Released November 1984. MIKE SMITH - Programmer. ROBB HORAN - Sirius Publishing. The late DICK MORRISSEY – Musician. CAROLINE MUNROE - Singer/ Actress. TIM DRY AND SEAN CRAWFORD – Both former members of Tik and Tok. BERYL WEBB - Gary’s mother. STEVE HILLIER – Musician (Dubstar). SEAN BURKE – Musician and former Tubeway Army guitarist. PETER HAYNES – Musician and former Lurkers Drummer.
GARY NUMAN: I had some old books, one was called Berserker’s Planet, and another was called Brother Berserker. They were basically about machines that were designed to wipe out a particular civilisation in another galaxy. They did that and then they carried on going, destroying whatever they came up against. Phenomenonally powerful, virtually indestructible machines that were programmed entirely to kill and that’s all they did and I thought it was just a really, really good name for an album. It was the first one on Numa so obviously I felt a certain amount of pressure, I wanted it to be especially good because I wanted to say to WEA “up yours” in a polite sort of way. I was very pleased with it though; I thought it came up rather well. I thought the material was very good and completely up to date, I thought it answered everything. I’d got into computer synthesisers at this point; the advantages weren’t the sounds they created but in the way you could record.
MIKE SMITH: I often did session work at Rock City, and in early 1984 I was there with a PPG. It was creating these monstrous sounds and Gary came running out saying “What the f**k’s that?” At the time I used to work with another programmer Ian Herron, and the two of us joined Gary in the studio the very next day.
GARY NUMAN: I was beginning to try things that should’ve helped create a new, bigger and more exciting sound. In fact I went the wrong way and went further along the funk road than I should. Berserker is, perhaps, the last album before I started to lose my way. ROBB HORAN: Berserker is one of my favourite albums because it seemed so mysterious and weird. Like it was a half unfolding story, but it wasn’t revealing exactly what it was all about.
MIKE SMITH: Berserker sounded very innovative and futuristic- big keyboard lines-huge sounds. At this point there were only four PPG’s in the country so Gary was right at the forefront of the new sampling technology.
GARY NUMAN: It was very early sampling; the workstation was along the lines of the Fairlight and the Synclavier. Very difficult to make do what you wanted it to do and just as likely to crash and lose your work as it stored it. But it was capable of making some incredible sounds. It was often the case of recording stuff as quickly as possible before the machine had a fit and lost everything. It was frustrating and exciting in equal measures. I didn’t have a clue how it worked but luckily it came with Mike Smith and Ian Herron. The Waveteam as they were called and they had a strange love/ hate relationship with it themselves. But they were experts on it. Almost from day one in my career my interest had been to merge conventional instruments with synth’s and whatever may come next. Sampling as it turned out. Mixing things together seemed an obvious move and the most interesting. It didn’t really need much inspiration. You had all these sounds that people were used to and a new batch of people thought a little odd so why not put them together and see where they took you.
GARY NUMAN: I was very happy with the way the album turned out and I had high hopes that it would stop the decline in success that had started with I, Assassin in ’82 and not really been addressed by Warriors a year later. I had no idea at the time that the Radio One problem was about to appear. I thought then, and do now, that it was the right album at the right time. I still feel that if the radio had picked up on the singles then the album would have done well. GARY NUMAN: I remember I went to Germany in early ‘85 and whilst there somebody said they’d seen the cover for Berserker and by just looking at the cover they didn’t listen to it because they thought it was too weird. I didn’t really realise that covers were supposed to attract attention and all I was doing was attracting one person whilst turning off about ten, so in that regard Berserker didn’t work.
GARY NUMAN: As for the image, I made Berserker white because the image before had been black, I’d seen a photograph in a magazine some time before which was of a woman laying on a marble wall I think, or tree perhaps and she had been painted to resemble marble. It was shot outside, in the snow, and she had streaks of colour, blue being one that caught the eye, painted all over her body. The idea for the image came from a memory of that picture. I've always felt that the Berserker image was about the most favoured outside the leather images. It was certainly the most striking I've ever come up with and, although a nightmare to actually use, was my favourite visually.
The Berserker image was an arresting sight alright but I was hardly going to shock the world after Boy George was I? However, live I was more reminiscent of a melting wax works than anything else. For the CD release in 1996 the original artwork was lost and so I had to re-create it taking the opportunity to correct some minor lyric mistakes and use a new photo on the back flap. Also the problem with having such a long career is that tapes made during the earlier parts of it are now in trouble, shedding layers, that kind of thing, so they have to be baked in a special oven for about five days. After that it's best if you transfer them onto fresh tape or another form of media altogether. When we've done that, and checked that the sound quality is still okay, we can get the new CD pressed. Losing the original artwork plates is, sadly, typical of me. It’s the “Don't blink or it's a souvenir” syndrome.
GARY NUMAN: Nobody cared about it then apart from me and the fans, it doesn’t worry me however, I don’t consider it to be a classic album that was overlooked.
“BERSERKER” Debut live performance: 1984 “The Berserker Tour.” Released as a single in November 1984.
GARY NUMAN: I did read several of the Berserker books by Saberhagen although when I revisited them again they didn't seem to be as good as when I was younger. Still a great concept though. I don’t know why it went into that particular song, it just seemed to suit the subject of the song at the time and the subject was me. I think its one of my best songs.
“THIS IS NEW LOVE” Debut live performance: 1984 “The Berserker Tour.”
GARY NUMAN: I previewed this song on the Leo Sayer Show in the second half of 1984.
TIM DRY and SEAN CRAWFORD: We appeared with Gary as our alter-egos Ronnie And Reggie Dome on a TV show he did with Leo Sayer to perform this song which to see was hysterically funny.
GARY NUMAN: The only possible source of that older T.V. version of “This Is New Love” would be on the original quarter inch tape as the 2 inch master was updated with the additions to the song. No record of it can be found at the moment, however, it’s quite possible that it was used for the T.V. show and then taped over as I never intended keeping that version. A search though is underway.
“THE SECRET” Debut live performance: 1984 “The Berserker Tour.”
“MY DYING MACHINE” Debut live performance: 1984 “The Berserker Tour.” Released as a single in December 1984.
GARY NUMAN: I thought it was a new direction, introducing female vocals, very club orientated. The single was completely remixed for the Italian market.
GARY NUMAN: The song was about the feeling you go through when you are in a machine and you know something is wrong.
“COLD WARNING” Debut live performance: 1984 “The Berserker Tour.”
GARY NUMAN: “Cold Warning” describes the feeling of a victim. A man sitting scared and alone, because he instinctively knows there is something cold and horrible outside. He can’t quite see it but its there, and it’s been waiting for him for a long time.
“PUMP IT UP” Never performed live.
MIKE SMITH: After we worked on the Berserker album we re-recorded a song from the album called “Pump It Up” with the ex-Bond girl Caroline Munroe on vocals.
CAROLINE MUNROE: I was very lucky to have the opportunity to work with Gary Numan. A friend of mine, a chap called David Wells who was a showbiz writer for the Daily Express knew Gary pretty well and he also knew that Gary was looking for a female artist for his label Numa Records. I’d already had a dabble at a singing career when I was just 16 when I released a single called “Tar And Cement.” We eventually had a meeting with Gary and agreed to give it a go. The track “Pump Me Up” was already pre-recorded and it was a challenge and a bit of a struggle for me because I actually sing a lot lower than the key it was in but it actually turned out quite well. We went out to Shepperton Studios and I met Gary’s mum, his father and his brother there. We spent about a week, on and off doing the recording. I liked the fact that Gary was on the track with me, he’s got a great voice, a beautiful singing voice without the electronic effects he uses. Like it said I think the track was a little too high for me and I don’t think I really did it justice really. I was so busy at the time with European films that I never got the opportunity to record anything else with Gary though I wouldn’t mind doing something with him again actually. The single, when it was released, did well in Italy I believe, I think it was a big dance hit there. Some time later Gary asked me to appear with him on a programme called “The Main Attraction”, apparently one of his backing vocalists couldn’t do the television show so he asked me to appear along side him for that. I remember we were all dressed in white for it. As for the B-side “This Picture” I’m not sure if this song ever had a Gary Numan vocal on it, the version that I worked on was a pre-recorded instrumental. I really liked that song though. It suited my voice a lot more than the “Pump Me Up” song.
GARY NUMAN: Caroline Munroe was introduced to me by someone that worked at Numa I think, can't really remember. I signed her because she had a high TV profile, was a very famous ex model and I thought we might have a chance of selling some records. I don't think Radio One banned her song they just didn't play it.
CAROLINE MUNROE: That photo of me on the single sleeve was all Gary’s idea; I had several photo shoots taken with me wearing a red leather dress and a black one. I stood in that pose because I was physically unable to walk or move in any kind of way!
“THE GOD FILM” Never performed live.
GARY NUMAN: One of three songs on the album that didn't have extended versions made of them, the others being “A Child With A Ghost” and “Pump It Up.”
“A CHILD WITH A GHOST” Never performed live.
GARY NUMAN: Any song that you write about someone you love or care about is very difficult especially after that person dies. You never feel that you have done justice to the emotions or the person.
GARY NUMAN: Paul seemed to be getting better at one point then all of a sudden he would disappear only to found again in dire straits. It seemed to be that once the drugs took a hold of him that was it and eventually he just died. Paul was the only person that I’d been close to at that point that had died.
Tribute disco in memory of Paul.
GARY NUMAN: He was found on the morning of Saturday the 18th in February on a park bench in Limetrees Park, Northolt, Middlesex, dead, with the needle still in his arm. A suicide note pinned to his chest said simply, “Cremation please.”
BERYL WEBB: The last telephone conversation that I had with Paul was on the day before his death when he told me how excited he was at the prospect of working with Gary’s brother John on one of John’s own compositions. He had finally kicked his drug habit and Gary was delighted. Gary had repeatedly promised Paul that the door was always open and this was the reason why a permanent bass player had never been considered. Something must have gone wrong in the last few hours of his life. It was a terrible waste. The cremation took place at Breakspear Road crematorium in Ruislip on Monday the 27th of February.
TIM DRY and SEAN CRAWFORD: Gary us a backing track for us to sing on called "A Child With The Ghost" which was a very beautiful and sad song. Gary gave us the song for us to cover on our own 1984 album Intolerance and we thought it was a love song. We didn’t know it was about Paul Gardiner ‘til much later. We actually met Paul when Shock did the Wembley shows in 1981; Paul was a private and quite sad man who, to us, lost his way somehow.
GARY NUMAN: The hypocrisy of people who go into church and talk about understanding and forgiveness and then walk out and see a punk rocker on the street and say 'Look at the state of that”, if God so wanted to take Paul home, as they said, then why did he have to drag it out for over a year and make him go through all that pain? Even now I can't get over the waste of his death.
SEAN BURKE: Paul Gardiner was a lovely fella although very nervous, a quite bloke and very creative. He was into the weird stuff musically and Paul was always into his drugs. We all used to dabble with speed at the time.
PETER HAYNES: Paul was a lovely bloke, very quiet and very ordinary as I remember, not very rock and roll I know but still a very nice guy.
GARY NUMAN: I have to admit that listening to “A Child With A Ghost” gives me the chills sometimes.
“THE HUNTER” Debut live performance: 1994 “The Sacrifice Tour.”
GARY NUMAN: I’d like to perform this track again live, the difficulty is, like most of the older material, I longer have access to the sounds or the tapes that those songs were recorded on. It makes it quite a big job reworking them for stage when you have none of the original parts. I could start again but it seems a shame not to have some of the original sounds. It’s difficult to fake the PPG.
“EMPTY BED, EMPTY HEART” (B-SIDE) Never performed live.
GARY NUMAN: I wrote that song for an old girlfriend who had gone off with someone else when I was about 25.
“HERE AM I” (B-SIDE) Never performed live. STEVE HILLIER: In the mid 80’s I found myself preferring a lot of the B-sides to Gary’s singles which were darker and more electronic than the A-sides. I couldn’t really get my head around the funkier stuff on the albums and it all got a bit cold and digital for me. I loved things like the imagery of Berserker and individual tracks from that period.
The late DICK MORRISSEY: “Here Am I” has some great playing on it, I always found Gary very easy to work with. I think he is a very natural and original songwriter, which is more important than technique. I’d just go in the studio, play along with different songs and then leave when Gary was happy. It was very easy and good fun.
“SHE CRIES” (B-SIDE) Never performed live.
GARY NUMAN: I've never knowingly tried to recreate the mood or feel of a past album. I think the fact that I used fretless bass for a few albums made one or two songs a little bit similar in sound from time to time as in the case of this one.
--------1985---------
WHITE NOISE-LIVE
Released April 1985. SEAN CRAWFORD AND TIM DRY – Both former members of Tik And Tok. TONY ALLUM – Musician and former member of Gary Numan support act HoHoKam.
GARY NUMAN: White Noise was deliberately mixed to keep the live sound, very ambient, all the mistakes kept in. It was a true and honest recording of what happened on that night, a summing up the second part of my career. “The Live E.P.” that was taken from it was done purely as a filler. The image was a real pain though; it used to take me two hours, every night, just to put the make up on. It was very uncomfortable. It was just a difficult image, it looked good but it wasn’t a particularly good image to actually go out and work with. I didn’t like the crew on that particular tour either, a lot of them were just trouble. It’s about the only tour I don’t look back on with fond memories.
TIM DRY AND SEAN CRAWFORD: We made a guest appearance with Gary on the 1984 tour at the Hammersmith Odeon, doing 2 songs with him. Gary invited us and our girlfriends along to the first show to be in the audience, we went back stage afterwards to say hi and meet and greet with RRussell, Gary’s mum and dad ect and Gary said “Why don’t guys come out on stage with me tomorrow night and do “Are “Friends” Electric?” so we did. I remember that Sean had just had a tattoo of a Geisha girl put on one of his bum cheeks, and that night he’d decided to wear these leather trousers that left his arse bare to the world. It’s just possible that Gary caught sight of Sean flaunting and wiggling his new artwork to the girls in the audience and that was what made Gary burst out laughing on the White Noise album recording. I remember us at the mic doing the “Whoa oh” bit during the song but I don’t think he would have found that particularly amusing.
TONY ALLUM: Tik and Tok have got it wrong I’m afraid, it was us that made Gary burst out laughing on that recording. As a “last night of the tour” prank we dressed up in drag and invaded the stage for “Are “Friends” Electric?” This was a revenge for being covered in shaving foam by Gary's band at a previous gig (the night before if I remember correctly) Tik and Tok were at the concert but it was HoHoKam that was drag queens for the night!
GARY NUMAN: The live album was originally released to help promote the aborted 1985 European tour. Also “The Berserker Tour” video was actually voted as one of the top 20 videos in the world and it was shown at the Venice film festival.
about machines that were designed to wipe out a particular civilisation in another galaxy. They did that and then they carried on going, destroying whatever they came up against. Phenomenonally powerful, virtually indestructible machines that were programmed entirely to kill and that’s all they did and I thought it was just a really, really good name for an album. It was the first one on Numa so obviously I felt a certain amount of pressure, I wanted it to be especially good because I wanted to say to WEA “up yours” in a polite sort of way. I was very pleased with it though; I thought it came up rather well. I thought the material was very good and completely up to date, I thought it answered everything. I’d got into computer synthesisers at this point; the advantages weren’t the sounds they created but in the way you could record.
did it justice really. I was so busy at the time with European films that I never got the opportunity to record anything else with Gary though I wouldn’t mind doing something with him again actually. The single, when it was released, did well in Italy I believe, I think it was a big dance hit there. Some time later Gary asked me to appear with him on a programme called “The Main Attraction”, apparently one of his backing vocalists couldn’t do the television show so he asked me to appear along side him for that. I remember we were all dressed in white for it. As for the B-side “This Picture” I’m not sure if this song ever had a Gary Numan vocal on it, the version that I worked on was a pre-recorded instrumental. I really liked that song though. It suited my voice a lot more than the “Pump Me Up” song.
