Gary Numan reveals tragedy that caused Birmingham show breakdown: “This is simply to explain”
Following an onstage breakdown at Birmingham’s O2 Academy at the weekend, Gary Numan has revealed the death of his brother, John Webb.
Fans attending the songwriter’s show in Birmingham on Saturday, in celebration of the 45th anniversary of his Telekon album, were shocked to see Numan break down in tears during a performance of ‘Please Push No More’. At the time, he told the audience that he had received the “worst news ever” earlier on in the day.
Now, following a similar breakdown the following night in Bristol, Numan has revealed via his social media channels that his emotional state came as a result of the recent passing of his brother, John Webb.
“My brother John died suddenly in the early hours of Saturday morning in Leeds, he was just 60 years old,” Numan wrote on Facebook. “He had spent the evening with me at my Telekon show, catching up, swapping stories, telling me about his newly found love of reading.” According to the songwriter, his brother died as the result of a heart attack while walking back to his car in Leeds.
Numan continued in his statement, “This is not a tribute to John, I can barely think straight enough to find the words for this let alone a fitting and deserving tribute to someone I loved more than the world, those words will come in time. This is simply to explain why I’ve been struggling on stage.”
In addition to being very close with his brother, the pair used to perform together during the early days of Numan’s music career, with Webb accompanying the synth-pop progenitor on keyboards.
Webb also performed and recorded his own material under the name Donovan Silver, in addition to playing bagpipes for the British Airwaves Pipe Band alongside his career as a pilot.
Despite Numan’s difficulties in performing in the wake of the news, he concluded his statement by affirming that the remainder of the tour would still be going ahead. “We are continuing with the tour because my Dad thinks I should, because John’s lovely wife said John would want me to,” Numan shared, adding: “I have no capacity at the moment to make decisions of any kind.”
The songwriter concluded his statement by declaring his brother’s passing, “the worst moment of [his] life”, and dedicating the rest of the Telekon tour to his memory. “This tour is no longer a celebration of an album,” he wrote. “it’s a tribute to John, my brother, the best brother a man could ever have.”
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