By Phil Wright
Monday 20th of May took me to Sheffield’s iconic ‘Leadmill’ to photograph and review another icon in the shape of Gary Numan on his ‘45th Anniversary Tour‘.
The show started later than expected but this didn’t stop the sell out crowd from singing and cheering to every little movement through the dressing room window. Then on the stroke of 9pm the stage lights turned to red and the intro music kicked in for ‘Replicas’ from his time with ‘Tubeway Army’. We knew we were in for a night of new and old music.
Gary Numan entered the stage with his trademark dramatic and emotionally charged performance. Then picking up his ‘Les Paul’ guitar, he treated us to ‘M.E’ with the crowd going wild. Gary, true to form, put on a stellar performance showing why he is the king of electro rock.
The stage presence of the band was amazing. The two guitarists looked so goth like with long black cloaks and a single black line down the center of their faces looking very somber at all times.
We were treated to hit after hit with Numan’s excellent vocals and trade mark dance moves. The nearly two-hour gig just flew by. It seemed only 5 mins had passed before we were treated to an encore which just happened to my two favourite songs ‘Cars’ and ‘Are Friends Electric’
This was my first time shooting Numan, but hopefully not my last. As this was only the third night of the tour there is plenty of time for me to catch him again and so can you! Tickets are still on sale, so keep an eye open for him playing near you soon.
