Customer Reviews

Living Ornaments 79

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The reason this is the ultimate Gary Numan DC for me, is because I was at the concert: September 28, 1979, Hammersmith Odeon, London. I was a 19 yr. old kid then, hanging out in London for a few days with my best friend, as we did every year because London was the ultimate for us then. We couldn't believe our luck when we saw Gary Numan was playing the famed Hammersmith Odeon. We decided to check it out, of course it was sold out, but we managed to scalp to 2 tickets in the nose-bleed scetion. We didn't care. We were there! (Incidentally, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was the opener, before they hit it big.)

When Numan hit the stage, we saw a never-to-be-forgotten stage spectacle (check out the CD cover pic to get an idea). Bombastic was the word! Numan was at the peak of his popularity, touring behind "The Pleasure Principle" that hit Number 1 in England.

I had the "Living Ornaments 79" album on vinyl, and it's amazing to me it's still around after all these years, and available on CD. (Beware, stay away from the companion album "Living Ornaments 81" which is compared to this a mediocre live album.) All the fans' choice cuts are here in their glory: "Cars" of course (which I've always found to be one of the weakest tracks on "The Pleasure Principle"), the sweeping "Conversation", as well as "Are 'Friends' Electric?"and many others. The best tracks, however, are "Bombers" and the cover "On Broadway" which Numan reworks after the familiar lines and truly soars.

It's been 22 years, but Numan's music as captured on this CD has aged very well. If you like Numan, you'll find him at his peak here. Buy it!

Living Ornaments is an amazing recording. It's good to see Beggar's Banquet has reissued the entire concert.
This was Gary Numan's first tour and he wanted to make a big impression and he succeeded, musically and visually. Numan certainly proved the synthesizer was an incredibly powerful instrument if desired. I can easily imagine the floor of the Hammersmith Odeon vibrating to the opening notes of 'Conversation', 'M.E.' and of course 'Down In The Park'. The band play brilliantly. Drummer Cedric Sharpley and bassist Paul Gardiner made a great rhythm section. A good deal of the songs feature the signature synthesizer solos from Ultravox member Billy Currie who toured with Numan on the European half of the tour. One of the best synth solos I've ever heard is on the song On Broadway (the old R&B classic). Even though Numan's voice was emotionless on his studio albums, one can detect a bit more emotion in the vocals on Living Ornaments.
The visual impression Numan made you can get an idea from the cd cover. Two keyboard players on platforms, 20 foot high pillars of lights that looked as they were rotating and a huge pyramid of light over the drummer. The concert was filmed and released on video under the name Living Principle. It would be great if Beggars Banquet were to rerelease the concert video on DVD. There are bootleg versions available and well worth seeking out.

The Living Ornaments double-disc releases are invaluable documents of Numan's early live days. This is the first one, covering a full 1979 show in London, and is an expanded edition of the original vinyl release.

First off, the quality on all three releases is excellent---79, 80, and 81. They each differ a bit, but as official live recordings they absolutely hold up and benefit from the remastering. My favorite sound would have to be the first show from the '80 version---a the mix is perfect, the sound crystal clear.

This was recorded during The Touring Principle and features tracks from the Tubeway Army album, Replicas, and The Pleasure Principle along with a few Telekon tracks snuck in as preview material. The sound is excellent: crisp, clear, with an even mix. Still very early in his career (even with two #1 hits) Numan kept the songs close to the album versions (the subsequent Living Ornaments releases feature more elaborate production for the tracks so there is a clear progression in style from the `79 to `81 releases). The trademark keyboards are fantastic--the sound holds up today far, far better than so many keyboard-driven bands that would appear in the coming decade. Numan, perhaps accidentally, really hit upon how to make good rock without up-front electric guitars. By putting the keyboards through guitar pedals, he created a unique, futuristic, and versatile group of sounds. The whole sci-fi / Phillip K. Dick-inspired material is set against a rich, unique sonic landscape. Conversation, in particular, rolls along at seven minutes without ever dragging, while shorter songs like Me! I Disconnect From You are like being stuck in a catchy, early Atari game with Kraftwerk attire, to use a trite music-review device...

For the Numan fan, all of the Living Ornaments releases are real gems and well worth buying. Fans of any artist would be lucky to get a slew of such releases. This version is one complete show, beginning to end, while 80 features parts of two shows and 81 again captures a complete show. Sound-wise, it's fantastic, hands down, rivaled only by the first portion of 80. Also, as imports, I have no idea how long these will be available or how accessible they will continue to be in the US. This is an artist who's been perfecting and mastering the live format for decades. Sadly, despite nearly 20 albums and a live album for most tours, he's still only known for `Cars'. Ridiculous.

About fourteen years ago, I was stunned and amazed to find the "Living Ornaments '79 and '80" collection in a vinyl box set. I had no idea that it even existed, but snapped it up immediately. It was totally awesome! I saw both of the tours when they came through Boston on 23 Feb. and 17 Oct. 1980, and they were both unforgettable. Today, I have to admit that I didn't know the CD existed, either, and have only now stumbled across it and the reviews. I don't have it yet, but am ordering it even as you read this. I would pay GOOD money to get a DVD of THESE Gary Numan tours, but again do not know if such a thing exists!

I do not have words to describe just how important this album is. This is the first electronic album I bought, (my parents bought the JM Jarre albums before). I bought it second hand for 8 pounds, why is it 25 pounds on the site? I first heard the song Cars, in a Carling commercial for the NBC channel in Britain. I was watching NBC about 8 - 9 years ago? on a Sunday, and BAM! You hear this loud breathing synth sweep pad, and then the drums roll in, and the synths and guitars start playing. (Gary doesn't sing). I said whats this, this is amazing!. It took me another 6 years to find out what the song was called and who it was, via top of the pops 2. When I saw him, I said this is it I must buy this. I went to Reckless records in London, and asked if they had anything by Gary Numan, they had 2 CDs, I naturally chose the one with Cars, that was the only one I knew, and the only one I thought I would like. I was wrong, I got back home and quickly put it on, I could feel the energy of Gary as this was a live Album recorded in London. Most songs on this CD were very good, and I first discovered the combination of violin and synths via Billy Curry (Ultravox). ( this influenced me to use a synth violin for Moonlight on my album Kulture). This album is basically the live version of Replicas and The Pleasure Principal. But its amazing, I bought another 2 of his albums, and from there I discovered John Foxx, The Human League, Ultravox, Visage and many more.

As with any other music, post punk over time got watered down. The "new romantic" sound from Bowie to Roxy Music had a subversive, edgy, gender bender quality that was only enhanced by the synth punk of early Ultravox! which was lost in the radio friendly decidely straight songs of groups like the Cars. However, before the wash out,Gary Numan picked up on the burgeoning new romantic, glam punk music and added synths to the sound of his band Tubeway Army with great success. As he became a known name and a solo artist with his release of "The Pleasure Principle", he decided to tour and "Living Ornaments '79" is a perfect snapshot of this. By the time, Gary Numan was a solo artist, his sound was more "clean" and not the same as Tubeway Army (there is a full concert on the end of the album "Tubeway Army" but its from when the band was still a typical punk group, there was no "Replicas" tour but a few tracks are available on "The BBC Sessions" and a video of "Are Friends Electric?" on one of the official "Old Grey Whistle Test Compilations" but no more than that)but live there is still a certain post punk edginess retained that would soon be lost and plenty of tracks from the Tubeway Army years that compliment his newer songs. This is a classic live performance overall and "The Touring Principle", I don't believe is a bootleg. A long while back, it was officially available on VHS and there is no reason not to release the full video of this concert (though its a bit tedious, he's standing in front of a monolithic cube the whole time). Worth it to hear Gary Numan before he was undersold as the one hit wonder behind the song "Cars".

And Gary's first.The songs are welcome variations to those of the studio versions.Richer in texture and less agressive,especially on the guitar parts,maybe approaching the style of the album they were presenting at the time ¨PLEASURE PRINCIPLE¨.This was a bit of a letdown to my punk and heavy metal mentality,used as I am to live versions being faster and rawer,but this is another kind of music and I take it at face value,and it's EXCELLENT.Even ¨Bombers ¨is presented with nice arabian synth licks.The sound is incredibly dinamic,very bass heavy,and the Sharpley/Gardiner rhyhtm section is up front in the mix all along the 85'+.It's a bit synth-weak as I'd heard before I bought the record,but as good as live recordings got by late 70's.

For Numan fans looking for "Living Ornaments 79/80 you're halfway there.The double cd has the complete 79 show with tracks not found on the original LP.Sadly this set does not have the 80 show(see track list).Still a must for the Numan fan(especially early GN).Hopefully someone will release the 80 show as well done as this.

Well it doesn't get much better than this as far as "concert" discs go. How successfully the synthetics meshed live with the other standard instruments (guitar(s), acoustic drum set, etc.) is truly amazing. The sound quality is good also. You get the full show from 9/28/79 at the Odeon in London on two discs.

While not traditionally accepted as one of the best vocalists of history Numan mananages too sound even better live and of course his other skills are on full display here too. This is Gary Numan in his prime. I admit as a keyboardist myself and a lover of electronic influence in music I have a certain biased attitude but anyone who likes New Wave music should consider this investment. Numan and only a couple of others in the mid-late 1970s were key figures in developing the mechanistic sound electronic pop music was heading towards and ultimately became in the 1980s. It is perplexing to understand why this is not available in the U.S.

gary numan has over the years made a lot of good live albums and this is an exellent one. This was gary`s first ever tour in the u.k and he gave them a spectacular stage performance with robot pyramids on the stage including two pannels at the sides wich were enormous and there was neon tubes in the middle of the stage this looks very cool.This is the best cd you can ever get from gary numan it is all classic!!!