GARY NUMAN • The Pleasure Principle
30th Anniversary
EXPANDED EDITION
21 September 2009 – Europe
22 September 2009 – USA / Canada
ORDER with exclusive bonus disc (see below) direct from Gary Numan’s web store
USA customers can now order this direct from Beggars USA
click here to order
Gary Numan’s solo debut album – up until this point he’d still been recording as Tubeway Army – signaled a major shift in his career. The last few months of 1979 and early days of the new decade were as dramatic as the the first half, during which he’d broken through with a single, ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ and album, Replicas both reaching Number 1 simultaneously in the UK charts. Incredibly he repeated this achievement in September 1979 with ‘Cars’ and The Pleasure Principle topping the chart. However, while memories of that impressive double eventually faded, Numan connected with the public consciousness in this period in ways that still resonate today.
The Pleasure Principle was the point where the singer became a huge international solo star, even reaching the Top 10 in the United States with ‘Cars’ and Top 20 with the album. Given the conservative nature of the music scene in America at that time and the fact that his new album didn’t feature any guitars, let alone conventional song structures – even ‘Cars’ doesn’t have a chorus – this is one of those special moments in pop music when a new idea breaks through all the boundaries. The Pleasure Principle pioneered electronic pop music on a new scale – it was a much bigger success worldwide than Kraftwerk’s releases or anything from the influential but still relatively ‘culty’ Bowie/Eno Berlin trilogy. And the fact that it was different and had a major impact in America – Numan performed ‘Cars’ and ‘Praying To The Aliens’ in front of 40 million people on the Saturday Night Live Show – means that there’s a direct link from The Pleasure Principle to the new musical forms that were born in the USA over the next decade – namely hip hop, industrial and techno.
As the NME noted recently, ‘every hip-hop production titan ever – notably Dr Dre – has nicked the opening beats from the track ‘Films’. The likes of Timbaland and The Neptunes’ minimal pop – comprised of just exquisitely produced drums and simplistic synthlines – are heralded as being futuristic genius in the 21st century; The Pleasure Principle shows that Gary Numan was doing the same thing 25 years previously. His influence on hip-hop, while rarely recognised, is enormous. His influence on electronic music in general is unparalleled.’ When GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan covered ‘Films’ in 2008, he really was taking hip hop back to its roots as the track features one of the original break beats (in fact, Films appeared on the hugely influential Ultimate Breaks & Beats compilation series in the early 1980s).
In industrial music both Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Marilyn Manson have name checked Numan as a significant source of inspiration: ‘After hearing ‘Cars’ I knew I wanted to make music with synthesizers,’ says Reznor, ‘The Pleasure Principle is f***ing great because it’s so cold sounding.’ While techno pioneers ranging from Carl Craig to Juan Atkins were grabbed by this strange, futuristic music, creating a relationship between Numan and dance music that has spawned the likes of the Basement Jaxx’s ‘Where’s Your Head At’ (samples ‘M.E.’ from The Pleasure Principle) and the ‘Cars’-mutating ‘Koochy’ by Armand Van Helden.
CD 1
Airlane
Metal
Complex
Films
M.E.
Tracks
Observer
Conversation
Cars
Engineers
CD 2
Airlane (Demo version)
Metal (Demo version)
Complex (Demo version)
Films (Demo version)
M.E. (Demo version)
Tracks (Out-take mix)
Observer (Demo version)
Conversation (Demo version 2)
Cars (Demo version)
Engineers (Demo version)
Random (2009 Re-master)
Oceans (2009 Re-master)
Asylum (2009 Re-master)
Photograph (2009 Re-master)
Gymnopedie No.1 (Demo version)
Conversation (Demo Version 1)
M.E. (Out-take mix)
The Pleasure Principle 30th Anniversary Edition is 2 disc set packaged in a jewelbox with slipcase and a 16 page book featuring photographs from the recording sessions and new liner notes. The second disc contains unreleased demo recordings, studio out-takes and single ‘B’ sides. All tracks have been newly remastered from the original analogue tapes
EXCLUSIVE BONUS DISC
1979 The Live EP’s
This CD features the original mixes from the recordings made on the 1979 tour and sounds very good indeed (salutes for mastering man extraodinaire, John Dent). While the songs were principally mixed for use on the soundtrack to the video ‘The Touring Principle’, two of the recordings, ‘Bombers’ and ‘Me, I Disconnect From You’, were issued as ‘B’ sides to the single ‘Complex’ on 24 November. The latter track, along with ‘Metal’ ‘Conversation’and ‘Down In The Park’ had also been mixed without audience applause as mime tracks for a televised benefit concert in aid of ‘Year Of The Child’ at Wembley Arena on 22 November. Though it’s unlikely this sequence was ever intended for release, the mixes have a drier vocal and are slightly different to the LO ’79 ones. It was in January 1980 that four tracks were selected for a potential EP but the project was abandoned and two of these songs, ‘Remember I Was Vapour’ and ‘On Broadway’ used on a free 7” single included with original copies of the ‘Telekon’ album. Further songs from the concert were released in April 1981 on the album ‘Living Ornaments ‘79’ and these are mixes used for this release. The entire show was re-mixed and released in the correct performance sequence on a double CD in 1998. The disc is packaged in a Japanese style cardboard sleeve with an inner sleeve and plastic disc jacket.
January 1980 EP
Down In The Park
On Broadway
Every Day I Die
Remember I Was Vapour
Single B side
Bombers
November 1979 Tape
Me I Disconnect From You
Conversation
Metal
Down in the Park
Living Ornaments ’79
Airlane
Cars
We Are So Fragile
Films
Something’s In The House
My Shadow In Vain
Conversation
The Dream Police
Metal
This limited edition disc is currently available only with pre orders from Gary Numan’s web store
We will try to make it available in the USA but no plans have been finalised yet.
Gary Numan will be performing The Pleasure Principle in its entirety on a 16 date UK tour
THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE 2009 TOUR
November
17 : Brighton Dome
18 : Southampton University
19 : Cardiff Sub 29
20 : Sheffield Corporation
21 : Manchester Academy
23 : Cork Pavilion
24 : Dublin Tripod
25 : Leeds Academy
26 : Edinburgh Picturehouse
27 : Glasgow ABC
28 : Sunderland The Campus
29 : Norwich UEA
30 : Wolverhampton Civic
December
1 : Cambridge Junction
2 : Nottingham Rock City
3 : London Indigo
REVIEWS
The Sunday Times
