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'Feedback' is our way of keeping you up to date with the ongoing changes that are taking
place with this NuWORLD site. It is here that we announce forthcoming attractions and
services. If you are having a problem with the site, or if you just think it should be changed
for any reason, this is also the place where your anonymous suggestion will be listed,
with our response. This can obviously not be for every single message that comes in,
we already have far too many to ever be able to get back to them all personally, but to
indicate where we see a particular feeling or problem becoming significant. All the feedback
points of view will be answered by Gary himself as he is solely responsible for the NuWorld
site.
This Feedback page can now also be used by people that have comments to make about any other Numan related topics, particularly where people have something positive to say but also if they have some constructive criticism. Although we try our best we are aware that improvements are always possible. It is not, however, a discussion page although if a response seems appropriate, Gary will give one.
Site Announcements have this face symbol 
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(Apr 5, 2005)
| The video clip links on the two Fragment DVD information pages now work. |
(Mar 30, 2005)
| The Interview page now links to previous interviews via a link list after the questions and answers. In turn, each Archive Interview also links to any other interviews. Not all previous interviews are listed as I erased some of them. |
(No date)
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I would like to know about how long the normal delivery time is for the products listed in NuStreet? I think it would
be good for customers to know. Also, a tracking system so that customers can follow the progress of their purchases.
You can't see this but I'm smiling. Kindly of course. This is the way it works here. My dad gets the order and types in the information to a little machine which clears the card, or not. He then fills out a stack of paperwork to make sure that everything is legal and done properly at our end. My mum, yes my mum, then packs the stuff into packages and puts it in a big bag. At the end of the day, or sometimes two or three, that bag is then taken to the post office and sent on its way. We are a shining example of a tiny cottage industry trying to play with the big boys and I am really quite proud of how efficient, and honest, we are. However, it does mean that we can't really say how long the normal delivery time will take. A simple trip to the vets for one of our animals can throw our schedule completely out of the window because we have no staff whatsoever to take up the work. If we go away, for a festival, TV or whatever, no-one is left to process and pack the orders, so they mount up a little bit. When a popular new item is added, such as concert tickets or, currently, the new DVD, the initial demand can be huge. At times we can get as many orders in a single day as we usually get in a month and it's very difficult to plan for this as you never know how popular anything is going to be. When you deal with us you do not deal with an international, big money corporation that revolves around a huge world stage rock star, you deal with me and my mum and dad. We are a tiny, family run business. We have no tracking system for orders, no 'normal' delivery times. We just do it as quickly as possible. That's the way it will always be I hope. |
(May 15, 2004)
|
Gary,
The 12 May update has created a fair amount of debate on fan sites especially the e-bay bit. It would be useful for us fans to know what items on e-bay recently you are cheesed off about so that those who are trading genuinly with little or no money changing hands know what is and is not acceptable to yourselves. I have just destroyed two fabulous Tubeway Tapes that were as good as the so called Roxy tape (It wasn't the Roxy as you know) and I did so on the back of this nonsense that you think some of us who have been around the scene so long are making loads of money out of you. I for one have not made loads of cash out of you over the years despite what you think. As a long time fan I have however spent thousands and in my own silly way trying to promote the Numan we grew to love on many occasions running Numan disco's, fanzines etc at a loss paid for (in part) out of trading Numan material that would never have been commercially released. Something that virtually any artistes fans past and present have done and will no doubt continue to do. Don't piss off those fans you have left. Make new music, good music and win them over. Yes it's only a handful of whingers that moan about you and I am one of them recently however we have been round long enough to see past the bullshit. You are a business and have the right to do and say what you think is right and I for one have no problem with that but likewise we too have the right to vote with our cash and not buy the product anymore. That said we will probably still buy the albums unless it's the tenth version of Jagged Halo with a few extra photoshop manipulated images on it or whatever. Do the items on e-bay really cost you a fortune in lost revenue? Do the genuine fans really buy the crap like Numan coasters in enough volume to damage your image? I won't buy that rubbish and neither will most fans. I will however buy the Peel sessions, Wembley DVD copied from the Video or Laserdiscs of the originals until you release the genuine article which I will still buy (So you still don't lose). I'm a fan, a collector (Or was)
End of rant (Gary Numan replies) I have added this e-mail, depressing though it is, and my response to this Feedback page to make clear my thoughts on such things and to make sure that anyone else who may think as Mr Skint does fully understands how I see it. So: First of all, Mr Gary Skint, you say a number of things that have obviously come from other places and most definitely NOT from my mouth, pen or keyboard. So, where do I start? I have never, repeat NEVER, thought, said, or written that some fans that have been around for a long time are making loads of money out of me. If I'm not making loads of money out of me, which I'm not, then it's ridiculous to believe that any fans are. For you to have destroyed 'two fabulous Tubeway tapes' seems to me a very unneccesary thing to have done. I have autographed EVERY SINGLE BOOTLEG offered to me for a signature since I first set foot into a studio, more than a quarter of a century ago. I do not have a problem with people owning bootlegs, swapping them with other like minded fans, even selling them on once in a while when things, perhaps, get a bit tight financially. As I said in the News item that seems to have upset you so much, we turn a blind eye to most things, but how far do you go? I didn't say that the things on E-Bay cost me a fortune so I don't know why you've said that. I didn't say that anything being sold was damaging my image. I didn't even mention Numan coasters, in fact I didn't even know about Numan coasters, but maybe we should make some of our own if people like them. You seem to be reacting as though my News item was meant directly at you personally. I also assume that, as you say it seems to have 'created a fair amount of debate on fan sites', that other people are also reacting as though it was meant directly for them. It wasn't. The problem with people thinking that my comments are intended directly for them, apart from being just a little bit wierdly self important, is that it stops them from looking at what I'm actually talking about. I'm a decent human being and I think I have proven time and time again over the last 25 years that I will bend over backwards to make sure that fans are not ripped off. After all, it was me that just stopped the release of the Artful Records Resonator album because, amongst other things, it seemed to me like a fan rip off. Do you have any idea how much money I turned away when I did that? I care very deeply for my fans, new and old, and especially after such a long and topsy turvy career, and it pains me to read ill informed comments such as yours Mr Skint, and I'm quite sure you're not alone. The fact is I don't give a shit about people selling Numan coasters, unless they're selling thouands. I don't give a shit about people flogging their single copy of the Shepherds Bush 2004 Numan DVD, wish I had one myself if truth be told. What I do care about is, for example, someone who creates an mp3 CD of every single track I've ever released and starts to manufacture them to order. That is going just a little too far. Or someone, or some organisation, that records or films a gig and then sells as many copies of that recording as they possibly can, for a small fortune, in front of my bloody nose, as on E-Bay. There is a world of difference between a fan selling parts of their collection of Numan stuff and a budding, or successful, entreprenuer. In my opinion, any Numan fan that is interested enough to buy a poor quality bootleg will absolutely buy the legal stuff as well. I love fans for that and they will never have a problem with me. That's why I'm always happy to sign bootleg albums, posters, t-shirts, whatever. The entreprenuer is another matter. The small time entreprenuer, as in our mp3 man, is a bit of a worry. The successful entreprenuer is a huge worry and yes, it can have a big effect on my sales. Please bear in mind that not every fan is a keen collector and therefore guaranteed to buy everything, legal or otherwise. If the quality of a bootleg is high, and many of them are now very high indeed, then a number of scary possibilities become relevant. For example, the DVD that I'm just about to release has cost a lot of money and taken me, and several other people, a great deal of time to get ready. To commit to an official, quality DVD release is a big gamble financially, especially for an artist in my position who has very limited sales. In the futue, if a high quality bootleg of a gig, a gig that we also film for a DVD or record for a live album, was also made easily available then it would create a clear and undeniable impact on our potential sales. The hard core collector fans will probably buy both. The others will choose between the two. Some, perhaps many, may choose the bootleg and, if so, we have a problem. Faced with that kind of competition on such a limited number of fans we quite probably won't sell enough to get our money back and so a new predicament presents itself. In that situation, what do we do next? Do we try again and attempt to create another reasonably expensive and highest quality DVD only to see another bootleg steal away many of our sales, or, do we think, 'Sod it, lets make them cheaply', along the lines of making our own bootleg in a way, and so do away with the need for risking large sums of money and accept that fans will now be offered cheaper and nastier versions of what could have been done. Such a situation would not do the fans any good, it wouldn't do me any good but it wouldn't bother the bootlegger in the slightest. And such a situation is entirely possible, even likely. It's this level of bootlegging, and this type of individual or organisation, that we are primarily trying to stop. Plus, it's also worth remembering that, as I said in the News item, we aren't looking to get anyone into trouble so why people are upset is beyond me. What a strange world we live in when the person who is the victim, which is me when it comes to flogging illegal Numan material, can get criticised for politely asking people to stop doing it. You state 'Don't piss off the fans you have left'. By doing what exactly? By asking them to help me stop the more extreme bootleggers of my music? Do you honestly think that they're leaving in droves at the very thought of helping me and my career? I don't. I seem to have far more faith and respect for my fans than you Mr Skint and I am quite convinced that, apart from the few that I've 'offended', the majority are only too happy to help when and where they can. That has been my experience throughout my career. Most fans seem to want the best for me. You seem to imply that I have scant few fans remaining and, apart from the fact that you think they will all abandon me if I continue to frown on large capacity bootleggers, you clearly recognise that their numbers are not as great as they once were, albeit slowly improving for the last few years I have to say. Which makes your attitude all the more baffling. With a limited fan base I am very susceptible to income damage caused by bootleggers. You say that you 'have the right to vote with your cash and not buy the product anymore', referring to new material. Are you seriously threatening that you will consider not buying a new Gary Numan album if I continue to try and stop the next bootlegging syndicate from taking advantage of me? Shame on you, but do as you must. I sometimes wonder if some people assume I'm very wealthy and, as such, have no right to feel aggrieved when someone effectively steals what is mine. That's an appallingly selfish attitude. When a man comes to my shows, a man who is probably not and never has been a fan, secretly records or films the gig and then sells his copies to fans, that man is stealing from me and that is the man I want to stop. I am not wealthy. I lost my fortune two decades ago and although things are going better now it doesn't take too much mathematical ability to work out that I made less money out of 5,000 Rip singles than I did out of over 1,000,000 Are Friends Electric's. I probably make more money than someone working at MacDonalds, no offence intended it's just an example, but I am not a rich man and it pains me to see thousands of bootleg albums being sold and not a penny coming to me. My songwriting talent is all I have to keep me and my family fed until I die. Making records and playing live shows are my sole sources of income and I absolutely have to protect that. Especially these days when sales overall are so low that record companies as huge as EMI are going bust and dropping large numbers of artists. I doubt any one of you, those that have been offended by my news item or not, would welcome a stranger taking a few quid from your wage packet each week but that's what bootlegging does to me. It isn't right, it isn't fair and I have every right to do what I can to minimise its excesses. And by that, as most people apart from you and your 'offended' partners seemed to realise Mr Skint, I do not mean by picking on fans for owning 'Tubeway' tapes but by stopping people that try to make reasonable, if not substantial, amounts of money by selling stuff of mine that is not rightfully and legally theirs to sell. It's a great shame that these same 'offended' people aren't gracious or realistic enough to recognise that I am, and have always been, entirely tolerant and completely understanding of fans and their bootleg collections and have never made any moves, legal or otherwise, to harrass them throughout my entire career. Quite the opposite in fact, witnessed by several thousand autographs on a wide range of dodgy items over the years. What a great shame that these 'offended' people aren't supporting me, the artist they claim to be a fan of, by helping to stop the people that steal directly from me. It's a strange fan indeed that fights to support the very thing that's harming my career and my livelihood. Perhaps that's a fan I could do without, even though, as My Skint implies, I may only have a few left. I can only hazard a guess and assume that almost everything you said in your e-mail was based on some of the more extreme and unfriendly 'discussions' that seem to plague some fan web sites these days. Every other musician I speak to seems to have the same small corner of spitefulness running through every discussion subject you can think of on their own fan sites and I certainly am no exception to that. It's just an unfortunate part of living in the modern world it seems for people in my position. However, it's a little sad when these peoples comments, ugly and ill-informed as they are, start to appear on e-mails such as yours as though they came from my own mouth. None of the things stated in your e-mail, either things I am supposed to have said or think, are true and you do me a great disservice by attributing such thoughts to me. I am not one to shy away from saying what I think and if I thought along the lines you claim I do then you would most certainly have seen it here, on this web site. But you have not, because I do not think the way you say I do. If a fan can sell off his Numan collection, including bootlegs, and put the money towards a new car, a new toy for his kid or whatever, good luck to him. If that same fan films a gig and trys to sell hundreds of copies or more on E-bay, or anywhere else for that matter, I'll try to stop him. With a friendly and polite phone call at first. That's what I think. In plain English for all to see. If anyone finds that offensive I couldn't care less. By the way, I would like to point out to you Mr Gary Skint, that not putting a return address on your semi anonymous e-mail (unless your name is Gary Skint of course) does you and your opinions no credit whatsoever. Any man, or woman, that doesn't have the backbone to say who they are, and where we can contact them, doesn't warrent much respect from me. If you feel justified in what you are saying, at least have the courage to stand up and be counted. It seems that writing things from the 'anonymous' camp is another miserable step forward, or should that be backwards, in the values of our 'modern' society. Shameful. Gary Numan. (The News Item that sparked this off is repeated below in full) E-BAY AND BEYOND (May 12, 2004) We've noticed an ever increasing flow of illegal items turning up on E-Bay, and elsewhere, over the last year or so. As you know, generally speaking, we feel that a certain amount of bootleg material being available is not too big a problem and we turn a blind eye to it. However, things do seem to be getting worse and so we are now taking steps to protect ourselves from the more ambitious groups and individuals out there. So, if anyone becomes aware of any illegal items being offered for sale, we would be very grateful if you could let us know about it, using our E-mail page, as soon as possible. We aren't looking to get anyone into trouble, we're simply trying to stop it growing out of control. |
(Apr 6, 2004)
| I've taken off-line the FAQ and Network sections of the site. I can tell people about new sites that I think they should be aware of on the News page which will save me having to update the Network links on an almost daily basis and the FAQ page is so out of date it's become embarrassing and, according to my site reports, hardly anybody ever looked at it anyway. As you can probably tell, I'm still running this thing single handed as well as trying to have a music career and so streamlining the site from time to time really helps reduce my non-musical work load. |
(No date)
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Could you put the lyrics to all your songs on to a section of this website?
With well over 300 songs out on record it would take a long, long time and I don't really have much of an inclination to be honest. I may get down to adding lyrics one album at a time in the distant future but it's not high on my job list. Every UK released album has the lyrics on the sleeve anyway so I'm hoping that some other Numan web site author will do the job so I can just redirect people. It's a good idea to have a central location on the web for all the lyrics but I just don't have the time at the moment to do it myself. |
(No date)
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My comments on NuWorld are these. Why do you not have a list of all the albums and singles from the start of Tubeway Army up to the present day?
Because the list is different for pretty much every country on the planet for one thing and because I have no idea what has been released in my name for another. I only found out recently for example that an album was released in the States about 10 or 11 years ago with remixed versions of Numan songs that I'd never heard. I am still autographing things, released by various labels that have been sub-licenced, that I have never seen before and, up to that point, have been totally unaware of. I doubt I will ever know the entire amount of Numan stuff that has been, and will be, unleashed. |
(No Date)
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Will you have a chat line on NuWorld in the future?
No. NuWorld has always been intended to be a News based information site. I knew from day 1 that I would not be able to make it fully interactive. NuWorld is a 'bolt on' accessory to the rest of the work I have to do, an important one without doubt, but not something I can spend 24 hours a day working on. I have to recognise that NuWorld will never have the features that some other sites have because I run this myself and just don't have the time to add and maintain every feature possible. The choice is simple really. I hand over the site to a third party company and become far less involved, which would take away my input to the site, its personality if you will, but would enable some features, such as chat lines, to be added. Or I stay in charge and accept that it will stay the slightly flakey, but very personal, thing that it is today. At the moment I want it to stay as it is. |
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