Known for groundbreaking hits like ‘Cars’ and ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’, Numan remains one of Britain’s most distinctive and continually evolving performers, blending electronic innovation with dark, cinematic atmospheres. His Crystal Palace Bowl date will bring that vision to a large-scale outdoor setting, set against the backdrop of one of London’s most historic music venues.

Over the past decade, Numan has redefined his live presence with meticulously designed shows that combine striking visuals, industrial rhythms and emotional performances. This Palace Bowl appearance is expected to push that ambition further, pairing his signature production style with the dramatic setting of the Bowl. While full production details are yet to be revealed, the concert is anticipated to feature an extended setlist spanning his early synth classics, cult fan favourites and newer material from his post‑2010 renaissance.

Support on the day will come from Marc Almond, performing the songs of Soft Cell and solo hits, plus Ladytron, underlining the event’s focus on synth‑driven, left‑field pop and electronic innovation. For long‑time followers, the scale and setting of this show carry special resonance: more than 45 years after his landmark 1979 Wembley Arena concerts helped prove that electronic music could fill major venues, Numan’s return to London on this scale reaffirms both his enduring influence and his ability to command a crowd through pure creative energy.

Even in his late career, Numan’s cultural presence has remained strong, with his influence openly cited by artists ranging from Nine Inch Nails and Foo Fighters to The Weeknd and Lady Gaga. His sound, merging alienated lyricism, synth‑driven minimalism and heavy industrial undertones, has helped shape the blueprint for electronic rock and dark pop across four decades, making a summer night under the open sky feel like the perfect setting for his music.

As anticipation builds, the performance promises to be both a celebration and a statement, a night where nostalgia meets futurism in true Numan style, whether he is revisiting the icy pulse of his early synth‑pop or the towering, cinematic soundscapes of his more recent albums.

Tickets for Gary Numan at Crystal Palace Bowl go on general sale on Friday, February 20, at 10 a.m. Fans are encouraged to secure tickets early, with demand expected to be high for what is already shaping up to be one of summer 2026’s standout London shows.

You can buy tickets here.

The British musician will perform the entire ‘Telekon’ album alongside a selection of hits and rare tracks during his UK tour this November. These shows will follow closely after Numan’s U.S. tour in September and October, where he’ll be both headlining and supporting The Psychedelic Furs.

With his distinctive sound characterised by powerful synthesisers, guitar effects pedals and sci-fi influences, Gary Numan is regarded as a pioneer of electronic music, best known for the hit singles ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ and ‘Cars’. Released in 1980, ‘Telekon’ was Numan’s second solo album after his departure from new wave band Tubeway Army, and went straight to number 1 on the UK albums chart.

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Despite releasing 22 studio albums and 29 live albums over his decades-long career, ‘Telekon’ explores Numan’s desire to retire from touring and his withdrawal from the industry. In a 2015 interview with Record Collector, Numan discussed his mindset at the time, and the meaning behind some of the tracks on the record, saying: “When it came to the singles from ‘Telekon’, the first one was ‘We Are Glass’, which is about how fragile the whole fame thing is, how easily it can be destroyed, shattered and taken away from you. You’re easily broken and all that shit. The second single was ‘I Die: You Die’, which was my reaction to the press, which may have seemed childish, but that’s what I felt. Then the one after that was ‘This Wreckage’, which says it all really. So with ‘Telekon’, in my own way I was saying very loudly that this is not what I expected and I don’t like it. I’m off! There’s a song on there called ‘Please Push No More’. I wrote that knowing that I was going to pack it in.”

He adds: “A few years later, I’d become hugely famous and I just wanted to go back to writing songs and being a musician, not a famous person. So that was the reason for getting out of it, or so I thought, with the Wembley shows and the whole thing about retiring.”

The news of Gary Numan’s tour quickly followed an announcement about his new live album, ‘A Perfect Circle (Live at OVO Arena Wembley)’ which will be released on 25 July.

In the lead-up to the tour, Gary Numan will perform two intimate shows in Brighton on 24 and 25 June, followed by his debut appearance at Glastonbury on 28 June.

The dates for the November tour are as follows:

‘TELEKON’ 45th ANNIVERSARY UK TOUR:

11th – Glasgow, O2 Academy 
12th – Newcastle, O2 City Hall 
14th – Leeds, O2 Academy 
15th – Birmingham, O2 Academy 
16th – Bristol, Beacon 
18th – Cardiff, University Great Hall 
19th – Bournemouth, O2 Academy 
21st – London, Eventim Apollo 
22nd – Brighton, Brighton Centre 
23rd – Southend, Cliffs Pavilion 
25th – Nottingham, Rock City 
26th – Cambridge, Corn Exchange 
27th – Norwich, UEA 
29th – Manchester, O2 Apollo 
30th – Liverpool, O2 Academy 

Tickets go on sale on 20 June. You can access pre-sale tickets from 18 June here.

Blitzed magazine is out today and, amongst many other excellent things, has an interview with me and another with @raven_numan https://t.co/mki8IhDh1O pic.twitter.com/kSos0RNw8B

— Gary Numan (@numanofficial) January 3, 2025

In an interview with UK magazine Blitzed, a publication dedicated to the New Romantic movement and wider alternative 80s cultures, the musician described his emotions towards the technology as a mixture of fear and hope.   “

The new album I’m working on now is devoted entirely to AI and how it might impact humanity. I’m fascinated and horrified in equal measure,” he teased. Fans have speculated about the AI-themed project since at least October 2023 on Reddit, following a hint during a Patreon Q&A.

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In the interview, Numan was fair, acknowledging the ever-increasing potential of AI. “I fully expect AI to write great songs, paint extraordinary paintings, and write amazing books. There will be AI pop stars and actors who will become as popular, if not more so, than any human.”

He even drew comparisons to ABBA Voyage, which has contributed £1.4 billion to the UK economy since its debut. AI-assisted shows like Elvis Evolution, launching in London in May 2025, suggest this trend is only beginning, though the origins of it can be traced back to hologram shows featuring Roy Orbison and 2Pac in the 2010s, if not even further.  

Numan’s concerns extend beyond the technical capabilities too. He fears a loss of the “human element” found in art’s greatest pieces, predicting that audiences will eventually seek the imperfection and emotional depth that only humans are capable of. “They will look for something real that resonates with their own lives,” he said. One Reddit user summed the argument up best, saying “nobody will travel to the Louvre to see AI art.”

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AI is already causing debate across creative industries, and Numan isn’t the first artist to have shared his views. While the Beatles’ final track, ‘Now and Then’, used AI to restore old tapes rather than generate new material, it still sparked controversy, prompting Paul McCartney to clarify the role of the technology. Ed Sheeran spoke out about the potential loss of jobs back in 2023, when he called AI “weird”.

McCartney joined other artists in signing a petition calling for the government to change it’s approach to AI copyright issues, asking that it replace its opt-out system for an opt-in system, allowing more control over their own work. The government has outlined three objectives in their recent consultation: control, access and transparency.

Meanwhile, the UK government remains divided on how to regulate AI, particularly in balancing economic growth with protecting creative industries. Head of DCMS Committee Dame Caroline Dinenage has warned that any gains from AI innovation could be offset by a loss of jobs and revenue from artists, calling it a “zero-sum game”. 

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Given his role in embracing synthesisers, an instrument that would shape entire genres of music, and dominated the sound of the 80s, Numan’s cautious warning serves as a damning indictment for the future of AI. 

While AI continues to evolve at an alarming rate, so does the debate over its place in music, art and wider society. Numan ended on a note of hope: “If we survive long enough, I hope and suspect that people will slowly return to human-created art.”

Something a little different (for me anyway) is coming. In October I’ll be playing an 8 date acoustic tour in the UK. Pre sale tickets will be available at 9am on April 19th. https://t.co/0LHwSIp985 pic.twitter.com/u07jPrDzn3

— Gary Numan (@numanofficial) April 14, 2023

Last night, a day after the tour announcement, Numan completed his 1000th show, completing a set of three nights at the Electric Ballroom, London, and is set to follow this colossal landmark event with a North American tour, starting on April 21st in Salt Lake City and concluding at Cruel World festival in Pasadena on May 20th. An appearance at Bearded Theory festival at the end of May will precede a break for the summer for Numan, which will then be followed by the acoustic tour in October, a tour which promises to be unique and wholly different for Numan’s devoted cult following, given his synth-pop and industrial rock background. The tour will commence on October 8th at Wylam Brewery in Newcastle and will end with two dates on October 16th and 17th at Hackney Church in London.

Gary Numan (real name Gary Webb) commenced his music career as frontman of new wave band Tubeway Army. The group released their self-titled debut album in 1978 but it wasn’t until the following year, upon the release of “Are Friends Electric?”, that Numan shot to prominence. The track, showcasing Numan’s adoration of synthesisers and science fiction (with its lyrical referencing of Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), was released in May and found its way to the number one spot of the UK Singles chart in June.

Numan’s Tubeway Army performing hit single “Are Friends Electric?” on Top of the Pops in 1979:

Following his initial success Numan disbanded Tubeway Army and embarked on a solo career, employing a new backing band in the process. Later on in 1979 Numan’s second, and perhaps most famous hit, “Cars”, was released, soon also reaching number one, and was soon followed by the release of Numan’s first solo studio album, The Pleasure Principle, which too reached number one on the UK Albums chart. He went on to have a remarkably prolific decade, releasing nine albums in as many years, and has released a total on nineteen studio albums to date, with the latest, Intruder, being released in May 2021.

The pre-sale for tour tickets starts at 9am on April 19th and you can get yours here.

See below for the tour dates:

08/10/2023 – Wylam Brewery – Newcastle
09/10 – St Luke’s – Glasgow
10/10 – Town Hall – Birmingham
11/10 – St George’s – Bristol
13/10 – St George’s Church – Brighton
15/10 – Cathedral – Manchester
16/10 – Hackney Church – London
17/10 – Hackney Church – London

(Photo credit: Alyssa Fried)

The event will occur at the exact same time as Rebellion Fest, taking place in the Tower Headland, whilst the latter will take place in Winter Gardens, as normal. The Headland has a capacity of around 15,000 people, and has previously played host to Livewire Festival and Blackpool Festival.

According to The Blackpool Gazette, R-Fest was born of the idea to make Rebellion Festival more accessible with the addition of some more mainstream groups. Jennie Russell Smith, the organiser of the festival, is quoted as saying: “We are all incredibly excited for our first ever R-FEST line up; four days of bands in the incredible headland arena with the tower and the Winter Gardens on one side and the Irish Sea on the other. It’s going to be amazing!”

Blackpool Council member Coun Lynne Williams also weighed in on the exciting new addition to the Rebellion Festival event, saying: “The festival organisers have had the ambition to grow the event for some time, but have been obviously prevented from doing so because of restrictions on large-scale events over the past two years… it is great news that this popular event enjoyed by so many people is going to return in a new expanded format next summer. It is an event that along with others held in our town that really brings Blackpool alive and is a firm favourite festival in music lovers’ calendars.”

Rebellion Festival is currently the biggest punk festival in the world and features a myriad of punk and hardcore groups from the UK and beyond. Among the line-up this year includes English punk legends Sham 69, Scottish band The Exploited, as well as Texas punk rockers M.D.C. and New York City hardcore frontrunners Cro Mags.

More information about the event can be found here, on Rebellion Festival’s website. It has been stated that for anyone purchasing tickets only for R-Fest, the event is a standalone, however anyone who has purchased tickets for Rebellion Festival will be admitted to R-Fest free of charge. You can find tickets for R-Fest here, and for Rebellion Festival here.

Ticket prices are as follows:

R-Fest Day Ticket- £55.00
Rebellion Festival Day Ticket- £95.00
Rebellion Festival Weekend Ticket- £195.00