::: GARY NUMAN LIVE :::
:::: The Electric Picnic ::::
Saturday September 2nd
Stradbally Hall, Stradbally Estate, Co Laois
www.electricpicnic.ie

• Numan is still as vital as ever . . . the Godfather is back and he's here to stay.' Kerrang
  
• 'Recently Numan has undergone a renaissance and he's going for broke with these anthemic tunes. Underpinned by steroidal beats - some featuring real drums - the massive synths and guitars are stacked up like some Babelesque ower constructed from breezeblocks . . . it is supremely confident and the innovator of the late '70s never sounds like he's having to play catch-up.' Mojo
  
• ‘Jagged is a shudder-fest of consistent quality, with a dash of Eastern promise.’ Q Magazine

Gary Numan is having one of the most successful years of his career after releasing his first studio album in over 5 years in mid-March, 2006. Co-produced with underground electronic artist Ade Fenton, Jagged is an aggressive, forward-looking album which takes the best elements of his previous work and gives them an anthemic, contemporary twist. In April he set off on his biggest tour in years, a 14-date trip around the UK (Sadley he didn't make it to Ireland) in front of a visibly increasing fanbase, many of whom had never seen him play live before. The Jagged tour also received rave reviews in publications such as The Times, Kerrang and the Daily Telegraph. Cooking Vinyl releases the first single from the album, In A Dark Place.

• 'If 2000's Pure album brought Numan back into focus, then Jagged gives his music fresh shape and vitality.' Metal Hammer
  
• 'Jagged is a must for those who like their music dark and heavy.' The Sun
  
• 'Gary Numan now makes more sense than he did as a confused young pop droid. Endorsements from post-Goth noiseniks such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson have given Numan a new focus.' The Times

Unusually amongst his contemporaries Numan has come into his own in the 21st Century both as an artist and as an influence. In 2000, his Pure album was described as ‘the best music he’s made since his 1979/80 heyday’ by The Sunday Times, while Kerrang enthused, 'if you like your melancholia dense and dynamic, you won't want Pure to end.'

Three years later, he released Hybrid, an album of collaborations and re-worked version of classic tracks which included the Top 20 hit ‘Crazier’, featuring electronic punk Rico. According to Mojo, the album’s ‘sheer quality wins through . . . revealing the dark soul of a true pioneer’, while Time Out were not only ‘blown away’ by the revised versions but also noted the presence of ‘three tantalisingly good new songs’. At the time Numan was also ‘cool again’ thanks to Basement Jaxx’s sampling his songs on ‘Where’s Your Head At’ and the impact of Sugababes’s Number 1 single, ‘Freak Like Me’ which was based around his 1979 chart-topper, ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ Yet since then Numan’s cultural relevance has, if anything, grown stronger than ever before thanks to the likes of Goldfrapp, White Rose Movement, The Rapture, Queens Of The Stone Age, Jacques Lu Cont, The Faint and The Killers.

• 'Jagged tells reflective stories of loss, sorrow and regret through dark, creeping rhythms that lurk beneath sheets of guitar, tempered by heady, almost suffocating, synths. The result is a bleak emotional holocaust of an album, evidencing the work of a truly precious artist whose continuing creativity should be cherished.' Rocksound
  
• ''Without Gary Numan there would be no industrial scene. Jagged is his latest offering and is a million times more haunting than anything this modern-day scene has to offer. Each track is a dark and brooding slab of gothic beauty with Gary Numan proving to the likes of Manson and co once and for all who the daddy really is.' Big Cheese
  
• 'Jagged is aggressive and dark, yet doesn't forget to pack the tunes too.' Record Collector
  
• 'Powerful electronic rock . . . a dense, moody collection, it can be thunderous one moment and ethereal the next, forbidding and mysterious, grinding and soaring.' Classic Rock
  

Meanwhile, Jagged is one of the heaviest and most electronic albums of his career, re-wiring the apocalyptic synthesizer pop of Numan’s own ‘Down In The Park’ into something equally unique and powerful. Like his best albums it gets to the essence of Numan’s appeal - a vocal that is alienated yet strangely soulful; a desire to push technology as far as he can and dark, atmospheric sounds lashed to power chords dream-like melodies. Numan also mixes rock elements into the album through the sky-scraping choruses - especially on 'Fold', 'Haunted', 'Melt' and 'In A Dark Place' - but they’re given a new potency through the siren-like wail of machines as well as guitars. And for the first time in 20 years, Numan has re-introduced live drums onto the new album, including two tracks ‘Haunted’ and ‘Halo’ played by Jerome Dillon (ex- Nine Inch Nails). Rob Holliday (Sulpher and the Prodigy's new live guitarist) and Monti (Sulpher, former Curve drummer) also guest on Jagged, along with dance producer Andy Gray and Martin McCarrick (ex-Siouxsie & The Banshees) on cello.

• 'The beats are fresh, the incidental effects impact nicely and there's more energy here than there should be from someone who has been through the music industry mill for the last quarter of a century plus.' Future Music
  
• 'This is suitably atmospheric and rousing stuff, close in feel to the urban nightmare of 'Down In The Park' . . . One can only hope that this will mark a complete critical re-evaluation of such as visionary and misunderstood figure.' Zero Magazine

Gary Numan releases his first new studio album in just over five years on 13th March, 2006, on Mortal Records which is licensed to Cooking Vinyl. Co-produced with underground electronic artist Ade Fenton, Jagged is an aggressive, forward-looking album which takes the best elements of his previous work and gives them an anthemic, contemporary twist. Numan will be launching it with a one-off gig at The Forum on 18 March, followed by a full UK tour in April.

Unusually amongst his contemporaries Numan has come into his own in the 21st Century both as an artist and as an influence. In 2000, his Pure album was described as ‘the best music he’s made since his 1979/80 heyday’ by The Sunday Times, while Kerrang! enthused, 'if you like your melancholia dense and dynamic you won’t want Pure to end.'

Three years later he released Hybrid, an album of collaborations and re-worked version of classic tracks which included the Top 20 hit ‘Crazier’, featuring electronic punk Rico. According to Mojo, the album’s ‘sheer quality wins through . . . revealing the dark soul of a true pioneer’, while Time Out were not only ‘blown away’ by the revised versions but also noted the presence of ‘three tantalisingly good new songs’. At the time Numan was also ‘cool again’ thanks to Basement Jaxx’s sampling his songs on ‘Where’s Your Head At’ and the impact of Sugababes’s Number 1 single, ‘Freak Like Me’ which was based around his 1979 chart-topper, ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ Yet since then Numan’s cultural relevance has, if anything, grown stronger than ever before thanks to the likes of Goldfrapp, White Rose Movement, The Rapture, Jacques Lu Cont, The Faint, The Killers and The Bravery.

Meanwhile, Jagged is one of the darkest and most electronic albums of his career, re-wiring the apocalyptic synthesizer pop of Numan’s own ‘Down In The Park’ into something equally unique and powerful. Like his best albums it gets to the essence of Numan’s appeal - a vocal that is alienated yet strangely soulful; a desire to push technology as far as he can and atmospheric sounds lashed to power chords and dream-like melodies. Numan also mixes rock elements into the album through the massive choruses - especially on ‘Fold,’ 'Haunted', 'Blind' and ‘In A Dark Place’ - but they’re given a new potency through the siren-like wail of machines rather than guitars. And for the first time in 20 years, Numan has re-introduced live drums onto the new album, including two tracks ‘Haunted’ and ‘Halo’ played by Jerome Dillon (ex- Nine Inch Nails). Rob Holliday (Sulpher and the Prodigy's new live guitarist) and Monti (Sulpher, former Curve drummer) also guest on Jagged, along with dance producer Andy Gray and Martin McCarrick (ex-Siouxsie & The Banshees) on cello.

Marilyn Manson: ‘I was always into his apocalyptic lyrics. He pioneered electronic dance music.’

Trent Reznor, Nine Nails: ‘It was after hearing ‘Cars’ that I knew I wanted to make music with synthesizers. I still listen to Telekon - I mean, it’s fucking great because it’s so cold sounding. And I remember discovering The Pleasure Principle. It painted an emotional place that wasn’t pleasant. It seemed like creepy science fiction. It really scared me.’

David Bowie: ‘Gary Numan has written a couple of the finest things in British pop.’

The Bravery: ‘We listened to Kraftwerk as a scholarly pursuit but Gary Numan is a much bigger influence.’

Afrika Bambaataa, hip hop and electro pioneer: ‘Gary Numan and Kraftwerk were special to me because they made funk music. It’s all related - Sly Stone, James Brown, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Kraftwerk and Gary Numan.’

Liam Howlett, The Prodigy: ‘Gary is the only electronic artist I thought was cool when I was a kid. He represents this whole weird, abstract element of music.'’

Beck: ‘I don’t care what anyone says, Gary Numan is cool.’

Stephin Merritt, The Magnetic Fields: ‘His melodies are oddly beautiful and have a lot more emotional impact than his influences, David Bowie and Kraftwerk.’