Complete John Peel Sessions

Gary Numan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 26, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cooking Vinyl
• ASIN: B000MRA86W
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,713 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Me I Disconnect From You

2. Down In The Park

3. I Nearly Married A Human

4. Cars

5. Airlane

6. Films

7. Conversation

8. Rip

9. Metal

10. Pure

11. My Jesus

12. Cars

13. Listen To My Voice

14. I Can't Breathe

15. Down In The Park

16. Prayer For The Unborn

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars... outstanding addition to the Gary Numan catalog, May 17, 2008

By 

Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete John Peel Sessions (Audio CD)

Let me state upfront that I have been a Gary Numan fan since the early days (saw him live in London in September, 1979 on his "Pleasure Principle" tour) and when I saw this album the other day at my indie-record store, I immediately grabbed it.

"The Complete John Peele Sessions" (16 tracks, 77 min.) is in reality 2 mini albums thrown together. Tracks 1-7 are from 2 Peele sessions in 1979, highlighting tracks from the "Replicas" and "Pleasure Principles" albums. The sound is a little thin at times, and this apparently was taped strictly in-studio (of the BBC). The main attraction of those tracks is "Cars", which shows up in an early form (before it was released), and a bit funkier than the ultimate smash hit it would become. The last 9 tracks are from an early 2001 taping, this time with a small audience in the studio (oh, how to have been there!), where Gary Numan showcases 6 tracks from the then-recently released outstanding "Pure" album, plus 3 older classic tracks, and those are a treat to behold: slightly remade, goth-ified if you will, versions of "Metal" (just outstanding), "Cars" and "Down In the Park". But the "Pure" tracks shine just as much.

In all, this is an outstanding addition to the Gary Numan catalogue. After the 2000 album "Pure"., which was Numan's brilliant come-back album, he has faltered a bit on subsequent releases. I had the good fortune of catching Numan on his most recent US tour in 2006 here in Cincinnati, and he put on a brilliant show. Wish he would tour the US again sometime soon. Meanwhile, "The Complete John Peele Sessions" is a must for any serious Numan fan, highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nothing more than...another great Peel disc, March 9, 2008

By 

N. P. Stathoulopoulos "nick9155" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete John Peel Sessions (Audio CD)

Yet another excellent John Peel disc, this one collects the previously released tracks from 1979, and adds Numan's BBC appearances from 20+ years later as he performs material from the Jagged album.

As usual, excellent sound, and complete live takes in studio quality. Highly recommended for Numan fans, the older tracks sound better than the previous BBC disc, so crisp and clean you hear the keys of the synths being pressed during Conversation.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some great material, some stuff that didn't deserve a CD release, January 21, 2009

By 

Said Head (MN, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete John Peel Sessions (Audio CD)

John Peel has allowed three of my all-time favorite musicians (David Bowie, Gary Numan, and Wire) to unleash their holy goodness better than any other radio host, and what's even greater is getting these recordings on CD. This new release features all 3 periods of his John Peel sessions, two from 1979 and the other more lengthy one in 2001.

The first two sessions, both used mostly to promote the young musician's music; the performances are slightly rawer than the studio recordings (in the first track you can hear Numan pounding heavily on they keyboard), and other little pieces that make the first 7 tracks very valuable for the Numan fan. The performances of I Nearly Married A Human, Down In The Park, and especially Films are my personal favorites.

and then there's the final session, 22 years later. This performance is in front of a live audience, so naturally there's a lot of background noise, which for me is a huge turn-off, and the reason why I don't any other live albums. And while back in '79 the band comprised of just a few members playing all the instruments, this session has a lot of pre-recorded material, with the band, even Numan's vocals, attempting to sound EXACTLY like you hear on the studio recordings. Even the performances of Metal and Down In The Park use the same instrumentation from the '97 versions. It literally sounds like someone's blaring Numan during a party of big Numan fans. The only track really worth hearing from this session is the interpretation of Cars, a heavy industrial take. Still, it doesn't totally redeem the entire 9 song set.

Normally I'd have given this only three stars for the last half of the compilation but the liner notes are really great and focus on individual tracks and the history of the John Peel sessions, which really saves this release for me.

I wouldn't consider this a necessity unless you're also into live recordings, and if you already have the early Cd release of the '79 recordings you'd probably save yourself some money by leaving this one alone. I personally bought this on an impulse when I first learned of its existence, but the price has dropped substantially since then so it might be a better bargain now.