In this minisode of Electric Friends: A Gary Numan Podcast, I’m back with a Gary Numan News update for February 2026, rounding up the biggest recent stories from Numan’s world.

Electric Friends A Gary Newman Podcast the songs and stories of a music icon.

I just don't understand.

My name is Ruan.

My name is Van John.

Hello and welcome to the latest minisode of sorts.

So first up, Gary's 45th anniversary of telecom was finally released in its full form.

Some versions of the vinyl were released before Christmas, but if, like me, you ordered the CD as well as the vinyl online, only this week as of writing did I finally get my hands on it.

I think that's because the CD at least wasn't released until now.

Not sure if I ordered the wrong vinyl, if there was a glitch in the system, meaning I couldn't get both until they delivered everything in my order.

But I'm very happy to finally have it.

In the midweek album charts earlier in the week it was actually as high as number 28 on these sales alone, but by the end of the week it dropped off sadly.

But it is number 10 in the sales chart.

So of albums that were actually sold as opposed to streaming it, it was number 10.

So that's really cool to see.

As we've already mentioned, it's a great collection.

I love the new artwork and the new additions including like a bee film.

Check out the last episode to hear all about that are great to hear too.

Now a Gary Newman a People's History has just finished collecting submissions and stories a few days ago for that new book that's coming out soon, so hopefully we'll hear more about that in the coming weeks and months.

I wonder if my entry made it in?

Who knows, but let me know if you submitted yours and what you said and it'll be interesting to see what gets selected when it's released.

Gary has also announced the LA duo Tremors will be supporting him on his American tour this year.

I'll be at one of those gigs and I can't wait.

They've played with Gary before and they're well worth checking out if you haven't already.

Gary has also mentioned that in the past he's become good friends with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.

The band famously of course covered down in the park back in the day, and his daughter Violet is also good friends of Gary's daughters.

And not long ago Violet actually released a song called what's Heaven without you which was actually co written with Persia.

So interesting to see her continue her work in music and see what else she might come up with.

In the future.

Gary has also revealed that in prep for his Live at the Peace hall show in July, he'll be playing some warm up shows at the Tivoli in Buckley.

The first three were all sold out and a fourth was added.

I'm assuming they've all sold out now, but that sounds like a great intimate gig if you can make it there this summer.

And if you follow Gary on Patreon, you will have seen his latest Q and A update and within it as a really interesting segment about like a B film which I kind of wish I had seen before I did my last episode because I hadn't realized until now, I'm not sure if you had, that the song wasn't actually a full song that was rediscovered from that era, but rather a rough demo that was remixed and polished in the Telecon era style by Aid Fenton.

Which just shows just how impressive Aid's producer skills are, as I definitely thought it was 100% from that time period.

But here's Gary explaining more.

First of all, I forgot not about it when Beggars Banquet were going to redo the record.

Am I mentioned?

No, I haven't.

I still don't, I still don't remember writing it, I don't remember recording it.

I have no memory of that song at all prior to them sending it to me and saying what about this?

But obviously it's me here, it's me and it's in amongst all the other songs that run Telecon.

So it's clearly something that I did back then.

I might have just done it one morning, you know, that, that the original recording of it was just a piano and the drum machine, I think, and me singing it might have just been a piano kind of.

And then when Beggar sent it to me, Aid then got hold of it and turned it into a thing that we were playing live.

So I added keyboard sounds to the piano parts that I'd written that sounded like Telecon keyboard.

So it was brilliant.

It sounded just like it was from Telecon.

The actual original demo, a little bit less so because it really was just a piano and me singing.

So with that in mind, it sounds like something I might have just recorded or come up with on the spur of the moment, you know, maybe sitting in the studio plonking around and that little tune came out.

So I recorded it quickly while I was there.

So it might have taken half an hour to write it and record it, which is why I don't remember it.

Because it wasn't something I spent a lot of time on at home.

Wasn't something I then got to the studio and spent a load more time on, you know, got everybody else to play on it.

And it was a thing, you know, it sounded.

It sounds to me like it was a little doodle that I did very quickly in a few minutes and didn't think it was good enough to progress.

And so I didn't do any more work on it.

And then she forgot all about it.

But it's there on the tape.

I'm 99% sure that's what it turned out to be.

So the reason it wasn't released at the time was because I didn't think it was good enough to finish.

So it was never finished.

It always stayed as the most basic of demos.

Never made it onto the album.

Or a B side vanished from my memory.

So that's why it's never released.

And then coming up to now more recent times and they find it and they.

And I thought, well, that sounds.

That's quite a cute little chant, but it's happy, you know, I probably wouldn't have wanted to put a happy song on Telecon anyway.

It didn't fit the vibe, the mood I was in really at the time.

So that could have had a part of it anyway.

So aid gets it a few things to it and I say it's okay for Mega's banquet to put it on the album.

I'm happy with it.

So it gets released now.

That's it really.

He performed on Saturday Night Live in the States.

He and the band performed two songs, Cars and interestingly, Praying to the Aliens.

He was introduced by host Elliot Gould, and it was the first time a lot of Americans would have probably seen him propelling cars into the top 10 in the Billboard charts.

Ladies and gentlemen, all the way from England, Gary Newman.

And speaking about that moment in his Revolution book, Gary said before the tour.

Began, we flew into New York to record two TV shows.

One was as the music guest of the Merv Griffin Show, a hugely popular talk show of the day.

The other was as the music guest of the legendary Saturday Night Live.

SNL is still extremely popular today, but back then it had a live audience of around 50 million million people.

And you played life, no miming to a backing track on snl.

It was enormously influential in the usa and the weight of that pressed heavily on me in the days leading up to it.

A good SNL performance could launch me in America.

A bad one could kill my chances.

Before we'd barely started, they rehearsed early in the day, so we were able to get the sound adjusted correctly and it was a useful rehearsal to calm the nerves.

They then had a second rehearsal with a full studio audience, which they filmed and would use as a fallback should anything go wrong during the live show that evening.

When it came time to film the actual show, we felt well practiced and it wasn't quite the nerve wracking experience I'd been expecting.

The SNL cast and crew were incredibly kind to us throughout the day and included people like Bill Murray, Harry Shearer and Gilda Radner.

The show host, the actor Elliot Gould, spoke to me during the day and again was extremely friendly, which did much to help calm the nerves.

The show went very well and the impact was instant.

We'd driven from the airport to the TV studio the day before and no one knew who I was.

The next day we drove back to the airport and it seemed as if everyone knew who I was.

The power of those two shows was unbelievable, particularly snl.

So remember, I'd love to hear your stories about you and how you became a humanoid and just getting in touch in general, really.

Just like Adam and Sally did.

They said, dear Tom, we just want to get in touch and say a huge congratulations.

Thank you for all your excellent work on Electric Friends.

To be honest, as fans from the beginning and members of Gary's Patreon, your output is that rare thing we can trust and enjoy regularly.

We've listened to all your episodes, but only just recently thought, why don't we get in touch?

It's truly great to hear your thoughts and feelings about Gary's output from over the decades.

We love it.

There are so many songs you could explore, aren't there?

It's funny as long.

Not long after I sent some stories for hopeful inclusion in the Book of People's History, I found my fan club membership card.

Now Gary has posted a pic of Gemma's I found lots of old fan club stuff from 81 onwards recently too.

It's quite incredible how strongly he has been woven through the fabric of our lives.

We're not quite sure what Gary would make of like a B film now, but your comments about the 12 year old you being very excited to hear a track from that time just hit the nail on the head perfectly for us.

It was like stepping back in time, which I know Gary's not fond of doing, but hey, it's probably the most incredible part of his career in many respects from 79 to 81.

And just like the track, I suppose they just have that feel about them and take you right back.

Thanks again Tom for all you're doing.

Keep up the great work.

Best wishes Adam and Sally.

So thanks for that Adam and Sally.

That was great to hear from you.

And I'm very jealous of all that old fan club stuff from back in the day.

I'd love to have a look at those and see all the wealth of stuff that you guys must have been able to have collected from back then.

Well, thanks for listening to this short episode.

I'll be back soon with a new track delving.

Let me know if you'd like to hear a particular song or moment or idea that you'd love me to tackle on Gary's career.

If you'd like to get in touch, email me newmanpodcastmail.com find me at Newman Podcast on socials to keep up to date there.

I sometimes ask for like comments of future episodes for future songs I'll be covering, so make sure you do that.

Or head to newmanpodcast.com for more.

And remember, if you'd like to support me and the show and get your hands on some Electric Friends merch T shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, all that kind of stuff, then head to the show notes for this episode where you where to get them.

Or you head to Electric friends dot PRINTIFY me Not the best website URL of all time, I know, but there you go.

So for now have a good one and speak soon.

Electric Friends A Gary Newman Podcast the songs and stories of a music.