The final studio album of what Numan retrospectively termed the " Machine " section of his career, Telekon reintroduced guitars to Numan's music and featured a wider range of synthesisers.

However, even Numan considers his 1992 Machine + Soul, a misguided attempt at a purely commercial release recorded solely to pay off debts, a career low point.

Numan then went on to play two songs with Nine Inch Nails ; " Cars " and " Metal ".

When Arthur Numan went off to Rangers at the end of the 1999 – 00 season, Bouma was moved to left-back where he had to compete with Danish international Jan Heintze.

He kept his profile high through regular appearances presenting Top of the Pops, and championed many acts who went on to achieve huge commercial success, notably The Police and Gary Numan.

By 1994, Numan decided to stop attempting to crack the pop market and concentrate instead on exploring more personal themes, including his vocal atheism.

Numan stated " think of Jagged and Pure, but faster, with bigger choruses, more energy, and more aggression " to describe the album's intended sound.

Some of the more notable artists appearing on Hyacinths and Thistles are Bob Mould, Sally Timms ( The Mekons ), Sarah Cracknell ( Saint Etienne ), Neil Hannon ( The Divine Comedy ), Gary Numan, Marc Almond, Momus, Clare Grogan ( Altered Images ), Melanie, Miss Lily Banquette ( Combustible Edison ), Katharine Whalen ( Squirrel Nut Zippers ) and the accomplished toy piano player Margaret Leng Tan.

Musically, the new song was somewhat lighter and more pop-oriented than its predecessors, Numan later conceding that he had chart success in mind: " This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ' maybe it could be a hit single '; I was writing this before ' Are " Friends " Electric?

Gary Numan and his producer / keyboard player Ade Fenton, also released a hit remix of Mandy Kane's song 25 Seconds, introducing a heavier and more synth aspect to it.

The album veered from extremely skewed pop to more mainstream numbers, such as " Order for Order ", which was compared by some to Gary Numan.

Numan contributed vocals to four tracks on the April 2007 release of Fenton's debut solo album Artificial Perfect on his new industrial / electronic label Submission, including songs " The Leather Sea ", " Slide Away ", " Recall " and the first single to be taken from the album, " Healing ".

* As a result of a quarrel between Numan III, the Lakhmid ruler, and the Persian Chosroes, the Persian border with Arabia is no longer guarded.

A few months later Numan found success in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with " Cars ", which peaked at No. 1 in the UK in 1979 and No. 1 in Canada and No. 9 in US in 1980.

The Pleasure Principle was a rock album with no guitars ; instead, Numan used synthesisers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a distorted, phased, metallic tone.

While angry like his punk contemporaries, Numan suppressed his anger and " got really hung up with this whole thing of not feeling, being cold about everything, not letting emotions get to you, or presenting a front of not feeling ".

During this period, Numan generated an army of fans calling themselves " Numanoids ", providing him with a fanbase which maintained their support through the latter half of the 1980s, when his fortunes began to fall precipitously.

In 1980 Numan topped the album charts with Telekon, with the concurrent singles " We Are Glass ", " I Die: You Die " and " This Wreckage " reaching No. 5, No. 6 and No. 20, respectively.

Moving away from the pure electro-pop that he had made his name with, Numan then experimented with jazz, funk and ethereal, rhythmic pop.

Numan supported the album with a concert tour in America in late 1982 ( where he was living as a tax exile ), which were his first series of live shows since his farewell at Wembley.

Warriors ( 1983 ) further developed Numan's jazz-influenced style and featured contributions from avant-garde musician Bill Nelson ( who fell out with Numan during recording and chose to be uncredited as the album's co-producer ) and saxophonist Dick Morrissey ( who would play on most of Numan's albums until 1991 ).

Warriors was the last album Numan recorded for Beggars Banquet Records, and was supported by a 40-date UK tour ( again with support from robotic mime and music duo Tik and Tok ) – Numan's first live tour in the UK since his Wembley appearances in 1981.

Numan signed to IRS Records and his final studio album of the 1980s, the edgy, industrial-funk Metal Rhythm ( 1988 ) found favour with fans and scored some positive reviews in the UK music press, but it sold poorly despite two hit singles.

In 1991, Numan ventured into film-scoring by co-composing the music for The Unborn with Michael R. Smith ( the score was later released as an instrumental album in 1995, Human ).

After Outland ( 1991 ), another critical and commercial disappointment and his second and last studio album with IRS, Numan reactivated Numa Records, under which he would release his next two albums.

Numan has become acknowledged and respected by his peers, with such musicians as Dave Grohl ( of Foo Fighters and Nirvana ), Trent Reznor ( of Nine Inch Nails ), and Marilyn Manson proclaiming his work an influence and recording cover versions of old Numan hits.

Nine Inch Nails covered the song " Metal " on The Fragile remix album Things Falling Apart as did Afrika Bambaataa ( with Numan himself ) on the album Dark Matter Moving at the Speed of Light.

In 2002, Numan enjoyed chart success once again with the single " Rip ", reaching No. 29 in the UK chart and in 2003 with the Gary Numan vs Rico single " Crazier ", which reached No. 13 in the UK chart.

In late 2006, Numan announced on his website that recording would begin on his new album in January 2007, with Ade Fenton co-producing.

* " Tracks ", a song by Gary Numan on his album The Pleasure Principle

Gary Numan ( born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958 ) is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits " Are ' Friends ' Electric?

According to Numan, this was an unintentional result of acne ; before an appearance on Top of the Pops, he had " spots everywhere, so they slapped about half an inch of white makeup on me before I'd even walked in the door.

Now battling against the increasing public perception that he was a spent force, Numan issued a series of albums and singles on his own record label, Numa.

2003 also saw Numan performing the vocals on a track named " Pray For You " on the Plump DJs album Eargasm, which was well received.

Numan also launched a Jagged website to showcase the new album, and made plans to have his 1981 farewell concert ( previously released as Micromusic on VHS ) issued on DVD by November 2006 as well as releasing the DVD version of the Jagged album launch gig.

Numan did win on the overall leaderboard, though he lost the final race to AC / DC lead singer Brian Johnson.

In November 2007, Numan confirmed via his website that work on a new album, with the working title of Splinter, would be under way throughout 2008, after finishing an alternate version of Jagged ( called Jagged Edge ) and the CD of unreleased songs from his previous three albums ( confirmed to be titled Dead Son Rising on 1 December 2008 via official mailing list message ).

Before coming on stage, Trent Reznor explained how Numan was " vitally important and a huge inspiration " to him during the past 20 years.

On 2 September 2009 at the Hollywood Palladium, Numan joined Reznor on stage to perform " Metal " and " Cars " near the end of the Nine Inch Nails set.

With his former backing band, Chris John Payne ( Keyboards, Viola ) Russell Bell ( Guitar ) and Ced Sharpley ( Drums ) now reformed as Dramatis, Numan contributed vocals to the minor hit " Love Needs No Disguise " from the album For Future Reference.

The album was also accompanied by a striking blue-and-white visual image, a tour, a live album / video and produced two hit singles, but it divided critics and fans and commercially was Numan ’ s least successful release to that date.

To date, The Fury is the last Numan album to crack the British Top 30.

1989 saw the release of the Sharpe + Numan album Automatic.

Sacrifice was the last album Numan made before shutting down Numa Records permanently.

Fear Factory produced a cover of " Cars " ( featuring a prominent guest appearance by Numan himself ) for the digipak version of their album Obsolete.