@@VincentRE79 He wrote mosty his own songs since the 60's when I first met him. He liked a lot of different music although he played a harder sort all the time I knew him. I think a lot of his harder songs nodden towards punk in some ways.
Great song, remember the advert. I prefer the john Du Can version better Gary Numan's vocals. And that is McCoy who played bass for the Ian Gillan Band. However, you wanna check out the stuff John Du Can did with late sixties band Andromeda. Fantastic rock of it's kind the best he ever did.
Have to disagree with you here. Gary did a much better job than John Du Cann. This version sounds just like any other rock song, Gary's vocals made it sound unworldly.
I love this, although I preferred the Gary Numan cover version that was done for the iconic Lee Cooper Jeans ad - which in78 turned Lee Coopers jeans into the 'jeans de jour' for every post-punk kid in Britain!
Considering Numan did the ad version, along with Arista not actually releasing the Du Cann album until 1992, I'm sure you would prefer the more known take. The song was enough to get Du Cann on TOTP, but Arista didn't release the album for 13 more years! I think it would of stood tall next to the zany punk/new wave albums Iggy Pop recorded for Arista from 79-81. It definitely made zero sense to release it during the year of grunge! They really screwed Du Cann on that one
@Stonesy Lad Er, yes! Don't Be A Dummy' was oringinally a TV advert Gary Numan (of the then unknown Tubeway Army) recorded in late 78/early 79 for Lee Cooper Jeans which was screened in mid 1979. It was done on the back of someone from the ad agency hearing the first Tubeway Army album. After Numan became famous, the people behind the advert asked him if he would record a longer version to put out as a single. He refused although a single was put out but with John Du Cann doing the vocals.
Gotta wonder why Arista shelved this album for 15 years. Recorded in 1977, not released until 1992, this album was a great attempt by a dreaded prog rock dinosaur to merge the spacey dynamics of early 70s prog with the attitude, sarcasm, and raw simplicity of late 70s punk, a stroke of early new wave/post punk. Wouldn't it have made sense to release in 77? Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, etc.... Ironically enough Arista would give Iggy a 3 record deal just two years after putting this album into coma status. Iggy Pop released New Values for Arista in 1979 and it was a similar blend of 70s synth rock, punk, and thoughtful pop rock. Iggy stayed with Arista through 1981, but still they totally ignored Du Cann solo album until 1992. For some perplexing reasoning that I can't understand, Arista decided to release the Du Cann album during the grunge explosion. This clever piece of late 70s period punk/garage rock couldn't have possibly faired better next to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden than it would have among the DYI punk revolution in 1977. It's much closer to the infectious ,snappy, up yours sound of the Pistols, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Buzzcocks, etc, than it is to the fuzzy riffing and the self loathing male angst of grunge.
HAHA!!!!, Look at the totally disinterested audience, they look like they have been dragged in off the street and wondering why they are there. Great song, shame the audience aren't impressed.
Dreadfull! Cheesey! Tacky! ......but I sort of quite like it! And what brand of jeans is that keyboard player wearing? - they don't look like...Brutus!
