For this interview special, it’s with a bonafide music legend: Bill Sharpe.

Bill Sharpe is a classically trained pianist and jazz rock musician, who once worked alongside John Peel at the BBC and Trevor Horn in an early band. In 1980, he co-founded the band Shakatak, who scored many big hits around the world with their brand of post-disco jazz-funk.

In 1985, he teamed up with Gary Numan on what was meant to be a one-off single, but later turned into several songs, and a whole album - with 1989’s Automatic. He is a prolific songwriter and musician, who has collaborated with many other stars over the years, and is still performing with Shakatak today.

In the episode, Bill discusses:

• How he came to work with Gary Numan and their writing processes
• The unreleased demos he made with Gary after Automatic - could they ever be released?
• How Shakatak came about
• His friendship with John Peel

Clips used:

• Shakatak - Steppin'
• Shakatak - Easier Said than Done (TOTP)
• Sharpe & Numan - Change Your Mind
• Sharpe & Numan - New Thing from London Town
• Sharpe & Numan - No More Lies
• Shakatak - Nightbirds (TOTP)

Please get in touch on YouTube, X, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, or email at numanpodcast@gmail.com.

"I don't suppose you ever laughed at me"

For this episode of Electric Friends, I look back at Gary Numan's 1985 album The Fury, and in particular its lead single 'Your Fascination'.

Including:

• How Gary continued his funk/industrial style from Berserker
• How radio continued to ignore him despite being a funky banger
• How he turned to co-producers and took on a new songwriting technique for the album
• Its music video co-starring his then-girlfriend
• Theories to what the song is about

Clips used:

• Gary Numan - Your Fascination
• Gary Numan - Miracles
• Gary Numan - Tricks
• Retrosound - PPG Wave Soundscapes II
• Gary Numan - Revolution (audiobook)

Please get in touch on YouTube, X, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, or email at numanpodcast@gmail.com.

"We're in the building where they make us grow, and I'm frightened by the liquid engineers, like you."

For this episode, I look back at one of Gary Numan's best-known and best-loved songs, 'Metal', from 1979's The Pleasure Principle.

The track was the first song on the album with lyrics, and was inspired by the writings of Philip K Dick, about a machine with a desire to be human.

The perfect synthpop track was never a single, but it became one of Gary Numan's most-performed songs, and was later covered and sampled by a number of artists, most notably by Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails.

The episode looks at:

• What 'Metal' is all about
• Its somewhat forgotten music video
• Why it was never released as a single
• The various live versions
• When Gary performed it with Nine Inch Nails in 2009

Clips used:

• Gary Numan - Metal
• The Beach Boys - Do It Again
• Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1979)
• Gary Numan - Metal (live, 1986)
• Gary Numan - Metal (live, 2018)
• Gary Numan - Metal 98
• Gary Numan - Moral
• Gary Numan - Revolution (audiobook)
• Tubeway Army - The Crazies
• Tubeway Army - We Have a Technical
• Nine Inch Nails - Metal
• Nine Inch Nails - Metal (live, 2009)
• Planet Funk - Who Said
• Afrika Bambaataa - Metal
• Nouvelle Vague - Metal
• Poppy - Metal

Please get in touch on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, or email at numanpodcast@gmail.com.