It's Cold Outside

Tubeway Army : Are 'Friends" Electric?

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In April of 1979, Tubeway Army released Replicas , a dystopian science fiction themed concept album based on unpublished short stories leader Gary Numan had written. Inspired by Philip K Dick, the stories revolve around Machmen (think the replicants in Blade Runner) and the Grey Men who rule the world. Numan is dressed as a Machman overlooking "The Park" on the cover.

The best known track is the menacing "Are 'Friends" Electric?", the first synthpop hit to top the U.K. charts. Asked by a Guardian reader if he was inspired by Ultravox or any other band blending rock and synthesizers, Numan responded:

I had no idea that any kind of electronic scene existed at all. I don't think any of us did, we were all locked away in little rooms in various cities thinking we were the only people that had discovered synths. We were all wrong and it was just luck that gave me the first big electronic single. Plenty of other people had been doing it before I stumbled along.

I remember the first time I heard "Cars" in the United States. Nothing sounded like it before to my inexperienced ears. In the U.K. I'm sure it was the same thing with "Are Friends Electric?". Not everything is driven by synthesizers. The drums are organic which gives the song a breath of humanity even as Numan sings "You know I hate to ask /But are 'friends' electric?/ Only mine's broke down/ And now I've no one to love"

"The Machman" is a terrific deep cut, more rocker than synthpop. "Me, I Disconnect From You" is the opening track of the album, a clear sign that if you were looking for the warmth of James Taylor and Cat Stevens, you had purchased the wrong record.

Robert Christgau, the dean of rock critics,  gave the album a B+ writing;

Resistant as I am to the new strain of synthesizer punk now reaching us from England, I didn't connect to this for months--not until I listened to the singing. Numan's lyrics abound with aliens and policemen and pickups in what sounds at first like the worst sort of received decadence, but his monotone is too sweet and vulnerable for that impression to stick. To you it may be sordid sex and middlebrow sci-fi; to him it's romance and horror. The debut (Tubeway Army, Beggar's Banquet import) is faster, more pointed, and includes no instrumentals. This is catchier, more haunted, and includes two.

Playing Kill-By-Numbers

Tubeway Army : Down in the Park

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In March of 1979 Gary Numan's Tubeway Army came out with a brand new sound, relying heavily on synthesizer on the single  "Down In The Park", the first release from their upcoming Replicas album. Although it wasn't a hit, it remains one of Numan's favorite songs and one he still plays in concert.

Numan is obsessed with science fiction of a dystopian nature, as the lyrics reveal:

Down in the park 
Where the mach-men meet the machines 
And play 'kill-by-numbers' 
Down in the park with a friend called five 
I was in a car crash 
Or was it the war 
But I've never been quite the same…

The world may not have been ready for "Down in the Park". But the band's next single, "Are Friends Electric?" would replace Anita War'd "Ring My Bell" as the #1 song in the United Kingdom. And not a cheery smile in sight!

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."

In Silent Bars, In Silent Rooms

Tubeway Army : Bombers

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By August of 1978 it was evident that Gary Numan's Tubeway Army would not be entering the UK charts with its punky, guitar-driven "Bombers", released a month earlier. At least MTV could cop the guitar line for its theme music. Numan would leave punk rock behind , keep the robotic vocals and attempt to seduce the listening public with synthesizers. The 1979 Tubeway Army album, Replicas, would be a ground breaker, featuring a UK #1 hit in "Are 'Friends' Electric?"

The TV Screen Is Calling Me

Tubeway Army : That's Too Bad

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In February of 1978 Gary Numan's punk band,  Tubeway Army, released their  debut single. "That's Too Bad" would be followed by "Bombers", another angry single in the Summer. Then, when the band went into the studio to record their first album, Numan discovered synthesizers.

Before Synthesizers

After Synthesizers