Thanks to the patronage of high-profile figures such as Marilyn Manson and Dave Grohl and the unlikely success of Sugababes' 'Freak Like Me' (basically 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' in disguise), the oft-derided GARY NUMAN'S stock has risen considerably in recent years.
And, in this writer's opinion it's more than justified, for if ever the electronic music genre's thrown up a chameleonic, Neil Young-style figure worthy of re-appraisal it's surely Numan. On the surface a weird, dislocated paranoid android figure, but beneath the mask one of the chirpiest, most likeable characters your reviewer's had the pleasure of interviewing, the real Numan's the possessor of a wicked Cockney wit and as delighted to talk about whale watching holidays off the Mexican coast every bit as much as the technical attributes of the Moog synthesiser.
Besides, not only does this expanded re-issue of Tubeway Army's classic second album 'Replicas' from 1979 give us the opportunity to re-assess Numan's colossal contribution to the evolution of electronic pop but also remind us that 1978 and the first half of 1979 would not only bring his rapid elevation to pop superstar status but also serve as the backdrop to a staggering 18 months of rampant creativity that would encompass the recording of FOUR albums worth of material. A strike rate that would even have Guided By Voices' Bob Pollard breaking sweat.
So a little background first. TUBEWAY ARMY were only briefly a 'band' in the true sense of the term. Grouped around the nucleus of Numan (or initially 'Gary Valeriun' - guitar/ keyboards/ vocals), bassist Paul Gardiner and drummer Jess Lidyard (also Gaz's uncle), TA were initially swept up in the aftermath of the Punk vortex and quickly recorded a warts'n'all 'Punk' album ('The Plan', only released by Beggars Banquet in 1984) in the early part of 1978. Soon realising Punk was running out of steam, the canny Numan recorded the first 'proper' self-titled Tubeway Army album - featuring much more promising tunes like the single 'Bombers' - during the summer of the same year.
Around this time, pure luck intervened when Numan was introduced to a Moog synthesizer left at a London studio where Tubeway were recording and one of those 'road to Damascus' moments followed with Numan keenly adding keyboards and synths to the band's recordings from there on in. The discovery of the Moog and the output of the John Foxx-led Ultravox (who were about to release their Conny Planck-produced 'Systems Of Romance' at this time) were both huge influences on Numan's future direction and would be taken on board with startling consequences over the winter of 1978/ 1979 where in London's Gooseberry Studios 'Replicas' began to take shape.
Although still nominally a band (Gardiner and Lidyard were retained as the rhythm section for the album), 'Replicas' was almost entirely the product of Numan's own vision and - now rounded out with the relevant B-sides, out-takes and a bonus disc of early demos and versions over 2 CDS - this bumper edition reminds us what a seismic thing it was and remains.
Inevitably, 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' and 'Down In The Park' are the ones most of us either remember vividly or are at least aware of as being hugely influential. The slow, eerie and absorbing 'Down In The Park' - with its' apocalyptic, robotic visions of near-future shock - captured the imagination of the young Brian Warner so much he would go on to record it as his famous alias Marilyn Manson, while 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' remains utterly remarkable to this day. Not only a massive no.1 hit without any discernible hint of a chorus, it pretty much single-handedly introduced the concept of all-out electronic pop to the charts and multi-million sales and within a few short weeks in the spring and early summer of 1979 launched Numan as a superstar and introduced Beggars Banquet (whose previous chart skirmishes had been minor affairs courtesy of The Lurkers and The Doll) as a commercial force to be reckoned with.
Even now, both 'Down In The Park' and 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' roll alienation, futurism and abject loneliness into one irresistible package, but - crucially - much of what surrounds them on 'Replicas' deserves to share the exalted billing. Yes, it's true that tunes like 'The Machmen', the naggingly groovy 'You Are In My Vision' and the Kurt Cobain-endorsed 'It Must Have Been years' all still have a foot in the new wave camp with their flanged guitars and bitten-off rhythms, but all boast memorable tunes in their own right. Then there are the album's closing pair of instrumentals -'When The Machine Rocks' and 'I Nearly Married A Human' - which demonstrate that Bowie's Berlin period was also a Numan touchstone at the time. The former recalls 'Speed Of Life' from 'Low', while the glacial 'I Nearly Married A Human' not only recalls the likes of 'Warszawa' from 'Low"s second side, but the title also reveals there was a healthy dose of humour always inherent in Numan's modus operandi regardless of his unsmiling, disconnected public demeanour.
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Elsewhere, the album's title track and the surprisingly perky 'Praying To The Aliens' are both may be quizzical and robotic, but nevertheless recognisably poppy, while the excellent pair of B-sides 'We Are So Fragile' and 'Do You Need The Service?' are both easily good enough to have made the parent album proper.
The second CD, meanwhile, is a real historical treasure. For starters, there are an excellent pair of out-takes in 'Only A Downstat' and 'We Have A Technical'. The first is again reminiscent of tracks like 'The Machmen' with its' riffing guitars and lots of pitch-bending synth, while on 'We Have A Technical', Numan takes a rhythm uncannily similar to The Knack's 'My Sharona', adds swathes of majestic synths and pays Ultravox back by supplying the blueprint for the hugely successful synth-rock sound they would employ for 'Vienna' with a little help from Midge Ure.
Aside from these, there are also early studio versions of everything from 'Replicas' and while these recordings are inevitably a little rougher round the edges, not to mention slower, faster, dirtier or more ponderous, it shows that Numan's vision was pretty damn clear and complete from the outset, even if he was certainly right to go back in and re-do the all-too-nonchalent early vocal featured on the original take of 'Are 'Friends' Electric?'
Of course, the success of 'Replicas' was only the beginning for Numan, who - with Gardiner and a new group of cohorts including Ultravox's Billy Currie - would go on to record the equally successful pairing of the single 'Cars' and album 'The Pleasure Principle' before 1979 was out. That fourth long-player in 18 months I was blethering on about earlier, if you recall.
The vagaries of pop lore would also go on to ensure that after Numan's seismic early success he would also suffer the slings and arrows of dodgy albums, self-inflicted flying accidents temporary retirement and a more 'selective' audience before he'd be the recipient of a critical re-appraisal and a creative hunger returning during the 1990s. This reversal of fortune has deservedly sustained him since then, but it's still his early career that really captivates and - where 'Replicas' is concerned - ensures that loving this particular alien remains anything but difficult.
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