Flow My Tears

Tubeway Army : Listen to the Sirens

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In November of 1978 Gary Numan's band, Tubeway Army, released its debut album in a limited-edition run of 5,000 copies . It's known as the blue album because of the color of the album cover and the color of its vinyl. Rereleased by Beggars Banquet in 1979, with a new cover, the album would hit U.K. #14.

Tubeway Army began as a punk band and were signed by Beggars Banquet in 1978. Their first two singles "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers" were both angry, guitar raving punk tunes. By the time the band entered the studio to record an album, Numan replaced his guitar with synthesizers. His band mates, with the exception of bassist Paul Gardiner,  hated the new direction and quit so Numan made the album with Gardiner and his Uncle Jess (Lidyard) on drums.

Numan wears his Bowie influences on his sleeves, his cuffs, his jumpers. Pretty much throughout the album. Bowie failed to hide his contempt for Numan, banishing his rival from the set of the Kenny Everett Christmas special in 1979. 

"Before then I thought he was a god," Numan tells the Independent. "I used to get into fights at school protecting his name. Then, all of a sudden, this bloke I'd adored for years was throwing me out of a building because he hated me so much. It really upset me at the time, especially when I thought of how many thumps I'd taken for him. I can only imagine he was going through an insecure patch. At the time I was outselling him about four to one."