Numa Records:  The Formative Years

Johnny Silver    

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN

click image at left to enlarge

from the punk fanzine In the City 10 (April 1979):  12.

Johnny Silver

In the early days of Tubeway Army, Gary's younger brother John used to go along to the gigs and sing a

song that he had written himself.  John was only twelve years of age at the time.  We asked Gary to tell

us something about those early days.

"Well, John wrote a song, or I should say he wrote the lyrics to a song called, 'Lucky' and I stuck some

music to it, but I only put the same music to it the way that he actually sang it.  I just played along to it

and arranged it for him and he did it.  He used to get up on stage for three or four minutes, do his song

and then go off again.  He always got the biggest cheer of the night.  He really did.  The crowd used to

love him.  He used to have his hair dyed silver and he had a T-shirt made with 'Johnny Silver' written on

it.  It wasn't done as a gimmick or anything; I just asked him to be a part of what I was doing."

We asked Gary if there was some possibility of John becoming a permanent member of Tubeway Army. 

"I always wanted him to, yeah, but he never really showed that much interest in learning anything that

would have enabled him to have been part of the band.  He got a guitar, he got a set of drums, and he's

taking private lessons at the moment but he doesn't do any one thing for long enough.  Except for the

bag-pipes of course, and although he plays them really well, I haven't really got a spot for them at the

moment."

" L U C K Y "

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF LONDON.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF THE SLUMS.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF LONDON.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF POLITICS

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF POLITICS

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF LONDON.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE IN HEAVEN.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE OUT OF LONDON.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE DEAD.

YOU'RE A LUCKY MAN TO BE DEAD.

[REPEAT]

Johnny Silver

a.k.a. John Webb