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EXCLUSIVE: ‘Nostalgia is the kiss of death,’ says Gary Numan before Telekon 45th Anniversary Tour

The eighties phenomenon is back with his Telekon 45th Anniversary Tour reveals why his fans’ fondness of nostalgia drives him mad and how he’s looking forward to performing with his daughter Raven

Gary Numan performing in 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images)

Robotic tones and eerie electronic music were only matched in their weirdness by Gary Numan’s heavily kohl-lined stare and stage outfits straight from the world of sc-fi.

Now the eighties phenomenon is back with his Telekon 45th Anniversary Tour - celebrating the birthday of his third UK number 1 album - supported by his daughter Raven, who will be performing alongside him.

While he professes to hate anniversary tours, he says: “It is such a big milestone it would be arrogant to not do something about it. I will have my little moment of reminiscing with people. ”

Ever since he really caught the public imagination with his 1979 hit Are Friends Electric? when he was performing as Tubeway Army, Gary Numan has been something of an enigma.

Now 67, he changed his name from Gary Webb to Numan after finding a plumber in the Yellow Pages called Arthur Neumann and then abandoning the German spelling. Born in Hammersmith, west London, but now living in Los Angeles, he is more concerned about what’s happening in the future than in taking a trip down memory lane.

Particularly worried about climate change and the future of the planet, he says: “It bothers me that we have got Trump and how the warnings about it [the planet] are getting more dire. The tipping point is coming ever closer and things are moving faster than they thought they were going to with the sea rising.

“We all know that and we have got Trump, who is systematically undoing all the things that have been put in place to try to help. None of it was enough, but instead of building on it he is getting rid of it. It is properly frightening and nerve wracking. I have got three little ones. As a dad it definitely bothers me.”

Gemma O’Neil, Persia Numan, Gary Numan, Echo Numan and Raven Numan in 2019.(Getty Images)

But Numan is not all doom and gloom, he does celebrate creativity. “I got into music because I was interested in creating something,” he says. “Electric music was important to me. It not only gave me the opportunity to write songs, but the very sounds themselves were the sounds you had never heard before. I was obsessed by that. I have never lost that. I still wake up in the morning and my desire is to go to the studio and come up with the noises and the sounds that you have not heard before.”