Put The Needle On The Record - Week #51

 Put The Needle On The Record Week #51 Gary Numan - Telekon

For this weeks feature we go back to September 1980 and the Gary Numan album "Telekon".

This is one of the best albums ever released in my view and was the follow up to the album "The Pleasure Principle", what amazes me is very few people have cited it as a groundbreaking album that inspired other musicians, it is a fantastic record and undoubtably sees Numan at the top of his game.

Gary Numan played 2 dates at the Manchester Apollo as part of a UK tour to promote the album and I attended both nights and was the first concerts I ever attended, it was a stunning show with an amazing stage design, 2 massive towers either side of the stage which housed the 2 main synth/keyboard players, I remember it well, especially as the intro for "This Wreckage" opened the show with the curtains closed and then opened to reveal the set, an unbelivable experience, man it was loud and after the first concert, I was as deaf as a doorpost!! Thankfully my hearing restored to normality after a couple of days, I attended the first concert with my brother, it was his first live concert too.

By the way Nash The Slash was the support artist, was n't keen on his music, however, he did a stun ning version of the Jan And Dean track "Dead Man's Curve", he performed wrapped in bandages!!

Enough reminiscing, let's get back to the album, Numan had released the singles "We Are Glass" and "I Die You Die", neither of which appeared on the original album, however, they were included on re-issues later down the line, candidates for singles were the tracks "I Dream Of Wires", which should have been a single and the tracks "The Aircrash Bureau" and "I'm An Agent". I like every track on this album and is in my Top 5, of my all time favourite albums.

Just the one single was released off the album and that was "This Wreckage" (which reached number 20 in the UK Singles chart), "Remember I Was Vapour" was released as a 12 inch single in German, which I still have in my collection and "Remind Me To Smile" was released as a single in the states which also included "I Dream Of Wires" on the B side, again I have that in my record collection.

The album reached number 1 in the UK album chart.

Track Listing

This Wreckage
The Aircrash Bureau
Telekon
Remind Me To Smile
Sleep By Windows
I'm An Agent
I Dream Of Wires
Remember I Was Vapour
Please Push No More
The Joy Circuit

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!