Retrospective

I had rather nostalgic day, today.

Firstly, it's three years, today, that I first met the Minx face to face, after our long-standing but low-key Twitter relationship suddenly blossomed into something different and rather wonderful. (The photo is of her 'anniversary' gift to me, incorporating her own artwork, a twig taken from the trees at the old cottage, and three tickets from events that we went to together.)

In an ideal world - by which I mean one in which I was a better boyfriend - we would have spent the evening together celebrating but in this reality I had opted to go and see Gary Numan playing this evening, so our celebrations were limited to a morning coffee together at the Cowshed.

After which I jumped back in the car and headed down to London, making most of the car's 'hands free' system to catch up on a load of 'phone calls. I made good time, actually, which, happily, meant I was able to see my brother and niece after he'd picked her up from school. 

And then it was off up to town to meet Ash and John, my erstwhile bandmates and longstanding friends. We had a beer in the Bull & Gate - a venue that Ash and I played in on a few occasions - and then moved on to dirty burger for... well, you can probably work it out. 

This evening is the first of a three night run at the Forum - or, more properly, The Town And Country Club - by Gary Numan at which he will play his amazing sequence of albums 'Replicas' (1979), 'The Pleasure Principle' (also 1979) and 'Telekon' (1980). Tonight, we were treated to the whole of 'Replicas' plus some associated b-sides and a handful of other tracks from the other two albums plus his debut 'Tubeway Army' (1978).

We arrived in time for the support act, which was a terrible mistake, as I Speak Machine were unspeakably bad, even amongst the large canon of bad support acts that Numan has had over the years. However, and thankfully, the man himself more than made up for this tortured start to the evening's entertainment.

He came onto a version of the intro music that he's used quite often over the years, which is a slowed down, instrumental version of the title track, 'Replicas', which also happens to be my favourite track on the album. And, indeed, that was the song he started with. Right from the outset it was clear just how much he was enjoying himself and his band were on fine form. My gripes, if I really have any at all, are ridiculously pedantic - a synth line missed here, a plectrum drag omitted there - but, you know, I've loved and listened to this album for over thirty-five years.

The high points for me were the 'Replicas' track itself, 'Down In The Park', the mighty drum led 'Films', and, for quite personal reasons 'We Are So Fragile', which was the second song I sang live in John and Ash's band, The Zane Gray Incident, and the only cover version I ever performed. (It is also a great track.)

All in all it was a fantastic evening. Numan notoriously doesn't like 'retro' and I'm with him there but that doesn't mean it can't be extremely enjoyable to look backwards once in while. So thanks Gary, thanks John and Ash, and thank you so much, Artminx.