Gary Numan – 1000, Live at the Electric Ballroom: Album Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 21st November 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Live Numan from London’s Electric Ballroom celebrating a grand of shows in a career spanning set.

Release Date: 7th November 2025

Label: BMG

Format: Vinyl / 2 CD + Blu-ray

JOURNEY

It’s a good time to be a fan of Gary Numan or even to jump aboard (or re-mount) the Numan train that’s seen regular touring, terrific new music and dips into his legacy over the past few years. The latest Numan live release finds him in the more intimate confines of the Electric Ballroom as opposed to the cavernous Wembley souvenir captured on Perfect Circle.

To coin a cliche, 1000 is what it says on the tin. A souvenir of his 1000th show presenting a set that deserves and genuinely earns the title of ‘career spanning’. Quite some achievement considering the forty five years which gets condensed into one all encompassing set that ranges from the hits to deeper cuts and the tried and trusted.

SAVAGE

The visual element of the show remains resolutely appealing. The band of warriors, not much evolved from the Savage era, is a great look and actually quite intimidating and scarey. A case of whether or not the sideways grins that Gary often employs should be taken as a warning or approval.

The hits and crowd pleasers remain intact; as he’s shown in recent times with his themed touring, there’s a strong affinity for The Pleasure Principle and Telekon – they can even afford to “fuck up Metal,” and have a laugh about it. Back in the day it might have been a more serious matter. However, we do find ourselves drawn to, and seduced by, the modern day Numan magnificence right up to the selections from Intruder.

Those industrial ambiences that have increasingly flavoured his music from the last couple of decades are the hooks which have seen the curious and the lapsed come back on board. A Prayer For The Unborn is more than worthy of a place alongside the chart toppers and The Gift channels those dangerous grooves that give a new menace to the lieks of In A Dark Place and the thunder of the ever present Metal (that seems to be one of the first names on the team sheet).

For a finale, choose from the sharp and spiky That’s Too Bad and the contemporary take on Tubeway’s My Shadow In Vain and Exile which fit the bill as the deeper cuts, not visited for some time.

PIONEER

Gary Numan says, “ I have been touring my entire adult life, from a nervous, out-of-my-depth, suly young man to something entirely different today.” Back at the dawn of the Eighties as the trend towards electronic music gained traction (with Numan at the fore), the strange sounds might have felt like unwelcome visitations from a uncertain and unpalatable dystopian future. Today, they still retain their mystery yet have evolved into something curiously timeless given their contemporary setting. With the new industrial pioneering, it’s hard to spot the joins between the two worlds which is what makes present day Gary Numan such an exciting proposition.

Here’s just one highlight: