Gary Numan, your music IS electric!

One of the great things about driving out on the open road is being able to listen to great music. Long haul trips seem swifter when accompanied by the correct choice of music. Some selections of music take on a whole new meaning out on the highways and country back roads of this great big land. Long term favourite travel music is usually the Wurlitzer driven energy of The Charlatans, or the swirling rhythms of some great Celtic soul.

Recently, Wobbles slipped in a surprise selection; the ‘greatest’ hits of late 70s electronic cum New Wave music artist Gary Numan. Could he possibly have recorded enough material to release a greatest hits CD? I was having trouble remembering more than three hits from him or his early band, The Tubeway Army. I was certain that Wobbles would be the only person to have bought this compilation. The album was serving as our driving music on a short highway journey. Around the sixth track I was still to notice any discernable variation in the music or vocals. My head was thumping. This was not what I viewed as travelling music. I did the unthinkable and stopped a CD halfway, and made a silent vow to find out whatever happened to Gary Numan.

A quick Internet check suggests that Numan’s music biography is far more extensive than I could ever have imagined. Perhaps my lack of interest in synthesizer music contributed to my ignorance. Maybe I was just embarrassed by the memory of my own school girl send ups of his songs. The part that got my attention was really nothing to do with his music. Numan married a member of his own fan club. (As it was on Wikipedia it must be true!) After a series of miscarriages and IVF attempts, the couple had their first child in 2003. They now have three daughters. Although it is not explained if IVF was ultimately responsible for Numan and wife becoming parents.

Certainly the varied list of celebrity and other well known people who have required intervention by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) shows that fertility issues can affect people from all parts of our society. Wealth and fame will not assure pregnancy. The suspicion that these people have all somewhere along the line experienced the gut-wrenching doubt that parenthood may very well escape them makes celebrities seem like mere mortals afterall. Admitting to the intervention of medical science somehow makes them that much more human than others who clutter our newspapers and magazines with their glamorous existences.

I now have to admit to a newly found tolerance for the Gary Numan’s music -  in small doses!