I saw him right around this time (the same 'tea and cookies with mum'
tour) which provided some fun technology blunders. Numan had this whole
"maybe I'm an alien" disassociated, disaffected stage presence going on,
and he'd just incorporated two electronic space-car looking bots (rather
like the robot vacs we see today with capstan drives - they back up when
resistance is felt)to roll all over the stage as he did "Cars."
While he was struggling to stay in mystery-space persona, the cars spent
time getting stuck on either ends of the stage of the as one of the
wheels of each would slide off the lip of the stage or get stuck elsewhere.
Numan sauntered intensely to one side of the stage and clandestinely
booted one of them back into motion...soon after the other got stuck.
It was a hoot watching him spend the duration of the song in his
'Machman' pose while trying desperately to keep his props working -
especially when they both got stuck simultaneously at opposite side of
the stage. He cracked a brief "wtf?" smile.
He was really a kid when all of this was happening in his career.
It must have been a whirlwind. I'm not sure what my friend expected when
he met him, but he was really shocked at how young (with parents, etc)
Numan seemed offstage compared to his cyborgish onstage mask.
jeff
I know he was all over The Pleasure Principle and I'm pretty sure
he's in cars. He can't be missed if he is!
I'm sure he only played on two tracks...let me pull the cover...
m
I should have been clearer - I believe he did the tour for the record.
Not sure how many tracks he was on.
jeff
