A Personal Journey

If you're a Gary Numan vinyl collector it's more than likely that alongside the multiple coloured vinyl versions of the 1980 single 'I Die : You Die' that you have stashed away, you are going to have a number of record cases full to the brim with various coloured vinyl versions of the 'Telekon' album from the same year. These coloured vinyl versions were released on the Beggars Banquet label but distributed by the dutch label STEMRA.

Many people over the years have tried to produce a definitive list of the coloured vinyl versions of 'Telekon' but to be honest nobody actually knows how many different colours exist. Chinese whispers and rumours over the years have come up with some classic examples yet nobody has seen them. I've been asked to add a piece to this excellent website with reference to some of the coloured versions I have seen with my own eyes over the years. Unfortunately I do not have any photographic evidence of these colours so I guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

I started collecting the coloured vinyl 'Telekon' albums a few years back after seeing a friends collection. To say I was amazed would be an understatement. It was 1986 in South East England, Hampshire to be exact and I had been introduced to a guy called Sean via a mutual friend who knew we both liked Gary Numan. Sean was a few years older than me and a self- employed butcher. To cut a long story very short, it soon became clear that Sean spent everything he earned on Gary Numan records. To say he was obsessed would be a massive understatement. Before I witnessed his absolutely mammoth collection he told me that he used to communicate with another collector in Australia and that they would often swap records with each other. It was rumoured at the time that these two were the biggest collectors around. I would mention Sean's name to other fans that I knew and a lot of them knew who he was. He had tons of rarities which included pressing plates and acetates and I was amazed at how much he was paying for these items. At the time I had just turned 18 and wouldn't of dreamed of paying the kind of money he was paying for something I already had but over the years I began to realise that collecting is a never ending task.

Anyway, back to the reason I am writing this and it was a Saturday evening when I finally met Sean. We sat in his bedroom which was covered from floor to ceiling with Numan posters covering the dodgy wallpaper.

He had this huge metal cabinet in the corner of his room which had a padlock on it. He went to it, unlocked the padlock and opened the doors. The look of proudness on his face was a joy to see. Inside the cabinet were shelves full of 7", 12" and album cases. I didn't think for one second that ALL of the cases were full of Gary Numan records but they were! Over the next few hours I would look through each box and almost drool over what I was seeing. It was when we came to the Telekon boxes that I honestly could not believe what I was seeing. There were White Labels, Promos and Imports but it was the coloured vinyl's that really got my attention. I had seen the basic colours in the past in a local record shop and had actually purchased a Green and a Yellow myself but looking in to these boxes was madness. I saw different variations of the Green, Yellow, Blue and Red. There were White, Orange, Clear and Marbled versions too. Now, this is where I guess you will have to take my word for it because I saw 3 coloured vinyl versions of Telekon that I have never ever seen again and I have also never heard of anyone else having in their collection. There were actually 2 colours I saw that day which I still remember very clearly. The other colour came in the post a few weeks later and I'll mention that in a second.

When I really got into collecting Numan myself, I concentrated on both the Telekon and I Die: You Die coloured vinyl's. As I mentioned earlier, my collection is now in the hands of someone in Newcastle but back then, one of the hardest colours I tried to track down was the Clear vinyl version. It was also known as Opaque I think? When I finally tracked a copy down and received it in the post one morning I have to say that although it looked great, it wasn't the same as I had seen whilst at Sean's. He had the same copy as mine but he also had another copy which he called 'Glass' because it was totally see through, almost glass like. I have never ever seen another copy like it in the past 27 years. I actually had 3 clear vinyl Telekons myself yet none of them were the 'Glass' version. I don't honestly believe that the Dutch would make the odd one-off so there MUST be others out there surely?

The same can be said for the Purple one that I saw. Yes, a Purple coloured Telekon. I haven't seen another since.

The one that sticks in my mind the clearest though is the coloured vinyl Telekon that arrived in the post one morning when I was there. I had stayed over for the night and remember sitting in the kitchen as Sean's Mum bought in his post. There were a few cardboard packages that were obviously records and it was clear that Sean had been waiting for something special as he put a number of the packages to the side on the table and concentrated on one in particular. He handed it to me and told me to open it. I remember being very careful with it and it soon became clear once the packaging had been torn away that it was yet another Telekon. He told me to look inside and I couldn't believe it when I pulled the vinyl from the insert and saw that it was a Brown coloured vinyl. I didn't like the look of it at all. It was a solid Brown vinyl and I remember naming it the Poo Telekon. If I remember correctly, he said it cost him £80.00. I don't know where it came from but again, I've never seen another copy of it or heard of another existing.

So there you go. Some more colours to add to those that are obviously available. I sometimes wonder if there is anyone out there that also has these colours? Saying that, they must do because Sean sold all of his collection a few years back now. Someone out there has the Glass, Purple and Brown Telekon colours and I'd say personally that they are some of the rarest Numan items out there.

Thanks to Lewis & Barry for allowing me to share these ramblings with you. I hope you've found them interesting. I just wish I had taken photos.

Gary Choppen (Cee)