GARY NUMAN

Come on, let's go a bit crazy and start this announcement with some fun facts.  GARY NUMAN's most famous song is probably “Are friends electric?”, but did you know that the single was actually recorded by a real band back in 1979?  It was called Tubeway Army, a rock group that upgraded Numan's invisible status to stardom.  Okay, you probably already knew all that.  Here's another one: just as Star Trek fans were christened Trekkies and Taylor Swift fans go through life as Swifties, Gary Numan fans are called Numanoids. How cool is that? Did you know that? Okay. This one might be new to you: it may surprise you, but the song “Cars”, Numan's first and biggest solo hit (1979), is explicitly not about Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera, but about the feeling of safety and security that the protective bodywork of your moving car gives you. Enough trivia: now for the facts. With Numan, we are bringing in one of the most influential artists of British new wave, a man to whom big stars such as Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor and even Prince pay their most graceful and respectful homage. Granted, in Prince's case that was quite some time ago, but still. His fans have remained very loyal to the eccentric star all these years. When we saw him live on our Grote Kaai in 2018 and heard his followers shout out many synonyms for true love and adoration, even we, veterans of the Lokerse Feesten, fell for him. If only every artist in the world had fans like that. And such a rich arsenal of top songs, of course. Try it out: when Numan starts singing “Cars”, for example, a massive cross-border hug is sure to follow. That's the kind of dedication we're talking about. Not a bad word can be said about the man's latest album (“Intruder”, 2021), by the way. And if you do, don't do it near the Numanoids. You don't want to know how fast Numan's fans can run with tar and feathers at the ready. No, we are rather proud to welcome one of the most important pioneers of electronic pop music back to our stage. Perhaps one last tidbit: when he played in Lokeren, he forgot to delight us with the global hit “Down in the Park”.  For this edition, we are keeping our fingers crossed until we get arthritis.