Gary Numan – Live Review – The Piece Hall, Halifax
By David Schuster, August 2026
The expansive stage of the Halifax Piece Hall was the perfect setting for Gary Numan tonight. The setting drew a truly dynamic performance from the entire band. Shaven headed and black-leather clad, guitarist Steve Harris and bassist Tim Slade strode about making strange, esoteric gestures, acolytes of a post-apocalyptic messiah.
At the heart of the maelstrom is the frontman, twisting, gyrating and gesticulating, the entranced crowd echoing his movements. The singer-songwriter has adopted a number of stage personas through his career, but the current gothic-industrial image is his most enduring.
“Magic”
They opened with ‘Halo’ which, with its slow portentous drum beat, dark and heavy atmospherics and discordant notes, perfectly summarised the tone of the whole show. It’s a production that provides a glimpse into a world ravaged by some unknown force; war, famine, pestilence, take your pick. But then there’s also hope of escape, fragile and fleeting offered by the music. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them playing in the background of a shattered stadium in the TV series Fallout.
The opening track, from 2006, segues seamlessly into a run of numbers which illustrate just how enduring an artist Numan is. Next up are ‘M.E.’, from his debut solo album, way back in 1979, ‘I Am Dust’ from 2013’s Splinter and ‘Me! I Disconnect From You’, also from 1979, penned just before he left the group Tubeway Army.
The magic is that these don’t sound like a bunch of random songs separated by more than 30 years, the flow together into a narrative that spans the entire evening.
“Full light show”
I last saw Gary on his Telekon tour in Leeds last year, at a venue of about half the capacity of Halifax and, whilst it was a great gig, it didn’t have the epic proportions of tonight’s performance. The band have wheeled out the full light show. At the rear of the stage are five towers of horizontal light bars, linked by swags of rope lights. By blinking and flashing, these can create all sorts of effects from swarms of fireflies flitting across the night sky, to distant oil refineries burning on the horizon.
As you’d expect, there’s also a multitude of spotlights in gorgeous and unexpected hues, hornet yellow, intense blue, acid green and demonic red. The lights are bright enough to illuminate the immense gothic spire of The Square Chapel, so that it seems to pulse with the beat of the music.
Kudos is due to the sound crew at The Piece Hall, the music is very loud, averaging 97db (my position adjacent to the mixing booth allowed me to glimpse the digital noise monitor, and I’m geeky enough to be interested in that stuff), but crystal clear. It’s a tribute to their skill that there’s no confusing reverberation from the three stone galleries that surround the venue.
“Industrial rock tracks”
I’ve talked before about the electronic music pioneer’s mastery of stage-craft and the pacing of gigs, and tonight was no exception. The veteran musician is now mature enough to include a fair selection of past hits and crowd-pleasers into the set-list, so we are treated to ‘Down In The Park’, ‘My Name Is Ruin’ and ‘Cars’. But for me, tonight was about the darker, industrial rock tracks, of which ‘Ghost Nation’ was a highlight.
It’s got the perfect heavy bassline over a tapped cymbal rhythm, leading into a cinematic chorus of epic guitar chords. Following this there’s a run of superb songs, ‘RIP’ with Harris’ twisted guitar solo, ‘The Chosen’ and it’s Arabic inspired keyboard riff, and culminating in the infectious ‘I Die: You Die’, which closes the main set.
“Fantastic haunting moment”
After an admirably brief departure from the stage (the curfew time of 10:30 is fast approaching) the musicians return to the stage for a two track encore featuring ‘Love Hurt Bleed’, from Splinter and finishing triumphantly with ‘Are “Friends” Electric?’.
There’s a fantastic haunting moment at the very end, where the singer, haloed by a multitude of tiny white spotlights, delivers the spoken lyrics; “So it’s time to leave you see, it meant everything to me”.
Numan is naturally reserved, and person of few words on stage, so when he quietly adds, “It really f***ing was!”, you know it was an equally special evening for him too.
Images: Cuffe and Taylor
David Schuster describes himself as an “adventurer, collector, musician and writer. Not necessarily in that order.” Growing up west of the Pennine hills of the UK and living his adult life east of them, he’s inclined to think that the Wars of the Roses were a mistake. David loves discovering new bands and musicians and is happiest listening to live music. He has travelled extensively in the UK and is fascinated by the variety, history and landscapes of the thousands of islands that comprise the British Isles. David is always reassured when online shops confirm that he’s not a robot.
