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Tubeway Army were a London-based new wave band led by lead singer Gary Numan. Formed at the height of punk rock in 1977, the band gradually changed to an electronic sound. They were the first band of the electronic era to have a synthesiser-based number-one hit, with their single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and its parent album Replicas both topping the UK charts in mid-1979. After its release, Numan opted to drop the Tubeway Army name and release music under his own name as he was the sole songwriter, producer and public face of the band, but he retained the musicians from Tubeway Army as his backing band.
HistoryEdit
Early yearsEdit
Aged 18 years, Gary Webb had fronted London band Mean Street in 1976 (their song "Bunch of Stiffs" appeared on the Live at the Vortex compilation, and was the B-side of the Vortex 7-inch). After leaving this band, he auditioned as lead guitarist for another band called The Lasers, where he met bass-player Paul Gardiner. The Lasers soon became Tubeway Army, and were eventually reformed with Webb's uncle Jess Lidyard on drums.<ref name="Numan">Gary Numan (R)evolution: The Autobiography Constable 2020, Chapter Four.</ref> Webb renamed himself "Valerian", Gardiner "Scarlett", and Lidyard "Rael".
Webb was a prolific songwriter. The band began playing gigs on the punk scene in London and managed to secure a record deal with the independent Beggars Banquet label. In February 1978 the punk rock style debut single "That's Too Bad" was released, but failed to make much impact. Shortly after the band made demo recordings (later released as The Plan) to give Beggars Banquet an idea of the songs they had. In summer 1978 a second single, "Bombers"/"Blue Eyes"/"OD Receiver",<ref name="numanme">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> was released, but failed to chart.
During this time the band went through some line-up changes, changing drummers and briefly adding a second guitarist, but due to musical differences Webb and Gardiner split with them as they wanted to move away from punk rock.<ref name="numanme" />
By this time Tubeway Army had decided to abandon live shows – Webb was unhappy with pub-venue gigs on the often violent London punk scene. Their last gig in July 1978 (sharing the bill with The Skids) was abandoned halfway through the set because of violence and Webb decided that Tubeway Army would become a studio-only band.<ref name="Numan"/> (There are only 2 known recordings of Tubeway Army concerts – Live at the Roxy in 1977 and a London show from February 1978 – this was released as a bootleg album in the early 1980s. It was later officially included under the title Living Ornaments '78 as bonus tracks on the 1998 CD re-release of the Tubeway Army album).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Debut albumEdit
Soon afterwards, the Tubeway Army album was quickly recorded by the original line-up. At this point Webb adopted the name "Gary Numan", taking his new pseudonym from a local Yellow Pages where a plumber called "Arthur Neumann" was listed, the singer abandoning the German spelling, to become Numan.<ref>Synth Britannia. 16 October 2009. BBC Four.</ref> Whilst still largely guitar/bass/drums-based, the album saw his first tentative use of the Minimoog synthesizer, which he had come across by accident in the recording studio during the album sessions. Lyrically the record touched on dystopian and sci-fi themes similar to those employed by authors J. G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick, of whom Numan was a fan (the opening lines of the song "Listen to the Sirens" are a direct lift from the title of Dick's book Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said).
At this point Numan was keen to distance his music from punk rock and wanted to drop the Tubeway Army group name and release the album under his own stage name, but Beggars Banquet rejected the idea. The album was released with the title Tubeway Army on blue vinyl in November 1978.<ref name="Numan" /> Whilst the album's modest initial pressing of 5000 copies sold out,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> it did not enter the album charts at that time, and no singles were lifted from it.
Replicas and commercial successEdit
Following swiftly on, Numan took Tubeway Army back into the studio to record their follow-up album, Replicas and also a session for John Peel in early 1979. The result was more synth and science fiction oriented than the last album. The first single from the album, the bleak, slow-paced keyboard-driven song "Down in the Park" failed to chart, although it would prove an enduring cult track in the years to come, and has to date been covered by Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Flight, and nine other bands.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The next single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?" was released in May 1979 and became the band's first entry on the UK Singles Chart. After a modest start at no. 71 it steadily climbed up the chart reaching the No. 1 spot in June.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The underlying context of this song was also a reference to a Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? A special picture disc helped boost sales but what particularly grabbed the British public's imagination was Tubeway Army's appearance on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test, followed soon after by a slot on Top of the Pops on 24 May 1979. The band, now including Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie, Chris Payne, Paul Gardiner and drummer Cedric Sharpley, appeared all dressed in black and near-motionless, Numan in particular giving a performance often referred to as being "like an android", a style that was later reported to have been a means of covering stage nerves but which then became his trademark. The single remained at number one in the UK charts for four weeks, with Replicas following suit in the album charts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By the end of 1979 "Are 'Friends' Electric?" had become the fourth highest selling single in the UK that year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
At the peak of success, a John Peel session in June 1979 was credited as Gary Numan, and the Tubeway Army group name was dropped.<ref>Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle - The First Recordings Beggars Arkive</ref> Numan would however keep the same musicians as his backing band on his subsequent solo releases and tours.
PersonnelEdit
MembersEdit
- Gary Numan (a.k.a. "Valerian") – guitar, lead vocals, synthesizers (1977-1979)
- Paul Gardiner (a.k.a. "Scarlett") – bass, backing vocals (1977–1979; died 1984)
- Jess Lidyard (a.k.a. "Rael") – drums (1977, 1978–1979)
- Bob Simmonds – drums (1977–1978)
- Barry Benn – drums (1978)
- Sean Burke – guitar (1978)
- Billy Currie – synthesizers (1979)
- Trevor Grant – guitar (1979)
- Chris Payne – synthesizers (1979)
- Cedric Sharpley – drums (1979; died 2012)
LineupsEdit
| Years | Lineup | Albums |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 |
|
|
| 1977–1978 |
|
|
| 1978 |
|
|
| 1978–1979 |
|
|
| 1979 (Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops performances) |
|
TimelineEdit
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Colors =
id:vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:synth value:purple legend:Synthesizers id:bass value:blue legend:Bass,_backing_vocals id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:studio value:black legend:Studio_album id:single value:gray(0.45) legend:Single
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1977
BarData =
bar:gary text:Gary Numan bar:sean text:Sean Burke bar:trevor text:Trevor Grant bar:billy text:Billy Currie bar:chris text:Chris Payne bar:paul text:Paul Gardiner bar:jess text:Jess Lidyard bar:bob text:Bob Simmonds bar:barry text:Barry Benn bar:cedric text:Cedric Sharpley
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color:studio layer:back at:24/11/1978 at:04/04/1979 color:single at:10/02/1978 at:21/06/1978 at:16/03/1979 at:04/05/1979
PlotData=
width:11 bar:Gary from:start till:end color:vocals bar:Gary from:start till:end color:guitar width:3 bar:Gary from:01/08/1978 till:end color:synth width:7 bar:Sean from:01/01/1978 till:30/07/1978 color:guitar bar:Trevor from:04/05/1979 till:end color:guitar bar:Billy from:04/05/1979 till:end color:synth bar:Chris from:04/05/1979 till:end color:synth bar:Paul from:start till:end color:bass bar:Jess from:start till:15/06/1977 color:drums bar:Bob from:16/06/1977 till:31/12/1977 color:drums bar:Barry from:01/01/1978 till:30/07/1978 color:drums bar:Jess from:01/08/1978 till:03/05/1979 color:drums bar:cedric from:04/05/1979 till:end color:drums</timeline>
DiscographyEdit
Studio albumsEdit
| Year | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK <ref name=occ>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
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US <ref name="US charts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |
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| 1978 | Tubeway Army
|
14Template:Efn | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1979 | Replicas
|
1 | 11 | 8 | 37 | 124 |
|
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| 2009 | Replicas Redux
|
96 | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||
CompilationsEdit
| Year | Details | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| UK <ref name="occ"/> | ||
| 1984Template:Efn | The Plan
|
29 |
| 2019 | Replicas - The First Recordings
|
31 |
SinglesEdit
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK <ref name="occ" /> |
AUS <ref name=aus/> |
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NZL <ref name="NZL" /> |
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| 1978 | "That's Too Bad" | 97Template:Efn | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Bombers" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| 1979 | "Down in the Park" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Are 'Friends' Electric?" | 1 | 12 | 12 | 23 | 14 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 105 |
| ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Goodwin, Paul (2004) Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide To Gary Numan