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Gary Numan @ Salisbury City Hall, 27th July 2009

His band takes the stage first, introducing Gary Numan with a haunting blend of breakdowns and dark riffs. Tonight is a haze of atmospheric smoke and gothic looks, with eyeliner and black hair dye a popular choice, and his band brings his music from its electro-pop background to fit with the times. This must be how he’s survived the decades he’s spent in the music industry, and why he’s such an inspiration to artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.

Numan’s ability to keep his music in the realms of rock leaves  distorted guitar riffs pumping over his iconic  vocals, without leaving behind the robotic synthesisers that create the backdrop to his retro-electro.  He’s still every bit the eccentric, unnerving, performer with his cocky, yet solemn swagger and stage moves. Even down to his lack of stage chat, he keeps to the dark and mysterious façade that fits his sedated vocals or monotone screams.

‘Cars’ still gets the attention it always did, taking the set back to his chart roots with a perfectly undated rendition, alongside other hits like ‘Are Friends Electric’, and he still puts as much into his performance as he did 30 years ago, when hits like these were Number One.

His music has grown in songs like the intense, searingly, gloomy sounding ‘In a Dark Place’ and the chilling ‘Haunted’. Often cited as “the godfather of electronic music”, its unlikely there’s an electro-pop ‘top ten’ that doesn’t include Numan in it. He is his own genre, establishing popularity in commercial electro, and there’s a reason why he’s kept a following all these years.