Gary Numan has sold over 10 million records. His career began in the 1970’s when he was frontman of the new wave band TUBEWAY ARMY. His 19th studio solo album INTRUDER was released in 2021, the same year he published his second autobiography.

In this excerpt, Gary recalls the time he had a UFO encounter…

“It was during the DANCE sessions that I saw something else very strange.

It was the early hours of the morning, and I was on my way home from the studio with my new girlfriend at the time.

Things were very quiet, and we seemed to be the only car on the road.

As our small road crossed over a motorway, I saw what I can only describe as a huge light coming out of the clouds, shaped like an upside-down pyramid, with the pointy end just touching the surface of the road.

The cloud was low and the light seemed to be coming through it from above. It was a perfect square shape, like the base of a pyramid but only the edges.

I stopped the car, got out, expecting to hear the noise of a helicopter, but there was nothing.

No noise at all.

I found that very unnerving and was about to get back into the car and drive off when the light vanished.

But we’d watched it for a while, both before we stopped and after. It was definitely there, but I have no idea what it could have been.” p118

There’s always time for one last song (a gentle tune from Gary’s 1980 album TELEKON) from the…

This newly released novel has been getting a lot of buzz recently. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own, under the ambiguous name JUNIPER SONG. What happens next is everyone else’s fault.

READ IT HERE

Last year, a flotilla of joy hoisted it’s mast for shipwreck enthusiasts worldwide.

Not ONE but TWO long-sought-after maritime discoveries were unearthed within weeks of each other.

Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton’s (1874 – 1922) ship ENDURANCE was discovered 3 km beneath the Southern Ocean in Antarctica.

In the same month of February, British Sea Captain James Cook’s (he’s the guy Aussie school kids back in the 70’s were taught ‘discovered’ Australia) ship ENDEAVOUR was positively identified in the Atlantic Ocean near Rhode Island (U.S.) at a depth of just 14 meters.

I love a good shipwreck story. The one I’m about to share with you is as ‘curious’ as any.

Five years ago, the world’s oldest ‘intact’ shipwreck was discovered 2 km beneath the waves of the Black Sea of the Atlantic Ocean near Bulgaria.

By ‘intact’ what is meant is more or less the whole ship was still present. By comparison, only 15% of the ENDEAVOUR was still remaining when that discovery was made in 2022.

The famous DOKUS SHIPWRECK, the world’s oldest (dated 2700–2200 BC), had even less. Nothing from the original sea-going vessel remained apart from hundreds of clay pots and urns.

A team of researchers found the 23 meter long Ancient Greek ship, named Odysseus, while surveying 2000sq km of seabed. A small piece of wood was taken for tests and carbon dated to 400BC, making it the oldest intact shipwreck known to mankind.

Its original shape had not been destroyed despite thousands of years at the bottom of the sea, with a mast, rudder and rowing benches still clearly visible. The shipwreck is well preserved because below a certain depth there is no oxygen in the water in the Black Sea.

The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project spent three years combing the depths of the Black Sea using remote-controlled deepwater camera systems. Their exploration unearthed more than 60 shipwrecks.

PART 1 HERE ME HEARTIES

PART 2 HERE ME HEARTIES

PART 3 HERE ME HEARTIES

To check out HAPPY DAYS go clickety click HERE.

Things went off with a hot bang two nights ago at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

Eighties rockers Motley Crue (U.S) and Def Leppard (U.K) lit a fuse that burned industrial- strength-loud and off-the-grid bright for three straight hours.

SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK was ringside. Here’s eight highlights…

Motley Crue’s frontman is the one-and-only renegade VINCE NEIL. I knew his singing voice very well but had never heard his speaking voice.

These days Vince isn’t someone you’d ordinarily describe as CUTE. Back in the 80’s – 40 kg lighter – different story (in the opinion of female fans). But his speaking voice? It’s gentle, soft, cartoonish and, maybe best described as – wait for it – Daffy Duck-ish. CUTE ? Probably that too.

RICK ALLEN has been DEF LEPPARD‘S drummer since 1978. In 1985 he lost his left arm in a car crash. How he re-taught himself to play one-handed and continue to serve as the mega-group’s sticks man is easily one of rock music’s most inspirational stories.

Naturally SWS had seen all the song videos over the years featuring Allen. Live on-stage however, was a whole ‘nother level of breathtaking.

WILD SIDE, the song MOTLEY CRUE opened with, pretty much summed up the band’s mind-hemorrhaging and all-round five star dynamite performance on the night.

This 1987 video for the song is, I reckon, (now) hilarious. I say hilarious because in it drummer Tommy Lee is eerily without a single tattoo and lead-singer Vince Neil looks, well… not like the Vince Neil we have today. Still, it gives some vibe of the glittering mayhem that went down on Wednesday night.

Every man, woman and child (there were a few of those there as well) at the concert on Wednesday night was waiting for this song. When it came, it shook the rafters and didn’t disappoint. Stadium rock at its nut-cracking finest.

Motely Crue’s cover of the Beatles classic HELTER SKELTER was pretty special. Their version of the Beastie Boys FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT wasn’t bad either.

Looking but NOT buying at concert ‘Merch’ tents is always a self-belief pleasure for me. $65 t-shirts I can get on-line for $15 is not my idea of a wise-spend. Learnt that from my wife, btw.

Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee gave added meaning to the term FLASH MOB when he grabbed the mike and encouraged the females in the audience to flash their breasts. Three did. The four-story high video screens on each end of the stage shared the moment with, well… everyone.

For two bands whose heyday was way back in the eighties, the silver-fox brigade was more than well represented in the audience. Incredibly, there were also almost just as many people in their twenties.

In the seats immediately behind me were three teenage girls. I’d put each of their ages at no more than 15. To give a mental picture, the trio resembled a cross somewhere between the 1960’s-like innocence of image A and the slightly harder-edged sass of image B.

The three left halfway through the second act (Def Leppard) I’m guessing ’cause they had to front up at school the next morning. SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK’S #1 thrill of the entire night was hearing these girls sing along – word ultra-perfectly – to EVERY SINGLE SONG Motley Crue played.

By some other-worldly means I still can’t completely account for, these eye-liner heavy pubescent teens had somehow committed to memory every syllable of every word of every lyric of every song this four-decades old band performed for 70 continuous minutes. It was so freakin’ time-defying awesome.

So who was better? While DEF LEPPARD were amazing, nothing could compete on the night with the raw animal energy of MOTLEY CRUE. They owned the stadium and were nothing short of ferocious.

On a slightly different musical note…It may be old news by now, but last week fans of THE BEATLES got what they’d waited for for such a long time – a new song!

How exactly was it done? Let’s just say it had something to do with AI machine learning plus the combined talents of Paul McCartney and filmmaker Peter ‘King Kong’ Jackson. For the full story, go HERE.

To check out HAPPY DAYS go clickety click HERE.

History is about special moments in time. Like these moments…

Speaking of history, I’ve been waiting for this one to come around now for quite a while. Something like, oh I don’t know… the last 40 years or so?

READ IT HERE