The 50 year-old star, whose chart-topping hits include Are 'Friends' Electric? and Cars, was one of the pioneers of electronic music, which laid the foundations for a new sound that transformed the musical landscape.

Since those early, heady days Numan's career has veered up and down, but in recent years he has enjoyed a renaissance and his music has been sampled by such diverse performers as Nine Inch Nails and the Sugababes. And tomorrow he headlines the inaugural Magic Loungeabout Festival, in the grounds of Newburgh Priory, in North Yorkshire.

The one-day festival, billed as a 24-hour musical picnic, also features Morcheeba and Ladytron, but for Numan it will be something of a personal triumph.

"I became a big star almost overnight, but in those days I was riddled with a lack of confidence, so I shied away from big festivals because I found them terrifying, to be honest. And that lack of confidence has haunted me for at least half my career," he admits candidly.

Ironically, though, after spending several years in the musical wilderness it was festivals that helped to revive his flagging career.

"I've started doing more festivals because it's a great way of reaching new audiences," he says.

"My newer music is quite heavy and doesn't get much airplay on the radio, so festivals are the ideal way for me to reach out and build my fan base.

"They are starting to work for me and I definitely enjoy playing them now."

Like many youngsters growing up in the early '70s, Numan was a big T-Rex and David Bowie fan.

"They inspired me and then I got into early electronic music and I learned by watching and listening."

This paid off, and by the time the hypnotic Cars reached number one in the UK charts in 1979, Numan was being hailed as a synth troubadour. But he found fame hard to handle.

"It was very exciting, but it was something you did for fun and then it became a serious business," he says.

"It's true what they say about 'too much too soon', I was on my own, I wasn't part of a band and I didn't have a manager or anyone to help me or guide me through what was a monumental change of life overnight.

"It's one of my biggest regrets not enjoying it more, but having said, that I'm here 30 years later and I'm having it all again, only this time I love it."

By the late '80s, bands like The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays were the new heroes of the "baggy" generation and Numan dropped off the musical radar.

"I was dead and buried, and by the early '90s I couldn't get a gig, you couldn't give my records away."

He likens his decline to a recurring dream he has.

"I'm standing singing at a station when a train comes flying past and I have to jump on. I'm hanging on and these people are looking at me and wondering what I'm doing. Eventually I fall off and I'm battered and bruised and don't know what to do next."

As his music career stalled, he increasingly turned to his other major passion, flying. Numan's fascination with aviation began in the '80s and by the end of the decade he'd become a highly-skilled instructor who trained aerobatic pilots.

It's something he's reluctantly put an end to.

"I was going through some old photo albums with my wife a while back and I realised there wasn't a single photograph where at least one person in it wasn't dead and that shocked us both.

"Aerobatics can be dangerous, there was one year that five people I knew were killed and I thought 'perhaps it's time for me to stop', but I do really miss it."

Despite his commercial hiatus, Numan never lost his love of music and by the mid '90s he'd begun slowly rebuilding his career.

He describes his new brand of industrial electronica as the "crash of something pretty" and his fans include many people who weren't born when he was famous the first time around.

"There's a temptation for a lot of acts to make as much money as possible doing the same kind of thing, but I'm not like that, I've always had this constant desire to find other types of music.

"I find that exciting but it means my fans have no idea what to expect next, which is probably why my career has had so many ups and downs. I don't stick to what works, I always want to move on to other things."

But he believes it's harder for bands to be experimental now compared to when he started out.

"Record companies are increasingly up against it, and anything left of centre struggles to get heard.

"It's all become rather predictable compared to
how it was. I was quite experimental and I was still able to make it to number one, but that's becoming harder, which is a real shame."

Despite renewed interest in his music he claims he's not about to cash in.

"I've always been far more interested in what I'm doing tomorrow than what I was doing yesterday, the whole nostalgia thing really isn't
for me.

"I don't want to end up being pigeon-holed in an era and those '80s tours just aren't what I'm about.

"I'm enjoying my music now and I'd much rather be doing that than just be remembered as someone who was big 25 years ago."

FESTIVAL FACTS

The Magic Loungeabout Festival is being held at Newburgh Priory, North Yorkshire, tomorrow.

It features Gary Numan, Ladytron, Morcheeba and Nouvelle Vague, plus other guests, and is billed as a 24-hour musical picnic.

24-hour tickets cost £78, evening tickets are £39 (entry after 7pm only).

Main stage music kicks off at midday and continues till 3am.

For more information, or to buy tickets, visit the festival website at www.themagicloungeabout.net or call 0871 424 4444