Warriors (Gary Numan album)
Encyclopedia
Warriors is the seventh studio album (and the fifth under his own name) by the British musician Gary Numan
, released in 1983. It was his last studio album released on Beggars Banquet Records
.
in May 1983 to record the album. He had written most of the album's material in late 1982-early 1983, while he was living in Jersey, Channel Islands (after spending a few months in Los Angeles, California
as a Tax exile
). While Numan was working on the early Warriors material, Beggars Banquet suggested that, for the first time during his career, he should use a co-producer instead of producing the album entirely by himself (this was initially suggested by the label for Numan's previous album I, Assassin
, a suggestion Numan refused at the time). Numan was not keen at first, but WEA managing director Mike Heap promised him "a virtually unlimited promotional budget" on the album if he signed up a producer. Numan eventually decided to recruit guitarist Bill Nelson
for the job, as he was an admirer of Nelson's band, Be-Bop Deluxe. Numan claimed that Nelson was his "favourite guitar player, bar none." Unfortunately for Numan, Mike Heap was fired and the record company was no longer willing to cover all the costs for Numan's album. It was stated sometime after the release of the album WEA had, in fact, told Numan that he was reaching sales of 60,000 units, and that was satisfactory to them. Numan later remarked, "When the new people came in, I was as far from a priority act as it was possible to be. I felt as though they'd cut me down at the knees and it was the last time I got excited about a promise in the music business."
Numan later claimed that Warriors pointed the way for his artistic decline throughout the 80s:
(1982), was unable to return for Warriors. At Palladino's suggestion, Numan recruited Joe Hubbard as a replacement. Bill Nelson worked tremendously hard on guitars during the recording of Warriors, giving them more depth than they had been allowed on I, Assassin. Numan asked Dick Morrissey
to be the saxophone player on the album, as he admired his work on the Blade Runner
film score. Numan later described Morrissey as "brilliant, a musical genius. First take, perfect, not a single note wrong." Ultimately, Morrissey would contribute to five Numan albums, from 1983 to 1991. Female backing vocals were also introduced to the Numan sound on Warriors. Tracey Ackerman provided backing vocals on Warriors.
Unfortunately, Numan and Bill Nelson quarrelled during the Warriors recording sessions; both men had different ideas as to how the album should sound, and shared differing philosophies on music in general. Numan later recalled:
The relationship between Numan and Nelson deteriorated to the point that Numan "would go out and play pool" while Nelson worked in the studio. Numan ultimately disliked Nelson's mix of Warriors (finding it "too tinny"), and so he remixed the album and made changes to the track listing: both parts of "My Car Slides" and "Poetry and Power" were relegated to B-side status (their place on the album being taken by other tracks), and "Sister Surprise" and "The Tick Tock Man" were almost completely re-recorded. Nelson asked not to be credited on the final album. Despite Nelson's falling out with Numan, his influence on the finished version of Warriors is still distinct; his dream-like guitar-work added to the album's warm and distinctly jazzy feel. The overall sound of Warriors is epic, dreamy, and energetic, filled with fast rhythms, aggressive guitars and vibrant melodies. The album's song styles range from melodic rock and pop ("Warriors", "Sister Surprise", "This Prison Moon") to heartfelt ballads ("The Iceman Comes", "Love is like Clock Law") and jazzy numbers ("I Am Render", "The Rhythm of the Evening"). Some dubbed the general sound of the album "jazz electro". Numan later conceded that Nelson "did a lot of very inventive things on [Warriors] which, because of our differences, I failed to fully appreciate at the time. To be with him in a room when he was playing guitar was an honour. I would just sit back and listen and all my antagonism would float away."
Numan floated prospective titles for the new album amongst his fanbase. Fans were given the opportunity to vote for one of three potential album titles - This Prison Moon, Poetry and Power, and Glasshouse. Numan ultimately overruled the fans' preference of This Prison Moon and chose Warriors as the album's title. Numan's image for the Warriors album, singles, and live tour (consisting of black leather costume with weapon accessories, set against a post-apocalyptic backdrop) was influenced by the film Mad Max 2 (1981). Many parts of the actual costume came from a sex shop in Soho, London.
Warriors was supported by a 40-date UK tour from September to October 1983 (with support from robotic mime and music duo Tik and Tok
). It was Numan's first live dates in the UK since his Wembley farewell concerts in 1981. Numan's friend and former bassist, Paul Gardiner
, made a surprise onstage appearance (to thunderous fan applause) during a "Warriors" show at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. To date, no live albums or videos from the 1983 tour have been officially released, although the BBC did record the final night at the Hammersmith Odeon, and the 20 October show in Glasgow is believed to have been professionally filmed. Bootleg-quality audio from that Glasgow show has surfaced on YouTube, along with more professional-quality audio from the tour's June 10, 1983 Leicester date.
A remaster
ed version of the Warriors album was released on CD in 2002, with six bonus tracks.
s:
Production:
Gary Numan
Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
, released in 1983. It was his last studio album released on Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet Records
Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...
.
Preproduction
Gary Numan returned to EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in May 1983 to record the album. He had written most of the album's material in late 1982-early 1983, while he was living in Jersey, Channel Islands (after spending a few months in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
as a Tax exile
Tax exile
A tax exile is one who chooses to leave a country with a high tax burden and instead to reside in a foreign nation or jurisdiction which takes a lower portion of earnings. Going into tax exile is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance.-Legal status:...
). While Numan was working on the early Warriors material, Beggars Banquet suggested that, for the first time during his career, he should use a co-producer instead of producing the album entirely by himself (this was initially suggested by the label for Numan's previous album I, Assassin
I, Assassin
I, Assassin is the sixth studio album by Gary Numan. Released in 1982, it reached no.8 on the UK charts.Three songs; "Music for Chameleons", "We Take Mystery " and "White Boys and Heroes" were released as singles from the album and all reached the UK Top 20 I, Assassin is the sixth studio album...
, a suggestion Numan refused at the time). Numan was not keen at first, but WEA managing director Mike Heap promised him "a virtually unlimited promotional budget" on the album if he signed up a producer. Numan eventually decided to recruit guitarist Bill Nelson
Bill Nelson (musician)
Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
for the job, as he was an admirer of Nelson's band, Be-Bop Deluxe. Numan claimed that Nelson was his "favourite guitar player, bar none." Unfortunately for Numan, Mike Heap was fired and the record company was no longer willing to cover all the costs for Numan's album. It was stated sometime after the release of the album WEA had, in fact, told Numan that he was reaching sales of 60,000 units, and that was satisfactory to them. Numan later remarked, "When the new people came in, I was as far from a priority act as it was possible to be. I felt as though they'd cut me down at the knees and it was the last time I got excited about a promise in the music business."
Numan later claimed that Warriors pointed the way for his artistic decline throughout the 80s:
Recording the album
For the recording of the album, Numan retained drummer Cedric Sharpley, keyboardist Chris Payne, and guitarist Rrussell Bell, all of whom had played on Numan's albums and tours since 1979. Pino Palladino, the bassist on Numan's previous album I, AssassinI, Assassin
I, Assassin is the sixth studio album by Gary Numan. Released in 1982, it reached no.8 on the UK charts.Three songs; "Music for Chameleons", "We Take Mystery " and "White Boys and Heroes" were released as singles from the album and all reached the UK Top 20 I, Assassin is the sixth studio album...
(1982), was unable to return for Warriors. At Palladino's suggestion, Numan recruited Joe Hubbard as a replacement. Bill Nelson worked tremendously hard on guitars during the recording of Warriors, giving them more depth than they had been allowed on I, Assassin. Numan asked Dick Morrissey
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
to be the saxophone player on the album, as he admired his work on the Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
film score. Numan later described Morrissey as "brilliant, a musical genius. First take, perfect, not a single note wrong." Ultimately, Morrissey would contribute to five Numan albums, from 1983 to 1991. Female backing vocals were also introduced to the Numan sound on Warriors. Tracey Ackerman provided backing vocals on Warriors.
Unfortunately, Numan and Bill Nelson quarrelled during the Warriors recording sessions; both men had different ideas as to how the album should sound, and shared differing philosophies on music in general. Numan later recalled:
The relationship between Numan and Nelson deteriorated to the point that Numan "would go out and play pool" while Nelson worked in the studio. Numan ultimately disliked Nelson's mix of Warriors (finding it "too tinny"), and so he remixed the album and made changes to the track listing: both parts of "My Car Slides" and "Poetry and Power" were relegated to B-side status (their place on the album being taken by other tracks), and "Sister Surprise" and "The Tick Tock Man" were almost completely re-recorded. Nelson asked not to be credited on the final album. Despite Nelson's falling out with Numan, his influence on the finished version of Warriors is still distinct; his dream-like guitar-work added to the album's warm and distinctly jazzy feel. The overall sound of Warriors is epic, dreamy, and energetic, filled with fast rhythms, aggressive guitars and vibrant melodies. The album's song styles range from melodic rock and pop ("Warriors", "Sister Surprise", "This Prison Moon") to heartfelt ballads ("The Iceman Comes", "Love is like Clock Law") and jazzy numbers ("I Am Render", "The Rhythm of the Evening"). Some dubbed the general sound of the album "jazz electro". Numan later conceded that Nelson "did a lot of very inventive things on [Warriors] which, because of our differences, I failed to fully appreciate at the time. To be with him in a room when he was playing guitar was an honour. I would just sit back and listen and all my antagonism would float away."
Numan floated prospective titles for the new album amongst his fanbase. Fans were given the opportunity to vote for one of three potential album titles - This Prison Moon, Poetry and Power, and Glasshouse. Numan ultimately overruled the fans' preference of This Prison Moon and chose Warriors as the album's title. Numan's image for the Warriors album, singles, and live tour (consisting of black leather costume with weapon accessories, set against a post-apocalyptic backdrop) was influenced by the film Mad Max 2 (1981). Many parts of the actual costume came from a sex shop in Soho, London.
Singles, sales and tour
The title track was released as the first single from the album in August 1983, reaching #20 in the UK charts. Numan later claimed that the single's chart performance was "killed" because it was released as a picture disc, and the week it was released, the chart compilers decided that picture discs were ineligible and didn't count their sales. The single peaked at #12 before the picture disc sales were stripped The album itself was released the following month, reaching number 12 on the UK charts, although four places lower than Numan's previous album, it did eventually sell more than I, Assassin with over 60,000 units worldwide (60% of these sales were in the UK). The album spent six weeks in the charts, and despite its relatively low chart placement, it gathered some of the best reviews Numan has ever had in the UK music press. In October, a shorter, re-recorded version of "Sister Surprise" was released as the second and final single off the album. It charted at #32, making it the lowest-charting Numan solo single up to that point. Due to Numan's dissatisfaction with Beggars Banquet who were now just the middle men between Numan and WEA and other major record companies in general, he decided to form his own record label, Numa Records, in late 1983. Numan released his next three studio albums through Numa Records.Warriors was supported by a 40-date UK tour from September to October 1983 (with support from robotic mime and music duo Tik and Tok
Tik and Tok
Tik and Tok are the robotic mime and music duo of Tim Dry and Sean Crawford. They began performing together with SHOCK: a rock/mime/burlesque/music troupe in the early 1980s with Barbie Wilde, Robert Pereno, L.A. Richards and Carole Caplin....
). It was Numan's first live dates in the UK since his Wembley farewell concerts in 1981. Numan's friend and former bassist, Paul Gardiner
Paul Gardiner
Paul Gardiner was a British musician who played bass guitar with Gary Numan and Tubeway Army as well as material under his own name.-Biography:...
, made a surprise onstage appearance (to thunderous fan applause) during a "Warriors" show at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. To date, no live albums or videos from the 1983 tour have been officially released, although the BBC did record the final night at the Hammersmith Odeon, and the 20 October show in Glasgow is believed to have been professionally filmed. Bootleg-quality audio from that Glasgow show has surfaced on YouTube, along with more professional-quality audio from the tour's June 10, 1983 Leicester date.
A remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed version of the Warriors album was released on CD in 2002, with six bonus tracks.
Track listing
All songs are written by Gary Numan except for "I Am Render", with music by John Webb, and lyrics by Numan.- "WarriorsWarriors (song)"Warriors" is a song by Gary Numan released in 1983 as a 7" and 12" single from his Warriors album. Numan promoted the song on many popular TV shows such as The Saturday Show and Crackajack...
" – 5:50 - "I Am Render" – 4:56
- "The Iceman Comes" – 4:25
- "This Prison Moon" – 3:18
- "My Centurion" – 5:22
- "Sister Surprise" – 8:29
- "The Tick Tock Man" – 4:22
- "Love Is Like Clock Law" – 4:00
- "The Rhythm of the Evening" – 5:54
- The song "I am Render" is based on Roger ZelaznyRoger ZelaznyRoger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
's sci-fi novel The Dream MasterThe Dream MasterThe Dream Master , originally published as a novella titled He Who Shapes, is a science-fiction novel by Roger Zelazny. Zelazny's originally intended title for it was The Ides of Octember...
(the novel's protagonist is Dr. Charles Render). - The song "My Centurion" was inspired by Numan's near-fatal 1982 plane crash.
Bonus tracks on the 2002 reissue
- "Poetry and Power" ("Sister Surprise" B-side) – 4:25
- "My Car Slides (1)" ("Warriors" B-side) – 3:01
- "My Car Slides (2)" ("Warriors" B-side) – 4:42
- "Nameless and Forgotten" – 5:02
- "Sister Surprise" (single version) – 4:52
- "Warriors" (full-length version) – 7:30
- The version of "Poetry and Power" included as a bonus track is longer than the original version from the "Sister Surprise" single. Also, it does not fade out as the B-side version does, due to the remastering process undertaken on the original mastertapes.
- "Nameless and Forgotten", originally titled "Gangster Strut", is a demo recording, featuring elements which were later developed into "Sister Surprise" and "This is New Love" (the latter being a track on the BerserkerBerserker (Gary Numan album)Berserker is the eighth studio album, and sixth under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1984. It was his first album to be released under Numan's own record label, Numa Records.-Overview:...
album). The existence of the track was forgotten by everyone, including Numan, until it was rediscovered during research for the album reissue. The title "Nameless and Forgotten" was suggested by Numan as a fitting one.
Personnel
MusicianMusician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
s:
- Gary NumanGary NumanGary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars". His signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals.Numan is considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music...
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Joe Hubbard – bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Cedric Sharpley – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussion - Bill NelsonBill Nelson (musician)Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
– guitar, keyboards, chorusRefrainA refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
on "Poetry and Power" - Russell Bell – guitar
- Chris Payne – keyboards, violaViolaThe viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
- John Webb – keyboards, percussion
- Dick MorrisseyDick MorrisseyRichard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846... - Tracey AckermanTracey AckermanTracy Ackerman is a British singer and songwriter. She works with several other British songwriters including Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson of Absolute and Mark Taylor....
– backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Terry Martin – keyboards on "The Tick Tock Man"
Production:
- Gary Numan – producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, audio mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Nick Smith – engineer
- Pete Buhlmann – engineer, audio mixing
- John Webb – assistant engineer
- Mark Brown – assistant engineer
- Ray Staff – audio masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- John Dent – audio mastering (remastered version)
- Steve Webbon – CD Layout, additional design
- Steve Malins – sleeve notes
- Patti Burris – make-up