Live Review: Gary Numan - Rock City, Nottingham
25th November 2025
Support: Raven Numan
Words & Photos: Nic Howells
In the apoplectically, unpredictable landscape it is 2025, nostalgia is on a ridiculous undefeated streak. As such anniversary tours are all in Vogue even when that in mind something as historic as forty five years of an album is an unbelievable feat. Gary Numan performing Telekon in was firmly that. In Nottingham, in the red neon of Rock City, this feels like the perfect place to celebrate such an album.
A perfect example of who could open such a tour is a talent that didn’t even exist at the time Telekon was released. Opening the night was Raven Numan, making her Rock City debut with a short but striking set. Flanked by her backing band, featuring the legendary Ade Fenton on keys, there’s immediate star power as she strikes out on stage into opening track ‘Children of The Bad Revolution’. For a career that is still (somewhat) in its infancy, this act has their production and their sound down to a t. The lighting during ‘Magnolia’ has them half lit, half in shadow from either side that does a lot for the atmosphere of the track as Raven sings from the back of the stage, which is traded for a very complimentary lilac during ‘Killing Me Slowly’ as she returns to the front.
There is a quiet confidence to her performance, as it’s both brooding and delicate during ‘Inside of You’ and ‘My Reflection’ through to ‘Pretty When I’m Hurt’. There’s some definite buzz about the set, especially during the penultimate track, a cover of NIN’s ‘In This Twilight’. It is a subtle but powerful warm up as she rounds out the set with the final offering ‘Here For Me’. There is a lot of individuality wrapped up in this set, whilst only being just over two years since supporting Gary at his 1000th show in Camden in its earliest iteration of the act.
During the changeover the lighting shifts to a thick red shroud on stage. Such is the ravenous nature of Numan’s fanbase, the crowd immediately rises with a buzz as the lights dim. The stage at Rock City is profoundly more stripped back than it appeared on other nights of the tour. If anything Gary Numan + 4 may be pushing occupancy. David Brooks and Jimmy Lucido are situated at the back behind drums and keys respectively, with Tim Slade on bass being the sole other presence at the front during opening track ‘This Wreckage’. There’s rapturous praise up Gary as he steps up from the backline. Given he is so ever present on today’s touring circuit, and can play arena sized venues, he’s easily in living legend territory, and is arguably now in one of his best runs of form in his entire career. Almost as is tradition, he’s mysterious with his mannerisms, caressing mic stands and bending in all manner of directions to the beat of his works as it moves into ‘Remind Me to Smile’ and ‘Remember I was Vapour’ to close out our first three. Wife Gemma is also situated front and centre, sat on the front of the barrier, and this sparks a tender moment between them where Gary gets down to kneeling for some exchange between them.
The real sense of nostalgia floods in with the barely-ever played ‘I Dream of Wires’, receiving only a handful of appearances in live shows since the Telekon album, most notably on his Living Ornaments '81 live album, and then sparingly in the decades since, followed by the even lesser played title track.The fact of the matter is that the bulk of the midsection of this set borders on the obscure as far as live shows go, despite the cult status of the album. ‘Sleep by Windows’, ‘A Game Called Echo’ and prolific B-side ‘Photograph’ are met with obvious appreciation from long standing fans, where the latter two were only played live for the first time ever in this same venue in 2006. Then comes the track of this tour…
Obvious condolences to Numan and his family, but performances of ‘Please Push No More’ have been on everyone’s mind since the midpoint of these dates. Numan is emotional to say the least in Nottingham, after making news for how the news of his brother's sudden passing mid-tour just 10 days prior. The love in the room for Numan, with wife Gemma, and now daughter Raven watching from the very front, is genuinely breathtaking. Gary still notably, and understandably takes a moment as the instrumental of the track closes out, pacing the stage. Knowing the obvious weight of recent events, it’s in a sense cathartic to see Numan wear his emotions unashamedly, and awe-inspiring that the tour has continued.
Now Numan hasn’t always been renowned as a wordsmith outside of his lyrics, and cracks the crowd up by saying “So much for being a fucking robot… Sorry for making it weird”. Which is arguably the most Gary Numan way to handle a very human response. One of the few other tracks in the set to receive an introduction follows, with the “took 40 years to be discovered” ‘Like a B Film’, which Numan jokes he has no memory of writing but says since its him on the tape, he must have. The dating of the album is most apparent with this song, as its still entirely synth, but much less heavy as his live stuff tends to be, it instead more closely resembles the sound he has in his “Machine Era”. There’s also late honours to the comparatively heavier tracks ‘The Aircrash Bureau’ and ‘I’m An Agent’, before rounding out the dusted off tracks form Telekon with ‘The Joy Circuit’ for the first time in near a decade.
The final offerings of the main set are two which have been in much heavier rotation with Numan’s recent material and tours, beginning with ‘I Die: You Die’. This is one of the older tracks that has transitioned so well to Numan’s new sound, and lends itself brilliantly to a live crowd clapping to the beat, as well as strobes synched up to the track. This is by far a personal favourite in his normal sets, but here especially it feels like a key moment in the set. Final track honours tips it’s hat to the other steadily loved number ‘We Are Glass’, with the only major distinction between the two being that ‘We Are Glass’ didn’t get the nod for show 1000, but is still seminal enough a track that he played it at Wembley. Despite it being a consistent presence, it still feels fair to say it’s underrated? It’s not exactly as anthemic as his other show closers over the last few decades, but is light enough in tone that it still rounds off the album happy.
After a brief pause Numan returns for a Tubeway Army focused encore. ‘My Shadow in Vain’ hasn’t been completely unseen in recent years, but melded in with the other material it’s a very nice change of pace. It’s also this show where it became apparently how much of a pre-cursor this track must’ve been to the vastly popular ‘Metal’. This is followed by the very punky ‘Friends’ and ‘Listen To The Sirens’. It has to be said that the Tubeway Army material Gary rarely/doesn’t play is very underrated. It poses a great many questions of what the act could’ve been in the instance Gary didn’t go solo, but then we’d be without one of the most prolific names in British music. The final offering for the full show is the iconic ‘Down In The Park’. This song is a firm favourite and also perhaps out of place, given the entirety of the setlist elsewhere and how this song has been reworked for years to his modern sound. That said, a Numan fan will never tire of the visual of a see of hands waving in tune with the synths of this track, all in all it was the right track to end things on.
Performing Telekon in full could have been indulgent. But in terms of the makeup of an artist, not many can ever boast a strong enough start as Gary’s material with Tubeway, into Telekon. In terms of nowadays, it didn’t feel “nostalgic” in the cringey way, it felt classic. Realistically, I don’t expect us to get a 45 year anniversary of the Dance album as of next year. But we don’t need that. Gary is as good as he’s ever been, the songs are as good as they’ve ever been, to see him be so enduringly popular with modern crowds is very deserved.
Photo Credits: Nic Howells
