In this special episode of Electric Friends: A Gary Numan Podcast, I pay tribute to John Webb, Gary Numan's brother, bandmate and lifelong friend, who passed away in 2025 during the Telekon 45th anniversary tour.

The episode reflects on John’s incredible life — from joining Tubeway Army as a teenager to performing on stage across the world, before embarking on a second remarkable career as a professional pilot and aerobatics display leader.

Through archive clips and personal memories, I celebrate John’s warmth, humour and creativity. We hear about Gary’s emotional statement following his Birmingham show, where he broke down during 'Please Push No More' after receiving the tragic news. Gary later described his brother as “someone I loved more than the world,” a sentiment shared by so many who knew him.

I revisit highlights from my interview with John, including stories of playing with Tubeway Army at the Roxy Club at just 12 years old, touring with Gary through the 80s, and the time Queen’s Roger Taylor borrowed his drum kit during the recording of Dance.

The episode also celebrates John’s later musical work as Donovan Silver, his album Alpha, and his return to live performance after nearly three decades.

This episode is dedicated to John Webb.

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Earlier this week, we heard the tragic news that Garen Newman's brother John Webb had died.

It had been during his Birmingham gig during his telecon 45th anniversary tour that while singing Please Push no More, Gary broke down in tears, telling the crowd that he had received awful news that day.

His wife Gemma came on stage to hug him and Gary somehow got through the show.

A couple of days later, Gary announced that the reason for his sadness was that his brother John had suddenly passed away the day before.

Gary explained that he had been with John the previous night.

John had attended his lead show.

Gary said, we talked about authors, music, the loves of our lives, children, our dad, steam trains, aeroplanes, accidents, friends, enemies, just as much as we could squeeze in the time that we had.

Gary had to leave for his Birmingham show the following evening and said that he watched his brother walk away towards his car after they said goodbye.

Sadly, he never made it to his car.

Betrayed by his own heart, he said, it will haunt me forever that we may have driven off, not knowing that he was laying in a rainy street just yards away, he added, I can barely think straight enough to find the words for this, let alone a fitting and deserving tribute to someone I loved more than the world.

Those words will come in time.

He confirmed that he's planning on continuing the tour because my dad thinks I should, because John's lovely wife said John would want me to.

I can't imagine the sadness and pain Gary is going through as I write and record this, especially as he has to pick himself up each night and perform for his fans.

But I'm sure we'd all agree that for any of us attending this tour, we'll be there to lift him and to celebrate the life of someone who was instrumental in his life and career.

I was very lucky enough to have interviewed John for this podcast last year.

It was a privilege to speak to him at length about his life and career.

He was a lovely man and was very generous with his time and was very open about everything.

So for this episode we'll take a look back at the life of John Webb.

John was born Donovan Webb and became part of the Newman family when he was very young.

As Gary wrote in his autobiography, their parents, Beryl and Tony, adopted him after a family tragedy.

Donovan's dad, John, Tony's brother, died and his kids were raised by Various family members with Donovan going to Beryl and Tony.

And from that moment on, he was simply John, Gary's brother.

Loved from the day he arrived.

When I asked him about those early memories, the affection he had for Gary came through instantly.

Obviously it's a seven year age gap, so that sort of makes a little bit of a difference.

So I mean, obviously my younger years when I sort of turned up and not really sure what was going on, but as I grew up, Gary was just always there, very protective, very loving, just always there really.

Despite the seven year age gap, the bond was instant.

John grew up surrounded by the mix of music that shaped them both.

Bowie, T Rex, Bebop, Deluxe, country records from their parents and the early rock and roll he gravitated towards.

Music was everywhere and it didn't take long for John to join in.

At just 12 years old, John found himself stepping on stage with Tubeway army at the legendary Roxy Club in London.

He'd written a song called Lucky.

Gary helped shape it and it ended up right in the middle of the set.

Those shows weren't just gigs, they were family affairs.

Gary, Uncle Gerald on drums, Paul Gardner and their dad hauling gear in and out of venues.

Those nights set the foundation for everything that came later, when Gary became a star almost overnight, John was still at school.

Suddenly everyone knew who he was and not always kindly, but drumming grounded him, gave him confidence and eventually led to one of the biggest jumps of his life.

But fate had other plans.

When Gary suddenly found himself a keyboard player short.

He turned to John, who already knew the songs inside and out from hanging around the studio.

That leap took him across America on the I Assassin tour and across the UK throughout the 80s.

And he had incredible stories, like his first night at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Hammersmith Odeon on the, on that first 83 tour.

They used to in those days have a fire curtain between the stage and the audience and literally you couldn't hear a thing when, when it was down.

And I can remember the first night we played there, we're all on stage, we're chatting and everything else.

The intro music starts and it's silent, apart from the musicals.

And then as the screen starts going up, there's this huge roar of sound which is the audience.

And as the screen goes up it just got louder and louder and it was like a wall of sound coming back at us.

I will never ever forget the first time back because that was.

Yeah, that's just One of those things you just, what the hell is this?

And one of my favorite stories John told involved Queen's Roger Taylor.

When Gary was recording dance, Roger stopped by the studio and ended up using drum's drum kit.

My first gig was in a pub called the Airman, strangely enough, Belton with accent.

So Gary was doing dance at that time, the album, and Roger was going to be doing some drums and that on it.

And he was at the studio with Gary that day and his drum kit hadn't arrived yet.

It was on his way, it wasn't there anyway, so both Gary and Roger came to that gig.

So not only did I have my brother there, but then I had Roger Taylor there, one of the best drummers in the world.

So, you know, it's pretty, you know, incredible really.

The amazing thing about that is afterwards, Gary and Roger were going back to the studio and Gary said, well, Roger, kit hasn't arrived yet.

So basically, cut a long story short, I packed my kit up, took my kit back to the studios, we set it up and Roger played my kit.

I think it was a song crash.

He played it on anyway.

He played through the night basically, and that was recorded that night.

It's a moment most drummers would dine out on for life.

And John told it was such matter of fact charm.

But John didn't just have one extraordinary career, he had two.

Gary had originally paid for him to learn to fly, a gift that changed everything.

He became a flying instructor, a display pilot and eventually an airline captain and fleet manager.

He trained pilots, flew historic aircraft, formed aerobatics and formation displays, sometimes of Gary himself.

Music and aviation threaded through his life for decades, sometimes in parallel, sometimes intertwining, but rarely stopping.

After losing his mum, John fully returned to music under his birth name Donovan and the punk name Silver, given to him because their mum sprayed his hair Silver.

Before gigs, he released five EPs and his album Alpha, a rich and atmospheric electronic record that he felt captured his true sound.

Sa.

He returned to the stage two after nearly 30 years away, first in Whitby and a sold out gig in Camden.

He had plans for more gigs.

At the time that I spoke to him, he'd already written about half of his next album.

There was more music coming and he was excited.

John lived an extraordinary life, driven by curiosity, courage, creativity and kindness.

A life in the air and on the stage.

Life shaped by the people he loved and music he made.

He'll be remembered as a musician, a pilot, a performer, a storyteller and a man whose warmth touched so many people across the Newman community.

For me, he was exactly as you hope someone would be when you admire them from afar.

Generous, funny, humble and full of stories.

It was a privilege to speak with him and an honor to celebrate him now.

John Webb Donovan Silva will be deeply missed and always remembered.

Thank you for listening.

If you'd like to share your memories of John, you can get in touch on our socials or email me@newmanpodcastmail.com I'll be back soon with another episode, but for now, take care and look after each other.

It took a while, but eventually Donovan became John and John became my brother whom I have loved with all my heart from the day he arrived.

I've heard so many comments over the years about how I must have been jealous of a new baby coming into the family or how I must have resented him going from being an only child to having a baby brother.

I never had any of those feelings.

Not one.

Ever.

For a short period, Gary and I got to fly together in the Harvard formation team.

I flew the BJ team, which is a twin engine aeroplane, as the lead ship with four Harvards, one of which was Gary.

And Gary choreographed it.

You know, a really good routine where we all interacted with each other and I did a little solo or Gary was climbing for height to do his aerobatics, all that sort of stuff.

So that was just brilliant.

You know, it's.

Yeah.

To do formation flying and do aerobatics, you have to trust people around you.

You can't trust anyone better than your brother.

Sam.