Tubeway Army (1977–1979) were a London-based punk and New
Wave band led by Gary Webb.
They were the first band of the post-punk era to have an
electronic hit, with the single "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and
its parent album Replicas
topping the UK charts in mid-1979. Following this
success, Webb released all his subsequent records under the name Gary
Numan.
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Contents
- 1 Line
up
- 2 History
- 3 Discography
- 3.1 Singles
and EPs
- 3.2 Albums
- 4 Notes
- 5 References
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Line up
The only constant members were:
- Gary Webb (also known
as "Valerian" and "Gary Numan") – vocals, guitar, keyboards/synthesizers
- Paul Gardiner
(also known as "Scarlett") – bass guitar, occasional backing vocals
Other musicians included:
- Jess Lidyard (also
known as "Rael"; Webb's uncle) – drums (part-time 1977, and 1978/1979,
including "That's Too Bad" single, Tubeway
Army and Replicas
sessions)
- Bob Simmonds – drums
(late-1977/early-1978)
- Barry Benn – drums (mid-1978, including "Bombers" single)
- Sean Burke – guitar (mid-1978, including
"Bombers" single)
- Chris Payne – synthesizers (1979 Old
Grey Whistle Test and Top
of the Pops performances)
- Billy Currie
(of Ultravox)
– synthesizers (1979 Old Grey Whistle Test and Top
of the Pops performances)
- Cedric Sharpley – drums (1979 Old
Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops
performances)
- Trevor Grant – guitar (1979 Old
Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops
performances)
Gary
Numan was the driving force of the band, writing the material
and producing the recordings; subsequent albums were issued under his
own name once the album Replicas became successful.
Gardiner, Sharpley, and Payne continued as his backing band for some
years. Gardiner died from a drug overdose in February 1984; Numan's
personal tribute to his former cohort was the song "A Child with the
Ghost", on the album Berserker (1984).
History
Gary Webb, aged nineteen, had fronted London band Mean Street
in 1977 (their song "Bunch of Stiffs" appeared on the Live at
the Vortex compilation, and was the B-side of the Vortex
7"). Leaving this band acrimoniously, he auditioned as lead guitarist
for another band called The Lasers, where he met bass-player Paul
Gardiner. The pair left The Lasers soon after and formed Tubeway Army,
initially with Webb's uncle Jess Lidyard on drums. Webb rechristened
himself "Valerian", Gardiner "Scarlett" and Lidyard "Rael".
Webb was quite a prolific song-writer and ambitious for
commercial success. The band began playing gigs on the punk scene in
London and managed to secure a record deal with the independent Beggars Banquet label. They
released two guitar-heavy, punk-style singles in the first half of 1978 ("That's
Too Bad"/"Oh! Didn't I Say", and "Bombers"/"Blue Eyes"/"OD
Receiver"). These failed to chart.
Soon afterwards, the Tubeway
Army album was released on blue vinyl. Webb had
now adopted the name "Gary Numan". 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, Numan being a fan of authors such as Philip
K. Dick (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). Whilst the album's modest
initial pressing (which included a large batch of warped editions) sold
out, it did not enter the album charts at that time, and no singles
were lifted from it. By this time Tubeway Army had decided to abandon
live shows – Numan was unhappy with pub-venue gigs on the often violent
London punk scene (the only known recording of a Tubeway Army concert –
a London show from February 1978 – was released as a bootleg album in
the early 80s; 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).
Following swiftly on in early 1979, excited by the
possibilities of synthesizers, Numan took Tubeway Army back into the
studio to record a follow-up album, Replicas.
The result was more synth and science fiction orientated than
ever. The first single from the album, the bleak, slow-paced
keyboard-driven song "Down in the Park", failed to chart.
However, the next single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?",
was to provide a commercial breakthrough. 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.
The band 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 it has since been claimed started as a means of
covering stage nerves but then became his trademark). The single shot
to number one in the UK charts, with Replicas
following suit in the album charts. With Tubeway Army still avoiding
live shows, Numan recruited some additional musicians to make these
television appearances (see above).
Numan thus became the first synth-based artist in Britain to
really break through into major commercial success. At this point, he
dropped the Tubeway Army name and subsequent releases were made under
the artist name Gary Numan.
Discography
Singles and EPs
- "That's Too Bad" (1978)
- "Bombers" (1978)
- "Down in the Park" (1979)
- "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
(1979)
- 1978 (compilation of 1978 singles first
released in 1983, reissued plus "Do You Need the Service?" as 1978
Volume 1 in 1985)
- 1978-1979 Volume 2 (demos recorded in
1978 and 1979, first released in 1985)
- 1978-1979 Volume 3 (demos recorded in
1978 and 1979, first released in 1985)
Albums
- Tubeway Army
(1978)
- Replicas
(1979)
- The Plan
(demos recorded in 1978, first released in 1984)
Notes
-
References
- Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An
Armchair Guide To Gary Numan.
