Gary Numan - Films explained | Electric Friends Podcast

First released: December 29, 2022
Revisiting one of #GaryNuman's most influential tracks, which featured on his seminal The Pleasure Principle album.
Containing an excellent drum break by Cedric Sharpley and bass from Paul Gardiner, the synth-heavy 'Films' was a hugely influential song in the early days of hip-hop.
This episode looks at how the song was used in New York block parties, who has sampled it over the years and why it's still one of Gary's very best songs.
Clips used:
Gary Numan - 'Films'
The Fatback Band - 'King Tim III'
The Sugarhill Gang - 'Rapper's Delight'
Visage - 'Fade to Grey'
Gary Numan - 'Engineers'
GZA - 'Life is a Movie'
Prince Rakeem - 'Deadly Venoms'
Esh the Monolith - 'Self Centred Youniverse'
Royal Flush - 'Watch Out the Plant'
Underdog - 'Films'
Gary Numan - (R)Evolution (audiobook)
Gary Numan - 'Films' (live 1981)

[@helentrove620]

Cedric was amazing & such a sad loss, I can hardly imagine how it affected Gary & fellow band members (And of course his family) R.I.P Dear Cedric ❤xx

[@robertthrossell4321]

Seeing Gary in Sheffield for the 45th Anniversary tour 😊

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

But didn't he retire from touring in 1981?

[@lancegfoin9117]

@@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx You joke, yes?!

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

@@lancegfoin9117 Oh yes.

[@markf.3617]

I bought the TPP album when I was 13 because of Cars....and hated it! It stayed in my album collection for a few years, unplayed until one day I listened to it again and LOVED IT!! Something about the sparse synths like Speak & Spell and Dare, just really pleases my ear.
I'm 57 now and still listen to it on Spotify when making that dreary journey on train to work.

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

TPP is a Marmite album, certainly, as it is quite extreme in its individualistic sound. I adored it in 1979 and I still do, although I'm aware it's imperfect: using the same synth sounds for pretty much every track is a Numan quirk that we can hear on many albums. Not the same sounds across albums but within each one. But he chose some good sounds to (over) use on The Pleasure Principle, with the Polymoog's 'Vox Humana' preset being imitated by many synthesists to the present day.

[@lancegfoin9117]

@@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx TPP is simply sublime. The fact that it uses Vox Humana throughout is why it is arguably the best Numan album of all time. Gary, Paul, Chris and Cedric built the foundation for some knockout pieces (Films, Metal, Conversation) and this "band" setup is what his recordings miss nowadays... and not forgetting Billy's input, of course.

[@HomelandConspiracy]

Films was the 1st song I heard from GN & it changed me.