I waited,I watched and thought to myself.Since 1983 i have been to almost every tour from that year,and yet this has to be Gary again at his very best.I was not dissapointed at ll.Breathtaking,Stunning,Amazing.What else could i say.He has never let me down in any show ever that i,ve been to.He is just BRILLIANT..My brother who beleive it or not is a michael jackson fan and his words were"Numan is absolutely brilliant,i need more of this music,where do we start".

Even though Gary has his problems with charts and all that stuff,he still gives his all.He dosent give up.Brings out yet more albums,and puts on amazing shows like manchester was.I will never forget it as long as live.The problems with his studio equipment and he still bangs out the new and the re-mixed oldies.Some of which i thought where incredible.

Thanks Gary.You were just brilliant..

From Dug..

I had waited over a year for this concert so I was hoping that that it would be worth the wait, particularly as all my so-called Numanoid friends had long since either given up on Gary or else left the country, which meant I had to pressurise a non-Numanoid friend into coming with me. So did Gary live up to my expectation this time? The asnwer is a definite YES! Even my friend thoroughly enjoyed the gig, (and she is someome who is not easily impressed!) The lights were fantastic considering that Manchester Academy is only a small venue. The mixture of old and new songs was good and the atmosphere was electric! One could almost be forgiven for thinking that this was twenty years ago judging by the euphoria!
Gary is like a good wine, he matures and gets better and better as time goes on!
I had a fantastic night and just hope that he tours again soon!

Russ Hughes ([email protected])

18 tracks from a very clean and polished band as usual and a Mr Numan who looked better than ever with his leaner body and shorter hair - looked very cool indeed.

Track listing was M.E.,My Jesus, DITP, Metal, Absolution, Dark , RIP , Remember I was Vapour , Exile , Everyday I Die, My Shadow in vain , Pure , A Prayer for the Unborn and I Can't Breathe with a 4 track encore of This Wreckage, Voix , Cars and AFE.

It was good to see all the usual attendees plus younger audience members and new fans we had persuaded to come after meeting them at a Midge Ure weekender.Let's keep increasing that fanbase !

A good evening was had by all , some by us were going berserk but I think Gary has a good point when he says he'd like to see some moshing and more overall enjoyment from the older (although very loyal fans) who tend to be going through the motions , standing there with folded arms and motionless - come on let's rock the gigs more !!

Looking forward to the next one off - quite fancy seeing Mesh at the Academy too - they were the best support I've seen for ages after their Forum support in 1999. Plus I have to say although I voted on AFE not to buy photo CD2 - I forked out my £12 and it's excellent - nice to have videos of so many new songs live , about time too !

Russ Hughes

END RESULT....FOR A NUMAN FAN 99 OUT OF 100
FOR SOMEONE WHO MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN BEFORE 90 OUT OF 100(FOR EFFORT ALONE)

Robert Collins

Arrived at the acadamy at about 5.30 where I was greated with the sound of Exile blasting out as we walked past (Gary doing a soundcheck)
I'd bought my 8yr old son to a concert for the first time,I'm not sure who was the most excited, he'd been crossing the date's off the calender for 3 months!!
Whilst waiting outside to get in it was was a great atmosphere, everyone talking, singing and making new friends. We were only about 25 people from the front. If Nat or Emma from Leicester read this please drop me a line it would be great to keep in touch.
When the doors opened we ran straight for the front and got a good position right at the front, to the right , by the cameraman.
The support band were the best i've seen since Tik and Tok.
Numan didn't come on till about 9.20 (a few technical problems I Think)It was worth the wait, Numan looked better than ever. He started with "ME" I think he wanted to show any Basement Jaxx fans where it came from!
Highlights for me were Pure, This wreckage, Prayer to the unborn, Excile, Everyday I die and Down in the park athough it was a difficult choice because they all rocked. I think most Numan fans would be hard pressed to find fault with the set. Can't wait for the new album now, it's going to be a hard job to top the Pure album.
As we drove home Connor said "It's been the best day of my life" not bad eh.

[email protected]

Gary opened with M.E. - now, I have the memory of a goldfish so I can't give you a full run-down of everything that was played, but he ended with Cars and then AFE, which for me were low points but probably only because I have heard them played so many times before. They both sounded... well, like Cars and AFE. The Sugarbabes did not turn up :>

The set list, off the top of my head, had M.E., Absolution, Voix, This Wreckage, Dark, Remember I Was Vapour, I Can't Breathe, Rip, Down In The Park, My Shadow In Vain, Metal, Everyday i Die, Cars, AFE, My Jesus, A Prayer For The Unborn. (Not in that order, and this is not a definitive list - I am sure there will be people who had notebooks with them who will be able to give a full set list in order, but unfortunately I was a bit too busy having fun to keep track of the tracks :>)

There will no doubt be people who will complain about this gig - after all, people were complaining about it before it even happened - but although there were no new songs, it has to be said that Numan was amazing. He looked fantastic - I am sure he has shed some weight because he looked thin and lithe - his hair is slighty different - shorter and spikier - and there was no cyberdog t-shirt this time. He did have new rock boots, though - new rocks are cool but if he wants the goth audiece he should really switch to transmuters... mmmm transmuters... but whatever - yes.

Fashion-wise Numan looks awesome - better than he has looked in years. Considering he is 44 now he looks amazing.

Show-wise... he rocked. The sound quality I thought was fantastic. It was kind of a wall-of-noise most of the time (though This Wreckage sounded like it did in 1980, just with some added bass and guitar)- songs like Rip and I Can't Breathe deserved a mosh-pit and stagedivers - unfortunately no-one was up for this, which was a shame - even Bjork gets mosh-pits; maybe Numan fans should lighten up a bit and have fun. Anyway, the sngs were powerful and well-performed. Gary's peformance was excellent. He seemed to be really into the songs and sang them with passion, especially A Prayer for the Unborn.

So, my opinion was that this show was superb. The synths were LOUD (the floor shook during DITP) and Garys voice was audible all the way through. He looked fantastic and gave a great performance. The songs were much more varied than on the Pure Tour and the aftershow party was quite good fun, too.

So enjoy SBE, those of you lucky enough to be going.

antonio ([email protected])