Smash Hits was a pop music based magazine, aimed at teenagers and young adults and originally published in the United Kingdom. It ran from 1978 to 2006 and was issued fortnightly for most of that time. The name survives as a brand for a related spin-off digital television channel, digital radio station, and website which have survived the demise of the printed magazine,

Beryl Webb: Smash Hits have been reasonably kind to Gary over the years and being a pop stars mum they wanted to interview me. After speaking on the phone to Linda Duff for several years, we finally met and the results of the interview should have been printed in the 28th of March edition of Smash Hits. Linda was just how I had imagined her to be, really friendly and easy to talk to.

The following interview originally appeared in Smash Hits 

Beryl Webb had just handed in her notice at the local soft drinks factory when her life “altered dramatically”. Her son Gary Numan had almost overnight, become a pop star. Now she divides her day between running the fan club and organising Gary, as well as assisting in running the family business of Rock City Studios in Shepperton, Middlesex. I clearly remember his first gig. As I queued to go in, I thought to myself there must be somebody really big on look at all these people But they all had black clothes on and when I went inside, I suddenly realised they were here for Gary. To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever got over that feeling. And my life did change from then on. The house became like Euston Station and the fan letters started pouring in. Sackload after sackload of mail!

Dyeing Gary’s hair is the big problem. It’s really strange when you’ve got all this green gunge in this hair and somebody walks in. They look at him and go ‘Cor! What’s that? They don’t recognise him. He also does all the make-up himself. With the latest image white face and blue lips I could have strangled him. There we were, on the first date in Wales, and he had used white pan-stick which left him with great big skidlines all over his face. I said to him ‘Gary, you’ve got to pat it . . . .‘ and we eventually got it right with half an hour to go before he was due on.
The hardest part now is that all the fans know who I am. They ask things like ‘Is Gary really quiet? (Yes. He’s definitely a very quiet person.) ‘Does he wear pyjamas?’ (No.) ‘How many fillings?’ . . . Anything! Actually, he doesn’t have a bad tooth in his head and he eats such terrible food . . . sausages and chips, hamburger and chips. That’s the whole menu.

The only thing I don’t like about this business is the critics. I often just want to do something nasty to them . . . I told the pop-writer John Blake (now with the Dally Mirror) that he’d been in the front of my hate book for three years. I said ‘Every time I open my book, I punch your face!’ And Paula Yates came up to me and said ‘Aren’t you Gary Numan’s Mum?’ So I answered ‘Yes. And you’re Paula Yates and you’ve been very nasty about my son . . . ‘Well, her face just went purple and she was so embarrassed. But don’t get the impression that we’re stuck with Gary all the time. Once the show’s over, I disappear. And all the naughty antics they get up to, they can do it quite happily. Mum’s not around,”