that I get out on as often as possible. I don't listen to music very much strangely enough.

Quieter hobbies include reading, cinema, candle making and baking bread.

? Do you have any pets?

Yes, we have two dogs and five cats. The dogs are called 'Puddle' and 'Bearcub'. The cats are called 'Nogbad The Bad', we call him Nog for short, 'Monkey' who we mainly call Minkfish for some reason, 'Moomin', Mewler and Pooh.

? Is it true you once failed an audition for The Jam?

I am absolutely positive that I once failed an audition for The Jam. A band based in Woking were looking for a lead guitarist so I went along to an audition. It sure looked like Paul Weller and Bruce Foxton to me. (None of us were famous at the time. I only recognised them a few years later when they suddenly turned up on TV).

I also didn't get the job, obviously, as they wouldn't let me use my fuzz pedal and I was totally stuffed without that. I used to compensate for a complete lack of guitar playing talent by making lots of squeally noises. No fuzz, no squeals, and my bluff was called.

? Can you put on-line the guitar chords to your songs?

I doubt it, for two reasons. First of all it would take a long time, even if it was possible at all which I'll come to in a minute, to list the chords of over 300 songs. Secondly, much of my stuff has no guitar on it. In fact much of it is written around samples which are just odd noises. No guitar chords exist for the sound of a door slamming, or pipe clanging or whatever sounds are used to make the songs.

Also, even if I was to sit down for a few weeks, or possibly even months, and code up all of those songs that did have guitar chords, or could have guitar chords placed on them, only a few people have asked for them. With that fact in mind it seems like a huge amount of work for a handful of people. Do what I did when I was learning to play guitar, figure them out for yourself. One thing's certain, if I played them they can't be difficult. If I remember correctly Beggars Banquet put out a book many years ago that may have had the chords to some of the earliest albums on them. Bound to be out of print by now though.

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